10 iconic bands in the Ukrainian death metal

We continue exploring the significant representatives of the various Ukrainian musical genres, this time we are right at the foot of death metal. Mykola Maga, the author of this material, is not only a musician of the metal band Обрій but also the person who grew up listening to this musicv.

I was born and raised in Uzhhorod, what played a big role in my musical tastes evolving. While the whole Ukraine preferred our home black metal, which is the dominant Ukrainian metal genre, me and my friends were listening to the large amount of death metal and grindcore. And it is logical as the city had powerful scene, where veteran bands like Castrum and Soulrest reigned, also young active formations existed, and all this was covered with the big local fanbase. Cornelius, the vocalist and guitarist of the Castrum band has made the series of concerts called Death Metal Assault that attracted people from the whole region. Visitors there had the opportunity to see many death metal collectives from our motherland and foreign countries as well. It all naturally continued as the UzhGoreRot festival that pretended to be the Ukrainian alternative of Obscene Extreme. Furthermore, the older generation did not disdain talking to youth, so we could get lots of different extremal music in mp3 format which was carefully digitalized from the original discs by older colleagues. This all happened at the times of bad internet, when our cash was enough to buy only one-two storage devices a month, that’s why such gifts from the older musicians were priceless. So I could say that death metal walked through the whole conscious life with me.

What about death metal of motherland, it should be mentioned, that those times, as it is now, brutal death dominated quantitatively, this will be seen from the band list below. But there are some exclusions, as always. Also, I want you to notice that the enumeration is based on my subjective emotions caused by what I saw and heard during the 18-20 years of my life and on some tips from my scene colleagues, that is why the analogical list could differ from another author`s one.

So, let`s get it started.

Mental Demise

One of the Ukrainian death metal pillars. They play since the 1995th. Their background includes many releases, three full-length albums and great number of concerts in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Musically the band proved itself to play quick technical brutal death-grind but changed its vector of sound in the last album, making it more about Floridian pattern of the brutal death. After this the band cuts up its activity and nothing was known about it until the 2018th, when the musicians announced about working on their new material and looking for the new members. Should be mentioned, that the band`s guitarist Bolt has been organizing the MHM festival for many years.

Fleshgore

Kyiv citizens Fleshgore have started their story in the 2000th year and made themselves the reputation of one of the most famous death metal bands in Ukraine. Since then they`ve managed to release 5 full-length albums, a couple of mini albums and demo. Also had tours around Europe and Australia, having embraced 19 different countries with their performances. They played at such festivals as Wacken, Brutal Assault, Obscene Extreme. During their career they mostly played brutal death metal, although could afford themselves some deviations – "Wake Up for Freedom" (2013) album has some dalliance with the modern sound in it, also we can hear thrash/death metal in the longplay "Defiance to Evil" (2012). Fleshgore album "Denial of the Scriptures" of the 2016th year is worth to be called the peak of the band`s activity, there we hear technical brutal death metal of the highest level.

Datura

Eastern Ukrainian version of the Deeds of Flesh, being active since 1999th. They have huge discography and a lot of concerts, played in Ukraine or on further lands. They are also famous for their eccentric song names and low vocalist`s stand. After the Russian-Ukrainian war started, the part of members moved to the area controlled by Ukrainian government, where they continued their activity. For now this membership is renamed into Etsykh, but under the name of Datura is the collective based on the out of control territory and is signed "Datura (Donbass)"on posters).

Castrum

Veterans of the western Ukrainian death metal. They`ve started their activity in the far 1994th. Unlike their eastern Ukrainian colleagues who preferred brutal death metal, Castrum played under the melodic death metal and thrash metal influence, paying attention to the medieval thematic (early works) in their lyrics and to the social problems (last album). They`ve got three full-length albums in their asset but they say the fourth one is yet to come out soon. As for now, the band is not very active because their drummer Eugene Ryabchenko lives abroad. By the way, for some time he played as the member of American death metal band Vital Remains, but now is the member of Austrian black/death metal formation called Belphegor. Band`s vocalist Kornel Kontros is into DMA booking, under the auspices of which great quantity of death metal concerts were organized in Uzhhorod and the UzhGoreRot festival, too.

Ambivalence

Not only Eastern Ukraine and Kyiv are rich with brutal death. Western Ukraine is represented by Lviv citizens Ambivalence in that genre. The band has been active since the 2001st and despite of the frequent changes in their membership, they managed to record four full-length albums the last of which "Hyena's Breath"saw the world in the 2017th on the Canadian PRC Music label.

Deflected Sense

The East, again, but this time we talk about brutal death. Deflected Sense is the band from Horlivka which existed for 4 years only, although it left rather extraordinary album "Commentaries at the Edge of the Abyss" before vanishing. It saw the world in 1999th on the Moon Records label. Deflected Sense stood out by its progressive death metal with the complex songs structure and cold sound, their music was often compared to Meshuggah. Albeit the collective hadn`t exist for the long time, its music has left the clear trace in metal of the motherland.

Bredor

The band which created the most popular meme in the Ukrainian metal. Moreover, this meme got much further than Ukrainian medium and is still used. Their music was typical for their time and region – Bredor played simple brutal death with the womb growl and moody sound. They`ve released live demo, mini album with 4 tracks and split with the Italian Corporal Raid band. After band`s activity ended the musicians could be seen in the memberships of such collectives as Endocranial, StaliNO, Datura.

Infected

One of the pioneers of domestic death metal, Kyiv citizens Infected have started their activity in the far 1991st They released the full-length album "Infected Generation" (1996) and split with the iconic Japan grindcore collective Unholy Grave (1997). Infected stopped their activity in the 1998th and activated only in 2011th. They released remixed "Infected Generation", played a few concerts and now are planning to record some new material.

Phantasmagory

Donetsk citizens Phantasmagory were the unique team for the domestic metal scene. Having chosen progressive metal to play, the musicians honed their skills with each new album. Their full-length "Odd Sounds"and "Anamorphosis Of Dreams" can be called the masterpieces of Ukrainian metal without a doubt. This much avantgarde cannot be found elsewhere in the history of domestic metal.

Endocranial

Rather young if to compare to the other bands in this article, the Endocranial from the capital continues the fine traditions of domestic brutal death metal. Also the collective has already recommended itself. They`ve got mini album "Sociopathy" and two full-length albums: "Impact of Change" (2013) and "In Presence of Total Absence" (2017) in their discography. The last work of Kyiv citizens was highly rated by the thematic editions and fans, so it can be boldly called one of the best works in genre for the last few years. 

Brutal death still keeps dominating in the Ukrainian death metal, which is represented by lots of collectives on the high enough level. Collectives let out powerful releases and lots of them become popular abroad. But what about old-school death metal trend which embraced the whole world now – it bypassed us. Though there are some exclusions – Kharkiv project Necrom at least or the veterans Mutanter (ex-Limiter Mutanter) who are back on the road again and released rather good album last year. Also, should be said that genre is not that popular at all among domestic metalheads and notably loses to black metal, for example. Will something change soon in this corner or not – time will show, after all this piece of metal is worth more attention on our lands than it has now.

Reminding, this article is the part of material series dedicated to the different underground musical genres development in Ukraine. Earlier in series:

https://www.neformat.com.ua/rubrika/10-znakovih-gurtiv"

Cover - Anastasia Inri