Two Ukrainian labels Neformat Family and Trismus Records present a new release.
It’s a split of the black metal band Vidmershiy Shmat from Kyiv, which pairs with a death metal band Obrij from Uzhhorod.
“We wrote the instrumental part of the song “Witch” during the forced relocation of Peter (the band’s drummer) from Kyiv to Uzhhorod at the beginning of the full-scale war.
Then we decided to create new songs, while we were all in one place. As a result, Obrij recorded 4 tracks for the mini-album, which should be released in the first half of 2023, which will consist of fast punky songs. But for our latest track “Witch” we decided to write a slow and heavy stuff,” — says the vocalist of Obrij, Mykola Maga.
As a result, the band decided to release the track separately from the upcoming EP and offered the idea of a split to the Kyiv black metal band — Vidmershiy Shmat, where the drummer of Obrij, Petro is responsible for the bass guitar and vocals.
Vidmershiy Shmat chose the song “Deaf Void” for the split, which started with a single riff that the band’s drummer Nafanya (Anastasia Khomenko) brought for her punk project that never materialized.
“The idea was to make the track as simple and heavy as possible with all sorts of melancholic elements. “Deaf Void” differs from our previous album, from sound and recording to arrangement. We produced more classic black metal, but with our signature coins. Also, I have a banjo at home, and before going to the studio to record the song, we sat in my apartment, practiced, finished writing the track, and spontaneously decided to use it for the intro,” — recalls Petro Budai.
In this case as well, the war affected the team’s work process, but in a slightly different manner. Since April, Nafanya, along with her mother and son Orest, moved to Barcelona, so all of Vidmershiy Shmat’s projects are now mainly implemented online. However, in the summer, the musician came to Kyiv and recorded the drums for the track at the Bright Sound studio.
The subject of both songs is somewhat different. Vidmershiy Shmat’s “Deaf Emptiness” was written a year ago, even before the full-scale war.
“The track says more about inner emotions and people’s attitude toward problems and troubles that can happen to someone else.
Deaf — stands for someone who is indifferent to the difficulties of others, although he may be aware of them.
This may apply to people close to you as well as the situation in general. For instance, now in Western Europe, despite the fact that many people are helping Ukraine, some people still don’t want to hear about the war and what is happening here, conditionally very close. While this is not their problem, it can very quickly become theirs as well…
The Void — stands for emptiness, which is inside all of us. Due to exhaustion, burnout, mental problems — now these reasons may be much greater. I am like that myself. With this track, I want to say that we have to overcome this indifference, deaf emptiness and learn to hear close people,” — says guitarist and vocalist of Vidmershy Shmat, Sasha Kitaev.
Obrij turns to the image of the witch, which, depending on the interpretation, can show very different faces.
“The text is quite simple in form, and its plot could be suitable for a standard horror movie. The track contains the following meaning: people often tend to oppress those who stand out from the crowd, but they should be aware that their actions can get a decent answer in one form or another. What they might regret,” — says Mykola Maga.
The cover for the split was made by Yaroslav Grob, who is the longtime author of another Obrij release covers and some merch.
“It’s a bit about a landscape in which parts of a depersonalized human body are scattered/lying around, echoes of the constant presence of war in Central Eastern Europe. Maybe this field is snow-covered, the remains forgotten and unnamed. It’s about poisoned landscapes, as Martin Pollack wrote. It’s about the Faceless, the echoes of a great battle, the fields of Cambodia, the Black Death and dances on bones,” — says Yaroslav.
“It’s about the landscape, which is scattered/lying next to a part of the dehumanized body, the echoes of the constant presence of the war in Central-Eastern Europe. Perhaps this field is snowy, the remains are forgotten. This is about the poisoned landscapes, as Martin Pollack wrote. It is faceless, it is echoes of a great battle, it is fields of Cambodia, it is Black Death, it is dancing on bones”
Now the members of Vidmershiy Shmat are continuing the work on their next full-length album, while Obrij is preparing an EP for next year and slowly works on the first full-length album.
Vidmershiy Shmat is a young black metal/sludge/noise band from Kyiv, created in 2020. Their discography includes only the debut album “Khryp”.
Obrij is a death metal band from Uzhhorod, Ukraine, formed in 2013. The sound of Obrij was influenced by bands like Bolt Thrower, Morgoth, Asphyx, Mangled Torsos, Gorefest e.t.c.
So far the band released two EPs: “The Altar of Utopia” (2016) and “In severe stranglehold” (2019), tape compilation 2016-2021 and split with Terrorcsum.
Vidmershiy Shmat social media:
https://vidmershiyshmat.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/vidmershiy.shmat
https://www.instagram.com/vidmershiy.shmat/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgvmCHv8lTKK0YlTx4ozyg
Obrij social media:
https://obrij.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/obriymetaluzh
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjQvt6W9SSXlbMknsrLxOwA
https://www.instagram.com/obrij_metal/