If this had been published just 24 hours after its actual release date, I could now rightly claim that "Five Shots" would be the best atmo black metal song of the current year. But "This album contains one of the most terrific bm tracks of the previous year!" doesn't even sound half as exciting, unfortunately.
What a pity...

By the way, does anybody know what "Gherzen" means and what language it is?

Written by Starvynth on 20.09.2020 at 23:51

By the way, does anybody know what "Gherzen" means and what language it is?

Being that it's a war history-themed Russian band, it could be the surname of a military official or the name of a weapon in Russian, Ukrainian, or Moldovan? Online searches haven't been helpful as the term seems unique to this band.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 21.09.2020 at 00:12

Being that it's a war history-themed Russian band, it could be the surname of a military official or the name of a weapon in Russian, Ukrainian, or Moldovan? Online searches haven't been helpful as the term seems unique to this band.

Thanks, but I am pretty sure that the name has nothing to do with weapons.
Coincidentally, I've spent wasted the second half of the nineties in the German Navy as a weapons system technician, with an emphasis on past and present light and heavy artillery weapons of the East Bloc countries. If there had ever been a weapon like a 122mm howitzer M1881 "Gherzen", the term would most probably still ring a bell.
Besides, Gherzen would be a very odd name for a deadly weapon of Russian origin - "Herzen" is a German word and it means "hearts"... "Gherzen" looks like a German expression too, but it just doesn't exist.

Alexander Iwanowitsch Herzen was a Russian author and philosopher, but his surname is more or less just a historical anecdote (his mother was German) and apart from that, there has never been any Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan, Belarusian, Bashkir or Uzbek of marginal historical relevance bearing a similar name. It's just as uncommon as a native Chinese called Dirkschneider or a native Burmese called Mackintosh would be.

Maybe it's just a pun that only Russians can understand?

Anyhow, sorry for spamming this thread but I'm genuinely curious to know where they got this unusual name from.

Oh fuck this is the same band that released 1917

Written by Starvynth on 20.09.2020 at 23:51

If this had been published just 24 hours after its actual release date, I could now rightly claim that "Five Shots" would be the best atmo black metal song of the current year. But "This album contains one of the most terrific bm tracks of the previous year!" doesn't even sound half as exciting, unfortunately.
What a pity...

Crazy how they shot themselves in the foot like that

Written by Starvynth on 20.09.2020 at 23:51

By the way, does anybody know what "Gherzen" means and what language it is?

I was thinking of a way to ask the band themselves, but they only have a VKontakte.