After a number of years, some would say too many years, Jinjer return to the UK with a string of headline dates with bands Unprocessed and Textures in tow.
Generally speaking, and in all honesty, this isn’t my type of music but the hype surrounding Jinjer had to be checked out!
I will admit that travelling into Birmingham has become a bit of a nightmare. Tonight was cold and wet, and the last time I was hear I took a right soaking, so I was hoping to take something good away from the gig.
The main Institute room was just about full, with both balconies also being occupied, a rare occurrence in my most recent visits to the venue. One or two had even come dressed for the occasion!
The night kicked off with Textures, a hard-hitting metal outfit hailing from The Netherlands. The band released their latest, scientifically named album, Genotype just a few days before the show and while this could have been an opportunity to play a good portion of the album, the band, instead took songs from the new album and all previous albums.
They kick off with Void from the new album; this was a little unexpected, and it turned out to be a fabulous piece of post-rock, almost entirely instrumental and reminiscent of bands like Distant Dream and Shadow Universe. This was followed by Closer to the Unknown, also taken from the new album but also released last year as a single. It started in a similar fashion to Void but it didn’t take long for the vocals to kick in. Now, I did say that this wasn’t entirely my type of music, but this was another good one and had it not been for the intermittent growls it would have been another cracker. Vocalist, Daniel de Jongh, has a brilliant voice – when he’s singing and not growling!
The band then revisited earlier albums, another scientifically named release, Phenotype, Dualism and Silhouettes.
A short break ensued allowing German Progressive Metalcore band, Unprocessed, to get ready to entertain.
This was another band unknown to me, so much so that I couldn’t even decipher the bands’ logo projected onto the back wall of the venue and had to be advised as to who the band was!
The band are, currently, six albums in, with the most recent, Angel, being released last year. Unlike Textures who revisited all their earlier albums, Unprocessed restricted themselves to the two most recent, Angel & And Everything in Between, released in 2023.
The band landed with 111, Sleeping with Ghosts and Beyond Heaven’s Gate, all taken from Angel. The latter of these tracks was almost pop-like until the double-kick drums started and the occasional gruff vocal, I almost liked it!
Thrash, which was exactly that, was followed by Glass and Snowlover, the set ended 3 songs later with Terrestrial and the audience baying for more. The band won numerous new fans tonight,
Time for some Jinjer!
Tatiana Shmayluk arrived on the stage and my first impression, with no disrespect whatsoever intended, was a cross between Lena Lovich and Pippi Longstocking, but there was no doubt at all that the audience absolutely loved her.
Tatiana has come to be recognised as one of the leading frontwomen, her vocals slide seamlessly between excellent, and clean, rock and utterly dark growls as she showed on numerous occasions throughout the set. Songs were taken from each of the five studio albums released through Nuclear Blast plus two songs taken from the 2019 EP, Micro.
The set is suited and booted with three songs taken from 2025’s Duél. The title track comes first and is swiftly followed by Green Serpent and Fast Draw. As Tatiana gets into the swing of things, so does the crowd; she jumps around the stage as the audience look on, almost spellbound.
The band step back in time to 2021 and the release of Wallflowers for two songs, Vortex and Disclosure, and all the while the audience were hung on every move Tatiana makes.
As ambassadors for Ukraine the band do a fine job, as metalcore musicians they do an exemplary job!
There was no let up throughout the set; Tatiana moved all around the stage, audience eyes followed her. Every now and then she would chat, but no so much that it broke the rhythm of the music which flowed almost constantly. She moved through Tantrum, Kafka, Hedonist, Someone’s Daughter and Rogue, all from Duél, and these were interspersed with songs taken from all the earlier albums. Penultimate song, Pisces, taken from 2016’s King of Everything album stuck in my head as the crowd joined in making this one song to remember above all the others.
Setlist:
Duél
Green Serpent
Fast Draw
Vortex
Disclosure
Tantrum
Teacher, Teacher!
Kafka
Judgement (& Punishment)
Hedonist
I Speak Astronomy
Perennial
Someone’s Daughter
Rogue
Pisces
Sit, Stay, Roll Over
Jinjer are here for the long haul, let there be no doubt about that!
Words & images: Reg Richardson
