Coming out of the far side of Ukraine, emerges an artist that just like a wallflower, has blossomed into the rock & metal mainstream and shown the world female fronted metal can headbang with the big boys.
Jinjer have returned with their third studio album, Wallflowers, and deliver a perfect blend of prog metal and djent. Prior to its release, two singles were put out: ‘Vortex’ & ‘Mediator’, and to be honest, they were not completely what I was expecting. ‘Vortex’ was very much more tame in sound besides the spurts of Tatiana’s monstrous voice, and ‘Mediator’ as well had more clean melodic vocals that anticipating. Compared to the rest of album, other singles would have been much more fitting to grip fans by the throat. Regardless of this, Wallflowers delivers sound you could hope for from a Jinjer album.
Wallflowers starts with its opening song ‘Call Me a Symbol’ and you are immediately devoured by Tatianas vocals and the bands thunderous sound. It is a perfect song to project you into the rest of the album.
Songs such as ‘Colossus’, ‘Disclosure!’ and ‘Copycat’ have a mosh pit rumbling in your mind and with their rescheduled happening this year, I do not doubt that these will be a part of their setlist.
Now more so with this album than before, they dip their toes more into the progressive metal tone. ‘Vortex’, ‘Wallflower’, and ‘As I Boil Ice’ offer fans a more versatile side to Jinjer. While Tatiana’s vocals are still just as empowering, the band beautifully establishes its prog roots and maybe even gives new fans a gateway drug into the genre.
Even with this being a new album, Jinjer have successfully kept their “sound” over the years and established who they are in the metal world, while still being able to evolve and blossom their music for fans.
With a beautiful blend to progressive metal & djent, Jinjer have placed themselves as a top shelf artist and continue to be pioneers in female fronted metal.