Ukrainian heavy rockers Risin Sabotage swung through Odessa earlier this year on tour and recorded the below video as part of what’s called ‘Carpet Sessions’ for reasons that will become apparent enough in the area ruggery of the clip when you see it. Included in the video that the trio was kind enough to let me premiere below are two songs from their 2023 Interstellar Smoke Records album, Macabre (discussed here), first is “Macabre” itself, followed by “Silence Queen,” which the band — guitarist/vocalist Vitya Panchishko, bassist Valerii Skorzhenko and drummer/vocalist Igor Nedyuzhiy — performed in tight quarters as captured by someone known to me only as sAn, who offered some comment on the process below.

All told, the clip is eight minutes long and it’s a ride that’s easy to take from the first hard guitar strum forward. In “Macabre,” Nedyuzhiy and Panchishko trade vocals during the verses as the camera twists and turns around them and Skorzhenko, the former in a kind of semi-spoken but clean delivery, the guitarist a bit grittier, in the vein of Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds. The pair took over lead vocals after Risin Sabotage parted ways with frontman Kirill Chepilko, who appeared on 2017’s Nasoni Records-issued Planet Dies LP (discussed here) and it’s encouraging to see them working purposefully to make the vocal arrangement, the patterning, etc., a big part of the song as presented here. No doubt whatever they do next to follow Macabre will take progressive steps forward in that regard.

But the point here isn’t progression, it’s a band in a box rocking out a couple tunes live being taped by a friend who apparently has it in for Skorzhenko‘s work on bass. Fair enough. The break between the two songs is short and right around four and a half minutes into the video, and some of their punker undertones come across in “Silence Queen” as transmuted onto heavier boogie, but you should know going into this that it’s the band in the raw and that’s the intention behind it. It’s not a fancy studio thing, or some multi-camera shoot. Dudes in a room, hitting it. It’s about as organic as you could possibly ask it to be and still be powered by electricity.

Of course, the war in Ukraine drags on. For over 650 days as my country waffles on support because we’re only set to spend 880-something billion dollars on the military next year and apparently we need all of it. I don’t have anything positive to say about it. It’s a fucking tragedy and humans don’t deserve to live on a planet so beautiful, but at least there’s rock and roll, and at least as their home is battered in ways from which it will take generations to recover, these guys can still get out and play shows domestically and do something like this, which looks like it was a great time. You find your solace where and when you can.

Please enjoy:

Risin Sabotage, Carpet Sessions premiere

sAn on Risin Sabotage, ‘Carpet Sessions:

I’ve known the Risin Sabotage crew for a long time, but I really got to know the guys in the winter of 22-23, and during their summer visit to Odessa we recorded a large-scale live on the picturesque expanses of the Kuyalnitsky estuary. You can easily find it on our channel. So the next stage of rapprochement was the mixing of this live, during which I was penetrated by every song of their new album, listening to it again and again, time after time. Now, God forbid I hear their song – then I go and hum it for a few days, and at their concerts I’m blown to pieces and yell in my voice some kind of their lyrics, some gibberish, but on time and in the notes. What does it matter, because nobody can hear me (but they can see me, and let them!).

Our friendship grows stronger with each visit, in direct proportion to my desire to steal their bassist Valera. Because I fell in love with his playing style and the whole range of grimaces during his playing. Valera, sooner or later I will steal you!

Let’s move on. Before their last visit by invitation to a special concert on the occasion of Generic Doom Band Name’s return in a new line-up, it was suggested to shoot a special acoustic live, but gods decided differently and having arranged all the equipment beautifully in my small but homey and cozy studio we recorded four songs. Please rate two of them in this video! Enjoy!

Finishing 2023 with a tour in Ukraine, after a gig in Odessa we made a live video for sAn live channel. We play some tracks from or new album Macabre during this Carpet Session. If you like it don’t forget to like and comment this vid.

A little bit about the channel: sAn live prod is a production studio, they make live videos for UA underground scene bands such as GDBN, White Ward, Heavenphetamine

So check them videos:

https://youtube.com/@sanliveproduction

https://www.instagram.com/san_live_prod

Listen to Macabre here: https://songwhip.com/risinsabotage/macabre2023

interstellar smoke records: https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Don’t forget to support Ukraine and spread the word about russian aggression on our country.

Risin Sabotage:
Igor Nedyuzhiy – drums/vocals
Vitya Panchishko – guitar/vocals
Valerii Skorzhenko – bass

Risin Sabotage, Macabre (2023)

Risin Sabotage on Facebook

Risin Sabotage on Instagram

Risin Sabotage on Bandcamp

Risin Sabotage Linktr.ee

Interstellar Smoke Records on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records on Instagram

Veterans of Nasoni Records and Robustfellow Productions and now signed to Interstellar Smoke Records, the Kyiv-based heavy rock/psych trio Risin Sabotage announce the release of their new album, Macabre. Set to arrive on June 2, the album emerges as the band’s first following 2017’s prescient Planet Dies (discussed here) and features material dating back at least to 2018, when the included-on-the-record “Serpent” was issued as a standalone single. Fair enough.

Macabre, as a title, is a decent way to describe how it’s felt to — while at a far off geographic remove — watch for the last year as Russia has scaled up its invasion of Ukraine into an actual war rather than the casually cruel annexation of territory it had been since circa 2014. The album remains colorful in its psychedelic purpose, and fascinates with a blend of garage rock, shimmering, floating leads over solidified grooves, and a density of tone that underpins a song like “Mentor” or the payoff of the spacious “Hum” with resonance that adds depth to the mix and results in a fascinating, engrossing blend across the 40 minutes of the album as a whole.

In addition to war returning to Europe and the global pandemic that I’ll go out on a limb and assume you heard something about, the years since their last offering have seen Risin Sabotage part ways with singer Kirill Chepilko, with guitarist Vitya Panchishko and drummer Igor Nedyuzhiy taking over vocal duties and the band pressing on as a trio. Doesn’t seem to have slowed them down any, if the single “Silence Queen” — premiering at the bottom of this post — is anything to go by. The meld of lysergic breadth and rhythmic force is deceptively immersive, and though none of the tracks are especially lengthy, there’s still a sense of world-creation to coincide with the raw push of their more intense moments.

They talk about it as nine songs below and the version I got has 10, but there’s plenty of time between now and June to sort these things out. Initial info follows, from the PR wire:

RISIN SABOTAGE – Macabre – Interstellar Smoke Records

Says the band: “The album was written during the time of the global pandemic and mastered during the currently ongoing war in our country, Ukraine. These events have definitely affected the sound and, as a result, the title of this album. The release features nine songs that tell nine stories. Some of them put you in the atmosphere of today’s horrors, and others help you escape them.”

About “Silence Queen”: “It’s broken, it’s not alive, it fades away, but it’s beautiful, unique, and it drags you in.”

Kyiv based Risin Sabotage slams with heavy psych and desert rock since 2015. In the quest for a new sound the music is giving the best of desert rock, heavy psych, stoner and doom. Risin Sabotage’s fuzzy riffs and grooves inspired by the sounds of 70’s astound with the incredible energetic performance.

Tracklisting:
01. Abundance
02. Serpent
03. Silence Queen
04. Circus
05. Mentor
06. Loom (Forswear Intro)
07. Forswear
08. Hum
09. Macabre
10. Thawing

Risin Sabotage:
Igor Nedyuzhiy – drums/vocals
Vitya Panchishko – guitar/vocals
Valerii Skorzhenko – bass

https://www.facebook.com/risin.sabotage/
https://www.instagram.com/risin_sabotage/
https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://www.instagram.com/interstellar.smoke.label/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Risin Sabotage, “Silence Queen” track premiere

Next month, Kiev-based heavy rockers Risin Sabotage take off on a four-date stint through Poland with Weird Tales. It’s basically an extended weekender, and there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. They go heralding their just-released new single “Serpent,” which has been posted digitally and may or may not receive a physical pressing. The band has also announced an allegiance for digital distribution through respected countryman purveyor Robustfellow Productions — worth noting that Risin Sabotage appeared on Robustfellow‘s expansive Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 compilation (review here) last year, so it’s not by any means the first time the two parties have worked together — and that will include not only the new single, but the band’s prior single “Sabotage Rising” and their 2017 debut album, Planet Dies, as well.

You can stream the song itself below and it’s a quick and unpretentious bit of heavy rock riffing that asks little for its two and a half minute run more than a nod along to its spaced-out hook and fervent groove. Grunge is an element at play, but the focus seems to be more on a blend of earthy tones and cosmic effects, and it works well in the brief stretch, especially the solo section that closes out.

Dig it:

New single “Serpent” by Risin Sabotage.

Exclusive premiere now via Robustfellow Digital.

Also Robustfellow Prods. is happy to distribute the following groovy tunes by Risin Sabotage [Kyiv, UA] digitally:

“Planet Dies” (March 10, 2017)
“Sabotage Rising (live)” single (October 28, 2017)
“Serpent” single (March 16, 2018)

Find your favourite tracks on Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, Deezer and 150+ smaller outlets!

APR 26 Protokultura – Klub Sztuki Alternatywnej Gdansk PL w/ Weird Tales
APR 27 Klub pod Minog? Poznan PL w/ Weird Tales & Bad Luck Experience
APR 28 Beczka Pub Olsztyn PL w/ Weird Tales & PostNatura
APR 29 NRD Klub Turun PL w/ Diuna & Weird Tales

Risin Sabotage is:
Igor Nediuzhyi (Drummer)
Kirill Chepilko (Vocals)
Vitya Panchishko (Guitar)
Valery Skorzhenko (Bass)

https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/risin.sabotage/
https://instagram.com/risin_sabotage/
robustfellow.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/RobustfellowProds

Risin Sabotage, “Serpent”

Whatever your expectations might be for this video from Kiev-based desert-style groovers Risin Sabotage, put them aside. You remember how when South Park first came on in the late ’90s it was made with paper cutouts? Well, the clip below for “Sun is God” was no doubt animated on computer, but it has that same look and as its raw riffing plays out across an efficient four and a half minutes, we see the story of a Christian-looking congregation meeting their match as the band itself shows up in the form of horned dinosaurs, blows out the mass, burns everyone’s eyeballs and then turns the church into a rocketship and blasts it off, presumably into the sun. Yes it’s as awesome as it sounds. Yes you should watch it immediately.

The track comes from Risin Sabotage‘s 2017 album, Planet Dies, which saw LP issue through the ultra-respected Nasoni Records and a CD pressing from Japanese imprint Voron Nest, and which, if you’re so inclined, you can stream in its entirety at the bottom of this post. It’s definitely worth checking out for the barebones style of fuzz Risin Sabotage present, but make sure you hit up the thick shuffle of “Sun is God” first and dig into the video, because yeah, it’s definitely worth your time. Imaginative in its story, engaging in its look and creative use of color, and fitting to the track itself — I’m not going to disparage those who do the band-rocking-in-rehearsal-space video, because hey, at least they’re making an effort, but “Sun is God” reminds of what a difference some very obviously hard work can make when the results come out just right.

Clip and more info follow here. Please enjoy:

Risin Sabotage, “Sun is God” official video

Made by:
Michelle Feldman
Matous Valchar
Tomas Cerveny

Sun is God is a song from our latest album Planet Dies

Check it https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/

The second trip from our essence and conscious to the stars and galaxies through the deserts and stones of our existence. There are always a stepping stones on the way questioning about the life and death, bearing thoughts about the end and the beginning and who watches us on this way. No matter is it the line or the cycle pass it with Risin Sabotage accompanied.

Risin Sabotage is:
Igor Nediuzhyi (Drummer)
Kirill Chepilko (Vocals)
Vitya Panchishko (Guitar)
Valery Skorzhenko (Bass)

Risin Sabotage, Planet Dies (2017)

Risin Sabotage on Thee Facebooks

Risin Sabotage on Instagram

Risin Sabotage on Bandcamp

Voron Nest on Bandcamp

Nasoni Records website

Kiev-based heavy psych rockers Risin Sabotage issued their second album, the grimly-titled Planet Dies, last week as a digital release. Word has come through that the languid and buzzing five-track offering will be physically pressed on CD through Japanese imprint Voron Nest and LP through ultra-respected Berlin purveyor Nasoni Records. Listening to the gravitational pull of extended tracks like “Creature” and “Worshiping the Beast,” it’s hard to argue with either label coming on board.

In addition to those, however, last week it was announced Risin Sabotage had signed to Ukrainian newcomers Electric Experience Records as well, so I don’t know if that label will also be doing a version of Planet Dies sometime this year? I guess it remains to be seen. The band made their self-titled debut in 2015 and did some touring last Fall as well to support it, so more road time doesn’t seem out of the question.

Album info follows here, along with the stream:

Risin Sabotage – Planet Dies

Risin Sabotage is an Ukranian psychedelic stoner rock band from Kyiv.

The second trip from our essence and conscious to the stars and galaxies through the deserts and stones of our existence. There are always a stepping stones on the way questioning about the life and death, bearing thoughts about the end and the beginning and who watches us on this way. No matter is it the line or the cycle pass it with Risin Sabotage accompanied.

Single “Boundless Void” as a bonus. Released March 10, 2017.

It will be released on vinyls from Nasoni Records (Berlin) and on CDs from Voron Nest (Japan).

RECORDED AT EVERGREEN STUDIO
MIXED & MASTERED BY NIKOLAI TEMCHENKO

ARTWORK AND LAYOUT DESIGN BY CRISTIANO SUAREZ

Tracklisting:
1. Demons of the Wold 03:53
2. Creature 10:19
3. Sun is God 04:33
4. Planet Dies 05:44
5. Worshiping the Beast 11:26

Risin Sabotage is:
Igor Nediuzhyi (Drummer)
Kirill Chepilko (Vocals)
Vitya Panchishko (Guitar)
Valery Skorzhenko (Bass)

https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/risin.sabotage/
https://instagram.com/risin_sabotage/
https://www.facebook.com/ElectricExperienceRecords/

Risin Sabotage, Planet Dies (2017)

Look. The thing is immense. One can barely hope to give a decent accounting of a compilation in a review in the easiest of scenarios, but to attempt to sum up the scope of Robustfellow Productions‘ Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3, which spans three CDs in its physical incarnation and tops out at an astonishing 48 tracks and four-plus hours of listening material when the digital bonus tracks are included from the Bandcamp version, the idea itself becomes silly. All one can really do is the same thing the listener likely does: make your way through it at your own pace, try to absorb as much as you can, and step back to admire the incredible amount of coordinating effort that must have gone into its making.

The latter is particularly impressive as what’s been touted as the final installment of the Kiev-based Robustfellow‘s Electric Funeral Cafe trilogy — nothing like going out with a bang — is bigger even than its predecessors, which came out in 2016 and 2015 and were “only” two discs apiece. The first two were broken down into component Electric and Funeral halves, arranged along this theme by discs. This edition works much the same way, with the Electric discs more focused on heavy rock and the Funeral disc dug into dirge-style doom and sludge, but adds the Cafe disc, on which one might be hear the Beatles-gone-electro-pop psych of Black Maloka, the Creedence Clearwater Revival-style boogie of Freeky Clean or the pure Doorsian meandering of The Jossers, along with more familiar names like Krobak (a Stoned Jesus side-project) or The Legendary Flower Punk (a The Grand Astoria side-project).

As with the earlier volumes, the bulk of the inclusions here highlight the underground boom in the Ukraine itself. 38 of the total 48 groups involved hail from the Ukraine. Two more are from Russia (The Legendary Flower Punk and A Foggy Realm, also on the Cafe disc), and one each from Japan (Eternal Elysium, on the Electric disc), Finland (Loinen, Funeral disc), the US (Contra, Electric), Sweden (Suffer Yourself, Funeral), Belarus (Nebulae Come Sweet, Funeral), the UK (Sons of Alpha Centauri, Cafe), and Italy (Le Scimmie, Funeral). It’s easy to get lost in the sprawl of a release like this, certainly, but worth noting all the same that this is the first of the Electric Funeral Cafe offerings to branch outside the Ukraine itself, so even as Robustfellow ends the series, it does so by reaching into new territories, making the project all the more impressive. One imagines that if the label kept it going, it would only continue to grow.

Not that it’s lacking in its current form, of course. Pick your poison and it’s likely here somewhere, from the progressive heavy vibes of Stonefromthesky and Ethereal Riffian on the Electric disc to the deathly chug of Chainsaw Jack‘s “Crashing Waves” and post-hardcore-sludge of Nebulae Come Sweet on the Funeral disc to the ’90s-style psych of Vermilion Nocturne and beat-backed drone of Submatukana‘s “Genesis” — which boasts a sampled Bible reading amid creepy whispered vocals — on the Cafe disc. There are, of course, a host of bands here who aren’t so easily fit into one category or another, as Dreadnought foreshadow on the Electric disc some of the screaming that will be a running theme throughout most of the Funeral disc, and the huge Ufomammut-style roll, push and echoes of Soom on Funeral do likewise for Cafe, but each piece of Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 offers something distinct from the others, and so the themes are not only ably established, but solidified while jumping from band to band, city to city, country to county, atmosphere to atmosphere.

And as ever for a worthy various-artists release, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 presents a number of curios warranting further investigation. In particular, Lviv’s 1914, who lead off the Funeral disc with “8×50 mm Repetiergewehr M95” would seem to have a fixation with WWI — remind me to tell you sometime about how it was the fall of Western Civilization; unless you’re European, in which case you already know — and Lucifer Rising on the Electric disc blend modern buzz tone with classic blues rock thrust, but there are a swath of such interest-piquers as the comp plays out, and the real challenge lies in not being overwhelmed by all of it.

Much to the credit of Robustfellow and to the benefit of the acts contributing, everyone is given a genuine chance to ply their sonic wares, whether that’s a sub-three-minute death-doom rumbler like Monmuth‘s “Vail Seven” or the nine-minute heavy post-rock rollout of Stonefromthesky‘s “67,” which makes sense in a if-you’re-going-to-do-it-and-it’s-already-huge-then-don’t-skimp kind of way, and if the tradeoff for that is there’s a lot of music to dig into, it’s the kind of issue a listener should probably be thankful to take on, even if it requires multiple rounds to get through the front-to-back experience — a four-hour listening session is a rare gift in these busy times. Bottom line is Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 will be there, whether one wants to take it as a whole or in pieces — as a document of Ukrainian heavy, yes, but also the scene’s will to reach outside itself and include others in a creative conversation — and as that movement continues to flourish and progress, such an impulse can only help broaden a scope already shown here to be considerable. And by considerable, I mean staggering.

Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 (2017)

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

Robustfellow Productions on Thee Facebooks

Robustfellow Productions website

If you’ve had the chance to check out the prior two installments of Robustfellow Productions‘ compilation series Electric Funeral Cafe, you already know they’re massive things. Huge in terms of the sheer amount of music they feature, and with a strong focus solely directed on the Ukrainian heavy scene, they bring to light some acts who those of us outside the region might not necessarily run into on a daily basis. Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 is no different, but it’s worth noting that in addition to the good dose of acts from Kiev and Lviv it provides, it for the first time pushes international and boasts bands from the US, the UK, Belarus, Finland, Japan and Sweden included, so this final installment in the series — which comes with seven more tracks if you get the digital version — is by no means limited. Fitting for the mission of the series that it would expand even unto its conclusion.

I feel like the first line below under specifications really says it all: 41 bands, 9 countries, three discs, over three and a half hours of music. Sold.

Release date is Jan. 21. Here’s info from the PR wire:

V/A – ‘Electric Funeral Café vol.3’

Formats: 3xCD in Deluxe digipack & Download
Catalogue # RBF 016 | IHR005
Label: Robustfellow Prods. & Iron Hamster Recs.
Release Date: 21 January 2017

Specifications:
– 41 bands from 9 countries on 3 CDs lasts for more than 3,5 hours
– Including 23 special tracks that you hardly hear anywhere else
– Plus 7 bonus tracks on digital version on bandcamp
– The final chapter of EFC trilogy
– Deluxe ltd.ed. that will consist of EFC vol.1,2,3
– Launch Party 21.I.2017 @ Winter Mass [“Monte Ray Live Stage”, Kyiv, UA]

Artwork design by Zinkovskaya Oksana
Design and DTP by Marsym Gavronsky
Made in Ukraine | 21.I.2017

List of robust bands involved in EFC vol.3 from A to Z:
1914 [Lviv, UA]
5R6 [Kharkiv, UA]
A Foggy Realm [Moscow, RU]
Atomic Simao [Kyiv, UA]
Bichkraft [Kyiv, UA]
Black Maloka [Kyiv, UA]
Borum [Kyiv, UA]
Chainsaw Jack [Kharkiv, UA]
Contra [Cleveland, OH, USA]
Dreadnought [Ternopil`, UA]
Drunk Diver [Lviv, UA]
Eternal Elysium [Nagoya, JP]
Ethereal Riffian [Kyiv, UA]
Filthy Rich Preacher [Cherkassy, UA]
Freeky Cleen [Kyiv, UA]
Krobak [Kyiv/Kharkiv, UA]
Katakomba [Kyiv, UA]
Le Scimmie [Vasto, IT]
Les Gendarmes [Kyiv, UA]
Loinen [Karjaa, FIN]
Love’n’Joy [Kyiv, UA]
Lucifer Rising [Kyiv, UA]
MAUT [Ivano-Frankivsk, UA]
Monmuuth [Dnipro, UA]
Nebulae Come Sweet [Minsk, BY]
Night on Fire [Zhytomyr, UA]
Ningen-girai [Cherkassy, UA]
Nödutgång:Självmord [Poltava, UA]
Obriy [Uzhgorod,UA]
Octopus Kraft [Drohobych/Lviv, UA]
Onsager [Khmelnitsky, UA]
OwlCraft [Cherkassy, UA]
Risin Sabotage [Kyiv, UA]
Small Depo [Kyiv, UA]
Sons Of Alpha Centauri [Kent, UK]
Soom [Kharkiv, UA]
Space-man [Lviv, UA]
stonefromthesky [Kyiv, UA]
Straytones [Kyiv, UA]
Submatukana [Dnipro, UA]
Suffer Yourself [Kyiv, UA/Linköping, SWE]
The Curse Of Wendigo [Kharcyzk/Kyiv, UA]
The Jossers [Kalush, UA]
The Legendary Flower Punk [St.Petersburg, RU]
Trip Inside Me [Kyiv, UA]
Tungu [Chernihiv,UA]
Vermilion Nocturne [Kyiv, UA]
Warningfog [Kyiv, UA]

http://robustfellow.blogspot.com/
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRobustfellow
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://vk.com/robustfellow

Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 2 (2016)