Metal Monday: From Russia With Metal

posted in: Artist Features • Rock

In the world of industrial metal there isn’t a whole lot of fresh meat”the same handful of artists have reigned supreme over the genre since the early ’90s. Now, e monstrous band from Russia called Illidiance is really hoping to change that. With the release of Damage Theory in mid 2010, Illidiance have found themselves among the legends of industrial metal like Rammstein and Fear Factory (both of which released excellent albums in the last couple years).

Like many industrial metal acts, there really aren’t any acts that can be comparde  to Illidiance. Their hybrid style falls somewhere between the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound and the heavier fringes of thrash metal with add a pinch of Nine Inch Nail for good measure”and really this description only loosely resembles what Illidiance sounds like. The band’s music features a great balance of extremely fast-paced tempos, thrashy riffs, a mix of harsh and clean vocals and spacey synth sounds. Perhaps taking a page from Fear Factory’s book, they also include a fair amount of double-kick drum bursts paired in perfect time with chugging guitar riffs.

Though their studio recordings are really solid,  Illidiance truly shines in their live performances. They’re known for playing extremely tight live and being true showmen on the stage. Complete with matching uniforms that look like something the warriors of a post-apocalyptic world might wear, Illidiance really know how to put on a live show, as their numerous YouTube videos demonstrate.

Somehow, Illidiance find the perfect balance between what you’d expect industrial metal to sound like and something unique and refreshing. So long as they continue to make albums on par with their two previous full-lengths, they’ll be poised to take over the industrial metal throne as the kings from the 1990s fade out. If you’re a fan of Sybreed, Digimortal or any other industrial metal bands, you’d be remiss to not give Illidiance a chance.

Check out the video they released for their song “New Millennium Crushers” from 2010’s Damage Theory: