“When I heard her sing that for the first time, I had tears streaming down my face.” Jinjer on their emotional new album – and why it’s taken so long to get here

Jinjer have had plenty on their minds for the past couple of years due to the Russian invasion of their homeland of Ukraine. But they’ve processed it by focusing on their fifth album, as previewed by recent singles Kafka and Someone’s Daughter. In the new issue of Metal Hammer, out now, singer Tatiana Shmayluk and bassist Eugene Abdukhanov revealed what we can expect from Duél.

Hi guys. What can you tell us about the new album?

Tatiana Shmayluk: “There’s something of a concept to it, shall we say. I don’t want to say too much, but I worked on the lyrics and artwork and carried in my mind the idea of dual, or Duél. It’s really about two opposing sets of words, of opinions, of ideas and the battle between those things. It’s about conflict, outside conflict, the conflict that lives inside of all of us.”

What are the challenges of approaching your fifth album?

Eugene Abdukhanov: “We are lucky that we have Vlad [Ulasevich, drums], who is a writing machine. I believe there was something that was twisted in his mind when he was a child that made him this musical prodigy. I find it really hard to imagine that we’ll ever run out of ideas or material for this band. We always have aces in our sleeves.”

But by all accounts, this is the most time you have put into pre-production on an album, right?

Eugene: “‘Thorough’ was the word for this album. We had so much time, the demos were written in 2022, we’ve never spent so much time writing anything. It was hard work – there are songs that have been done a couple of times, we’ve never done it like that. Tatiana had the chance to improvise her vocals in the studio and then go back…”

Tatiana: “…which I’ve never had before. I wrote all of the lyrics to the songs in one week. Before it took me months. I don’t know why… I was just finding something else more interesting at the time.”

Are there any songs on the new album that you are particularly proud of?

Tatiana: “Green Serpent is very special to us. I’ve been sober for a few years now, so it’s kind of about that.”

Eugene: “I actually remember when I heard Tatiana sing that for the first time – it was so powerful that I had tears streaming down my face. I have also been sober for five years now, so it just connected with me. I honestly think it is the best song Jinjer have ever written.”

Duél is released February 7. Read the 50 albums you need to get excited about this year in the latest issue of Metal Hammer