News from Siberia! I received a message from Alexey Boganov this morning, who’s the main man behind Russian Symphonic Black Metallers Welicoruss. He founded the project solo in 2001 and was finally joined by a pack of other guys in 2005 when it became a proper band. Their first full-length was harvested in 2008 and came with the title Wintermoon Symphony.

Well something new is about to happen. A new album is underway, though I can’t tell you what or when with certainty. What I can tell you is what the band’s press release says, and that’s that they’ve just released a new single. It’s entitled Kharnha and contains five tracks adding up to nearly 25 minutes of Sympho Black. And the best news of all is that it’s available for free download (link at the end of this post)!

First off, thanks to Emily for pointing our noses in the direction of this band. It’s people like her and you – you know who you are if you are – that have helped us discover new bands and material over the past year and a half. It’s what still keeps this thing kickin’ our asses, making it fun and rewarding for us to run this joint. That said, let’s quickly focus on Until I Breathe, that will soon be kickin’ your ass.

What we know about UIB is fairly limited – unless you speak and read Russian. Enough to sketch a rough picture, though it’ll still be an extra short post due to lack of info. Anyway, these guys are from Russia’s capital of Moscow and their dealings are in hook-heavy slam-savage Deathcore that manages to span the range between melodic Metalcore and ear-eating Brutal Death. Got curious? Click!

On offer today we have some Black Metal from Russia courtesy of Nabaath. Formed in 2002, these guys have managed to release only one full-length and two demos. Their second demo and the full-length are on offer for free download from the Nabaath site. Make the jump for a sample song from each of these releases and the link for the downloads!

It’s time for another issue in our Rockin’ Out series, the brainchild of our own Byrd36. The series was pulled out of the uterus of Byrd’s brain to facilitate the showing of our respect for the genre that fathered our beloved Metal: Rock. Basically, anything goes here, as long as it’s Rock, and good. Simple!

Today, we focus on a band named Pushking, from Russia (credits for the find to motig!. It’s a band that has known a lot of success in its home country and has released an album or fifteen so far. Still, they weren’t satisfied with the band’s international stature and so they went to work on it. Via some dude in LA, named Fabrizio Grossi, they managed to get a bunch of Rock legends on board for the release of a best-off album, titled The World As We Love It, which was released worldwide in the first two months of the year. We’re talking Steve Lukather (Toto), Steve Vai, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and Udo Dirschneider (former Accept) to name just a few.

Darconville sent me a band suggestion. That was over 3 weeks ago, to be brutally honest. He must think me an ungrateful prick by now, or a lazy asshole. Yes, I’m a prick, and an asshole too. However, in this case the reason for not posting his suggestion sooner wasn’t because I’m ungrateful or lazy. It’s because I’ve got an inbox that’s flooding with band suggestions and review requests and I’m trying to work my way through them based on a first-in first-out principle.

I love getting suggestions and discovering so much new stuff, but you guys will have to excuse me for taking a while to treat it all. Perhaps a good time to let you know that if you’d like to write stuff for us, about pretty much anything – excepting pink fuckin’ ponies and a few other things – we’d be extremely happy to receive your piece. If it’s anywhere near the general daily bread and butter of this site, we’ll put it up! If you want to do reviews, that’s also very fuckin’ welcome!

Big sigh, followed by an “anyway”, what did the dude suggest? He suggested some Russian Brutal Death Metal, from a band named Scrambled Defuncts. It’s not only Brutal though, also highly Technical and Symphonic. Or, as Darconville put it himself, “Think Fleshgod Apocalypse with tighter musicianship, brutality infused with a legitimate classical component”. That’s about as accurate as you can put it, really.

When I looked at my list of bands that I still want to post, it occurred to me that several of them can be shoved under a common Industrial/Cyber Metal genre. We like common grounds as a good excuse to bundle stuff, so that called for an Industrial Metal post! And because there are so many of such bands, I’ve decided to divide them up into two posts.

So, when you, like me, are a great fan of Metal with big use of keyboards, synthesizers and other electro-gear – or when you want to become such a fan – you’ll hopefully strike a bonanza here. In the first part, we’ve got three bands from Eastern Europe, namely Illidiance and All for Fake from Russia and Cruentus from Poland.

After only two tracks yesterday, we’re back with a full pack today. You’re being forcefed stuff from Russia, the US and the UK today, so put a napkin in your collar and open up!

Russia’s contribution today is called Arcanum Sanctum, playing a good piece of Metalcore. Howl joins in with some “Bong-rippin Labyrinth Metal” and finally we’ve got five Architects doing popular Metalcore. Take your pick and munch away!

Since The Baboon started we’ve been able to witness massive amounts of good Death Metal coming out of Russia. Demon Project, from Siberia’s capital of Novosibirsk, is a band that delivers such material, but it differs from most others in that it has made extensive use of electronics and synths in its songs. Now, I don’t normally like that too much, but Demon Project really manage to do it masterfully!

I’ve asked the band’s Dmitry Novokhatski, guitarist, vocalist, programmer and founding father, about the band’s musical endeavors. You’ll also find a track off their new album, Faces of Yaman, which is only released in Russia and other CIS Countries, inside. Go read/watch!