Winterkhor – 2026 - From the Depths of Time - (Album)
Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Pagan Black Metal
Just as the New Year comes from the East, so do the new albums of the new year arrive from the Far East. Please welcome — the band WINTERKHOR from Khabarovsk, representatives of the New Wave of Russian Black Metal, who have already released two albums. Let’s listen to the latest one.
At present, the band is a self-sufficient studio duo, while for live shows the drummer, bassist, and second guitarist are session musicians (by the way, the band is very active on the live circuit). The vocalist and drummer of WINTERKHOR is Ivan. The other member, Alexander, performs guitar and bass parts on the album, as well as clean backing vocals. A guest vocalist, Lyubov, also appears on the record.
WINTERKHOR enters the scene with strong Melodic Black Metal trump cards, but from a deck that clearly suggests: turn up the brutality just a little, and much of the music would shift toward a rougher, harsher Black Metal sound. This is a kind of “fragile” balance — and essentially a very good thing, as it allows the listener to interpret the musical format according to their current mood. Supporting this idea is the small but precise dose of atmosphere and light breaking through the blackened material of the opening track.
All of this unfolds at high speed — credit where credit is due to the drummer. And of course to the guitarist, who cuts into this thicket of rhythmic assault and then takes the lead in the musical attacks. Worth noting are some interesting arrangement choices: a second intense string layer emerging behind the fast-moving front line, or the sudden intrusion of the band’s signature high-register female clean vocals into the musical fabric of a track — as heard in “From Forests and Pines.”
Still, it is powerful Melodic Black Metal that is most clearly stated in “At the Call of Night,” where melodic splinters — and even larger, more lyrical string passages — fly through the sawmill-like darkness.
It’s also time to say a few words about the vocalist, who feels completely at home in this material, delivering low-frequency screaming. The interaction between the voice and the musical basalt is built to a very high standard. To be honest, not everyone manages this, though in Black Metal such shortcomings are often brushed off with the excuse: “I’m a musician — this is how I hear it.”
WINTERKHOR follows the orthodox paths of volatile Black Metal creation and destruction, yet they manage to inject their own personal discoveries and developments into the old-school high-speed drive. It’s clear these elements do not outweigh the cast-iron Black Metal foundation — but that was never required.
The musicians decided to experiment with monumentality in the album’s longest track, “In Memory of Heroic Deeds.” The band does not drift into symphonic Black Metal (and that’s a good thing), yet they succeed in creating a complex polyphonic canvas — with clean vocal inserts, non-trivial (and at times skillful) guitar passages, and an intricate drum section.
What else is worth highlighting on this disc? The excellent track “Chern – the Queen of Darkness.” When it starts, it can be praised for its simplicity and old-school looseness, but the deeper into the woods it goes, the more the musicians loosen up — revealing the multifaceted nature of their creative ambitions amid a wild barrage of playing. Or perhaps it should have remained simple?
The album closes with an atmospheric, light, and emotionally ambient track, “Echoes of Bygone Times,” featuring a shamanic frame drum.
An good album to start the year.

 

Chaykin Oleg — 2025 - Ember - ЕР
Sludge, Doom, Chaotic Hardcore, Stoner

A debut release by a musician. As we know, artists tend to nurture their firstborn for a long time and with stubborn devotion, which is why these works often contain a great deal of genuinely interesting ideas.
The album carries several stylistic tags that imply musical diversity: Sludge, Doom, Chaotic Hardcore, Stoner — and I would also add Psychedelic Metal.
Waters. As expected, the styles flow into one another, restless like a troubled sea; in some places the waves seem almost threatening… Dreamy, contemplative Doom and Sludge shells stretch and tear apart under Hardcore experiments within the track, only to heal again before our eyes into Stoner collages. The vocalist’s clean, desperately melancholic voice reveals a constant nervous tension that gradually slips into apathy and indifference.
Void. Psychedelia is scooped up here by the ladle and poured straight into the listener’s vessel — take only as much as you can carry. Don’t overload yourself: it’s heavy, especially if you turn the volume up. The performer is unafraid of compositional complexity, stubbornly stacking ever higher floors of a manic building. In one of the windows, a bright, burning guitar flashes a signal: “Save your souls!”
Dirt. Here things move faster and hit harder — more dynamic, with an unconventional and complex rhythmic structure, frantic drive, and a tightly coordinated bass guitar. The vocalist matches this velocity, yet remains just as laid-back and completely detached from this world.
Tuman. Little by little, the project seems to surface from total psychedelia toward something resembling straightforward Metal Rock. But no. Stoner tricks whimsically fracture consciousness, while the vocalist — sometimes near, sometimes distant — incants, yearns, retreats into himself and his personal circumstances… and drags the listener along into that darkness. The guitar “depresses,” weaves, and envelops.
Candle. It turns out there is a truly expressive, artistic guitar living here. The vocals are initially wrapped in a tobacco leaf of autumnal alienation and winter despair. They feel entirely at home in these scrolls of melancholic and hopeless sound. It seems to me — and this is not feigned optimism — that the author suddenly finds the keys to these dark rooms… No, the doors lead only to a tragic doom-laden finale.
The compositions are top-tier. The sound of the mini-album is excellent — which is hardly surprising, given that the recording engineer is the renowned Sanford Parker (YOB, Eyehategod, Pelican, Darkthrone).
A ferocious album with its own mood and a distinctly painful aura. It’s hard to believe this is the work of a newcomer. I had to ask the author.
— Oleg, how long have you been making music?
— I picked up a guitar at around 13, later played in the chaotic Hardcore band Advent, and for a long time wrote my own music quietly, just for the drawer.
P.S. Recommended for fans of Mastodon, Gojira, and Norma Jean.





https://open.spotify.com/artist/144pTfMf9Adn5NXGqgKvSh