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Here’s my list of Russian extreme metal bands worth checking out. It’s mostly black and death(/doom) metal, with some post-black and blackened crust mixed in.
I think the Russian scene’s pretty unique. Back in the early ’90s, when extreme metal was just starting to break into the country, a lot of bands sounded a bit derivative from Western stuff. But these days, most bands have really carved out their own styles, especially when it comes to atmoblack or blackgaze. That said, even the early Russian death metal scene had some killer releases, that just flew under the radar because of weak promo, the language barrier and all that.
The bands are listed in alphabetical order. I’ll keep adding more albums as I come across them. And yeah, these are only the releases I actually like. I don’t really listen to thrash and heavy metal, or anything with the word progressive in it. Of course, the Russian scene is way bigger than what’s listed here.
Feel free to drop your recs in the comments, just no NSBM, racist crap, or joke bands like Infӧrnal Fuckъ, Uratsakidogi, and that kind of nonsense.
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1.
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Accidental Death Benefit - Венец Творения Природы
2017, Brutal Death Metal. Venets Tvoreniya Prirody translates as The Crown of Creation of Nature, and it's some seriously vicious brutal death/grindcore from a small Siberian town, with lyrics tackling social issues. When I stumbled across this album, I had it on repeat for like a week straight. |
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2.
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Buicide - Escaping From Yourself
2009, Technical Death Metal. Later on, these guys started playing like their mission was to spread the gospel of Individual Thought Patterns to the world; but on their debut, they dropped really solid and fun tech-death album packed with catchy riffs and melodies. |
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3.
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Cross Bringer - The Signs Of Spiritual Delusion
2020, Black Metal/Post-Hardcore. |
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4.
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Crust - The Promised End
2019 Death/Doom/Sludge Metal. This is one hell of an album. After several doomy/sludgy EPs Crust came up with crushing and dark blackened doom/sludge metal with occasional death metal riffs. |
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5.
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Dig Me No Grave - Immemorial Curse
2017 Death Metal. Dig Me No Grave has nothing special at all. Just your average, run-of-the-mill OSDM band. But for some reason, I keep putting it on repeat, and by the time I’ve listened to it four times in a row, I’m finally coming back to life. It’s that simple, cool and brutal |
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6.
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Edoma - Immemorial Existence
2020 Black/Death Metal.Edoma take clear stylistic and aesthetic cues from late Immortal, adding in death metal riffing. Their debut album is the most compelling one, striking a great balance between melody and that cold, northern atmosphere. |
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7.
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Gherzen - 1917
2016 Black Metal. Thematically, this is Russian Departure Chandelier, as their first album revolved around the anarchist assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Musically, it’s cold, slightly detached atmospheric/post-black metal from the guys behind Elderwind. |
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8.
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Gloosh - Sylvan Coven
2021 Atmospheric Black Metal. Gloosh (which roughly translates to backwoods or wilderness) is a perfect embodiment of the Russian brand of atmospheric black metal that blew up about five years ago. The debut was solid, but the sophomore album is much more melodic, better produced, and features some surprisingly poetic lyrics. |
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9.
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Gosudar - Morbid Despotic Ritual
2021 Atmospheric Death Metal. Gosudar is one of the most interesting bands in the atmospheric/cavernous death metal scene. They don’t even have a bassist, but still manage to deliver insanely dense death metal with some absolutely icy solos. The name means The Prince (as in Machiavelli’s book), and the guys behind the band are pretty openly anarchist, though that doesn’t really come through in the lyrics, at least to me. |
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10.
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Grima - Rotten Garden
2021 Atmospheric Black Metal. Grima have already cranked out six albums and not all of them are all that exciting, but this one’s probably their strongest. Here, they really lean into the accordion, mysterious atmosphere and some genuinely beautiful melodies. |
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11.
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Hieronymus Bosch - Equivoke
2008 Technical Death Metal. That’s something most people already know. It’s a fantastic album. Take Death or Martyr, add a somewth grainy sound and atmosphere and a bit of raw looseness, and you get one of the absolutely best bands to ever come out of the Russian scene. I’m genuinely sorry they broke up, and the best I can do now is pay them tribute by including them on this list |
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12.
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Ignis - II
2013, Black Metal. Ignis started off pretty dull, with derivative, pretentious black metal wrapped in 10+ minute songs, but their second EP already showed they had potential. I haven’t heard all of their releases, but this one is genuinely inspiring: fast, harsh black metal with great melodies |
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13.
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Katalepsy - Autopsychosis
2013 Brutal Death Metal. Katalepsy is a top-tier band, and Autopsychosis is definitely their best album. It’s just a bulldozer of slamming brutal death metal, an album that completely crushes you. Also, one of their strongest tracks, Cold Flesh Citadel, was written by guitarist Dmitry Dedov, who sadly didn’t make it to today. |
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14.
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Kultura Kurenija - Некрофилия
2013 Post-Black Metal. Kultura Kurenija (The Culture Of Smoking/Getting High) is quite a cult band from Siberia. If you like Psychonaut 4, maybe Netra and Lifelover, that urban-cold, depressive post-punk/DSBM vibe, you should definitely give this a shot. |
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15.
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L'Homme Absurde - Belong
2020 Post-Black Metal. This is the third album from the Moscow-based band, and to me it feels like they've moved from the absurd man to the rebellious one. The album is fast, uncompromising, and filled with the kind of despair and loneliness only post-black metal can deliver. Despite the stylistic and sonic differences, this record gives me the same emotional hit as Deafheaven's New Bermuda does. |
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16.
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Lunae Ortus - White-Night-Wropt
2018 Symphonic Black Metal. A very unusual project: symphonic black metal themed around the Russian Empire of the 18th–19th centuries, with what I’d call a perfect balance between symphonic elements and actual metal. |
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17.
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Marble Carrion - Frozen Hell
2019 Death/Thrash Metal. A pretty upbeat death metal band from Siberia, with a slight touch of thrash metal. Nothing special, but they’ve got tracks called Jesus Under Heroin and Cannibal’s Mommy, so they’re almost like Russian Avulsed. |
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18.
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The Morningside - Moving Crosscurrent Of Time
2009 Melodic Death Doom Metal |
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19.
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Morokh - Insomnia
2023, Black Metal/Post-Hardcore |
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20.
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Morrah - Experiment In Blood
2005, Death Metal. Morrah could’ve easily become the Russian Cannibal Corpse if they hadn’t started messing around - that’s how good their debut album was. Unfortunately, their second release felt more like a joke, and the band fell apart soon after. Still, that debut is absolutely worth a listen. A real gem, even by international standards |
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21.
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Mortem (RUS) - Filicide
2000, Death Metal |
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22.
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The Mutilator - The Seven Seals
2016, Technical Brutal Death Metal |
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23.
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The Nameless - Mass Hypnosis
2016, Death Metal/Thrash Metal/Death'n'Roll/Metalcore. I have no idea what style this band plays, but it's sooo goddamn fun and catchy METAL that you just wanna put it on repeat. They probably won't release anything else, but even in their debut album, they put more ideas than some bands do in five albums. |
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24.
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Narada - Dead Waters
2014, Death Metal. What I really regret is that this band only has one album. Incredibly inventive old-school death metal, great sound, and their live shows are absolutely on fire. It's clear they have massive potential. |
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25.
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Old Wainds - Stormheart
2024 Black Metal. Old Wainds are really old. I'd say too old, too cold. A band from the Arctic city of Murmansk, they play old-school black metal with a faint whiff of antisemitism. Still, Metal Storm already has bands whose little Nazi flings are forgiven, because you know, their black metal is just that good. |
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26.
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Panopticon Death - Eternity In Madness
2014, Death Metal. Mighty old-school death metal with guitar and bass tones that really hit hard. The album (and the band, for that matter) isn’t doing anything groundbreaking, but this is the kind of death metal I love: simple, groovy, and brutally heavy. |
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27.
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Panopticon Death - The Final Prophecy
2017, Death Metal. The band’s sophomore (and sadly, their last) album picks up where the debut left off, only this time with a heavier dose of melody. |
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28.
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Passéisme - Eminence
2021, Black Metal. Excellent unhinged black metal themed around the French poètes maudits. Madness, hatred, Verlaine fucking Rimbaud in the ass (or maybe the other way around, who even knows anymore). At first I thought they were trying to mimic Peste Noire, but it seems they couldn’t care less about politics. |
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29.
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Pathway - Юдоль Скорби
2020 Atmospheric Black Metal. I don’t really get why Pathway (Put’ in Russian) is classified as post-black, both on this site and on MA. To me, they sound like fairly typical atmospheric black metal with the occasional accordion. Their full-length was so-so, but this EP is actually quite solid. That said, the band jumps between styles a lot, and they clearly lack extremity. |
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30.
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Postcoital Ulceration - Continuation of Defective Existence After Multiple Ruinous Collapses
2014, Brutal Death Metal. Slamming brutal death metal in Russia and Ukraine is everywhere, but this project from southern Russia stands out due to its quality of performance and recording, thanks to assistance from some serious musicians from the Ukrainian bands Datura and Fleshgore. However, the project is currently on hold, so I don’t know what’s next. |
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31.
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Pseudogod - Deathwomb Catechesis
2012, Death/Black Metal. Claustrophobic, stinking, cavernous blackened death metal with a stench somewhere between Archgoat and even Beherit, plus a photoshoot in a real morgue with an actual dismembered corpse. |
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32.
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Pyre - Human Hecatomb
2014, Death Metal. Pyre have always been more or less the same — Grave/Entombed-style death metal with ferocious growls and grave-drenched riffs. That said, the album in question probably has the strongest batch of material they've put out |
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33.
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QuetzalQoatl - Uitzilopóchtli
2016 Technical Death Metal. A band from the central part of Russia chose Aztec mythology as their theme. It sounds like Nile but without the atmosphere. It’s a shame their promotion is lacking; it seems they only recently started a Bandcamp, and their entire VKontakte page is filled with some random projects, but the album is very technical and heavy. |
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34.
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QuetzalQoatl - Relación De Las Cosas De Yukatán
2021 Technical Death Metal. More technical, with better production, harsher growls, and even a surprise Enslaved cover halfway through the album. The drums sound electronic, but who even cares about that anymore? |
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35.
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Renunciation - Autelmorte
2022, Melodic Black/Death Metal. Pretty interesting band from the Russian Rogga Johansson, Demether Grail. What we’ve got here is solid melodic/technical death metal mixed with black metal. The album’s a bit all over the place6 like, the Russian-language track clearly has some heavy metal vibes, think Aria, and the next instrumental track is straight-up tech-death in the vein of Psycroptic. |
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36.
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Rye - Вечное
2021 Atmospheric Black Metal/Funeral Doom Metal. Rye (which is actually Rozh’) is a project whose main strength lies in its sound. Let me say this right away: listen to the latest album Znanie (Knowledge), as it’s absolutely crushing. But the debut is also solid. Imagine a massive boulder flying off a cliff into a river somewhere in Karelia. Now imagine you’re tied to that boulder by the neck. |
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37.
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Rye - Знание
2025, Funeral Doom Metal/Atmospheric Black Metal. This is fucking crushing. The first track, Halo, takes everything out of you, and I still haven't fully processed how insane the next two tracks are, but this isn’t just an album, it’s earthquake-level shit (and no, there aren’t earthquakes in Karelia, just so you know). |
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38.
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S6r6th6 - Flawless Pentagram
2022 Black Metal. I really like the covers by S6r6th6 (not sure how to pronounce it, maybe it's Sereth or Soroth). If they name an album 'Inverted Triangle', you can be sure there will be an inverted triangle on a black background, and if it's 'Flawless Pentagram', the pentagram will be absolutely flawless. As for their black metal, it’s vicious, fast, and very old-school. |
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39.
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Second To Sun - Legacy
2019 Post-Black Metal/Metalcore. Second To Sun is a very fluid band, their style changes from album to album, with their naive relentless anti-communism being the only constant. Here, I’d say Regarde Les Hommes Tomber mixed it with djent, and it turned out pretty catchy. The track Monster has a permanent spot in my playlist. |
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40.
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Second To Sun - Leviathan
2020 Post-Black Metal/Metalcore. Just the riff on the March of the Wolves makes up for all the shortcomings of this album: its drawn-out moments and amazingly dumb lyrics. |
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41.
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Skorb' - Skorb'
2021 Death Metal. Skorb' (Grief) on stage look like gangsta rappers dressed in Mgła gear. Also they sell digital copy of their only demo for 666 euros. I don’t know how they’re doing, considering they still haven’t sold out their 100-copy cassette run for 4 euros each, but the music is good. It’s some cavernous death doom with solid bass. |
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42.
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Succubus (RUS) - Destiny
1995, Technical Death Metal. This was a unique band - not so much musically (it’s basically another Individual Thought Patterns rip-off), but because their original lineup was all-female - a real rarity for the then-young Russian metal scene. Later, a male producer showed up, kicked out everyone except the band’s mastermind Svetlana Karlikova, recorded one album, and that was it, as you can imagine. The project faded out. Svetlana passed away over ten years ago, and this album remains their only release - a solid and pretty talented take on late-period Schouldiner-style tech death. |
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43.
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Tacit Fury - Horrors From Depth
2012 Death Metal. They spent a long time drifting between styles, dabbling in doom and symphonic death, but finally came to their senses, kicked out that lady who sang like a cat being bathed, and dropped a great EP in classic death metal style, a solid foundation for their Social Berserker album. And then... they ceased to exist. |
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44.
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Temple Of Nihil - Soul Extremist
2016, Black Metal. Honestly, this is the only decent release by Temple of Nihil (not sure if you can sail to the Temple of Nihil by following the Rivers of Nihil). Judging by this EP, they definitely had the potential to surpass Gaerea, but it didn’t work out - the rest of their albums are pretty dull. |
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45.
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Todestriebe - ...Scream, Pray, Beg...
2012, Black/Thrash Metal. This album is quite unique, both for Todestriebe and for black metal in general, as it features a lot of killer thrash riffs that smoothly transition into melodic black metal. I'm not a black/thrash expert, but I feel like not many bands are doing this kind of thing. |
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46.
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Vspolokh - Помре
2020 Atmospheric Black Metal. 'Pomre' can be loosely translated as ‘He died’ apparently it’s a regional expression from the Urals, where the band is from. Vspolokh means ‘Glare’ or ‘Flare’. and this is their best album, blending heavy, oppressive atmospheric black metal with a touch of folk and old women’s laments about death and grief. |
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47.
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VTTA - On The Vortex Of Chasing The Desired Majesty
2012, Experimental Black Metal. This is some fucked-up madness. VTTA (which stands for Vessel Through The Abyss) is either the result of a very special mindset or some seriously heavy drugs. Their latest album, 'Tam? Gde!' (There? Where!), was even released on cassette with the packaging designed to look like a pill box. But right now, we're talking about their early stuff, where the guys drop random word combos for track names and deliver hysterical, tear-your-soul-apart, yet incredibly brutal black metal. |
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48.
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Who Dies In Siberian Slush - Bitterness Of The Years That Are Lost
The debut and most brutal album by Moscow-based death-doomers, featuring ultra-slow, melodic tracks and a deep, guttural growl. I’d say it’s WDISS’s most cohesive work: after this, they started experimenting with production and melody, and their second album already felt rough and underwhelming. |
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49.
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Wine From Tears - Through The Eyes Of A Mad
2009 Melodic Death Doom Metal. Wine From Tears, now based in the US, is top-tier Russian melodic death/doom metal. Great production, tight musicianship, strong songwriting, and some seriously hefty growls. Their English could use some work (which is true for the most of us from the former USSR, myself included), but don’t you dare to point it out. These guys don’t take criticism well. Trust me, I’ve been there. |
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50.
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Wine From Tears - Glad To Be Dead
2013, Melodic Death Doom Metal. On this album they added clean vocals and everyone hated it right away. Personally I’m not a fan of clean vocals, but here it’s actually not bad. It’s a bit strained, with some rasp, kinda like Katatonia. I actually like the album too, it’s not as overloaded as their debut. |
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51.
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Бѣсъ - Кощунства
2020, Black Metal. The guy behind this project is Demether Grail (in Бѣсъ he goes by the name Blazen), to varying degrees he’s also responsible for Dragon, Lunae Ortus, Renunciation, Shallow Rivers, and about a dozen other bands. Бѣсъ (pronounced Bies, translates to Imp, Devil) is one of his more striking projects, mixing ferocious black metal with church chants and some pretty in-your-face blasphemy. Bold stuff, especially in today’s Russian political climate - Demether’s already been cancelled by the authorities, and some right-wing Orthodox activists have publicly promised to kick his ass. |
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52.
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Бѣсъ - Ѿ Лукáвагѡ
2023, Black Metal. The album name 'Ot Lukavaga' stands for 'Ov the Devil'. The sheer amount of pseudo-Old Church Slavonic blasphemy that Demether screams here starts to get a bit in the way of the music, but the black metal itself is faster, heavier, and way more brutal. Tracks like Yurodstvie (smth. like God-Mocking Madness) and Tschertopolokh (The Thistle) are straight-up bangers. |
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53.
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Блёв - Земля
2020, Black Metal. Blyov (which roughly translates as Puke) is pure fucking insanity. I honestly don’t think the Norwegians or the French have ever birthed anything this misanthropic. This is black metal born of hunger, war and pure terror. The album name, Zemlya, which can be translated as Earth, or, rather, The Soil, likely references the old Soviet movie about collectivization. |
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54.
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Блёв - Без Перемен
2021, Black Metal. Here, they cranked their black metal to the absolute max, and Zemlya actually feels relatively easy to listen to compared to Bez Peremen which translates as No Change. |
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55.
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Zatemno - В Аду
2022, Experimental Black Metal. Zatemno (After Dark) is an experimental take on black metal with samples, instruments like the bayan, unhinged screaming and sudden tempo shifts. It’s like a uniquely Russian kind of black-ish, drunken, hopeless madness. The album’s name, V Adu, means In Hell. |
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56.
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Мёртвая Вера - Мертвая Вера
2021 Blackened Death Metal/Blackened Metalcore. Mertvaya Vera (Dead Faith) is a completely anonymous project (honestly, I think it’s just one guy), and you can see why they’d want to stay that way. Based on the lyrics alone, they’ve probably already sung themselves into an 5-year prison sentence. They don’t stop at the usual black metal blasphemy, and the songs take on lying politicians, school shootings, police brutality, and the overall decay of Russian society. |
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57.
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Потьма - Дубравлаг
2021, Black Metal. Pot’ma is a small town in Mordovia, a region known for its concentration camps. A black metal/crust project that started as a one-man band and grew into a full band, somewhat experimental and gritty, incorporating ethnic motifs in a very elusive manner. |
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58.
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Смертокрест - Сожжение Святых
2015, Thrash/Black Metal. There are a lot of wild rumors about Smertokerest’s (something like Deathcross, or Cross of Death) mastermind, including that he spent some time in a mental institution (pretty sure it was due to the DTs). But his black-thrash metal is excellent: chthonic, booze-soaked, and totally unhinged. |
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59.
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Смертокрест - The Call Of The Other Path
2019 Thrash/Black Metal. Dude clearly didn’t do time in the psych ward for nothing - he gets more and more feral with each release, almost like Marduk in the '90s. This one is downright vicious. |
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60.
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Царетворец - Мертвецы Хоронят Мертвецов
2024, Black Metal. The Zeitgeist and Russian criminal code demand a figurative approach, and Tzaretvoretz (which roughly means Kingmaker, or Tsarmaker, for that matter) are subtle enough in the way they portray the unfolding shitshow. Musically, it’s a fairly melancholic and melodic atmospheric black metal album, packed with solid ideas. |
Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
[ More lists by Shmelevod ]
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