MASTERSLAND
Druknroll — 2024 – Gross Puzzle – Dark East Productions
In 2024, a lot of good hardware was forged on the Russian metal scene, which will not remain in this outgoing year, but will be transferred to the Future by music lovers in their playlists, flash drives and collections in physics.
The Druknroll team approached the eighth album Progressive Melodic Modern Thrash/Death Metal fully armed. Then at the end I will give a breakdown of the lineup. And now listen.
The group began with a downbeat breakdown on the track Bots, which gave reason to think that perhaps this will continue… But even here, in this composition, we see claims to something more complex and truly progressive. And a pair of vocal avatars, dynamic and constantly catchy, interacting with each other, involuntarily force you to listen and focus on their “struggle”. The guitars are much freer in their solo actions and suddenly soar above the complex of the composition. The keyboard passages scurry like small demons.
In general, there are three vocalists on the disc, including Maria. And that harsh vocal (as opposed to the lower one) simply pushes through each composition with its pressure and almost bestial ferocity. Probably, not everyone will like it, but this is not a pop song contest. Therefore, I note this trashy vocal avatar as a big PLUS in the overall pressing of the album.
The composition Retrogradation of Fate suddenly slows down the tempo of the album, and throws it on prickly progressive tags, the instrumentalists wrap up the doom-death, and the main vocalist suddenly starts SINGING… not that I would say unexpectedly, but after the bestial pressure it is impressive. To his aid – the lower vocal, which shows its abilities in this mid-tempo track. And it suddenly dawns on me that I have already heard this track. Where, when? Wait a minute… In the EP “3.14”, that’s where. A piercing composition.
And of course, after the death-doom-prog epic, you need to give it a little more heat. Skeptical Mind is a crazy combination of notorious thrash, which is emphasized by almost hardcore vocals (as it was in the crossover old themes) and death excursions, mixed with atmospheric pieces and inclusions of left-wing broadcasts. Somewhere around this place, and this is not even the middle of the album, there is a feeling of mental kinship between Druknroll of 2024 and techno-thrashers Coroner. In spirit – definitely.
By the way, the vocal duel on the track Höllenwald is successfully resolved (plus some kind of macabre voice). There is also an excellent guitar exposition and wonderful atmospheric pieces. It may not be very original, but damn, the country-hard rock track My Spiteful Clone breaks through the radio crackle. Don’t worry, it will mutate into a more usual Druknroll form over time (though it’s quite difficult to single it out at the moment, because the compositional diversity of the disc is at a good level).
And I’ll let you in on a little secret right away – this full-length features 7 guitarists, including 6 lead guitarists. So, in principle, you shouldn’t be surprised by the real string instrumental multi-texture. Or should you? Better, yes.
I won’t hide the fact that I was rather skeptical about the #progressive tag at first, but this skepticism melted like a piece of ice in a multicooker as I listened to the disc.
Definitely, the large and friendly Druknroll team strained themselves on this disc… and produced an important result in their discography.
I listen in the highest quality, and I assure you that the sound engineering was done at an excellent level.
9 / 10
Resurgam 23.11.2024
https://mastersland.org/index.php?release=17929#r4793&gsc.tab=0
Moscow Meltdown
DRUKNROLL – Gross Puzzle (2024, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal) Somewhere on the Internet I recently read that Druknroll’s music can be compared to a math lesson. Yes, I will answer this, but only if the teacher bursts into the classroom with an impressive axe in one hand and a primitive club in the other and starts smashing everything around in honor of Euclid and Thales. Truly, one of the main advantages of this wonderful Russian group has always been the ability to combine aggressive and uncompromising heaviness, crazy drive and an inventive and extraordinary approach to compositional and instrumental components. Moreover, with each new album, Druknroll becomes more and more interesting, and their songs learn new facets and dimensions of human thought. The relatively fresh release “Gross Puzzle” is no exception – it is an obvious indicator that the heavy genre is still developing and growing, despite frequent opposing opinions.
We have already listened to some songs from the album as part of the “3.14” EP, so I will not focus on them too much, but will simply refer you to the corresponding review. “Gross Puzzle” has enough new material, which is in no way inferior to “Retrogradation Of Fate” or “Programmed To Fail”.
Let me remind you that Druknroll play an extremely unusual mix of classic thrash, heavy groove metal and thoughtful melodic death with a generous portion of progressive instrumental spices. It turns out extremely original and extraordinary, and if you consider that Druknroll also does not skimp on vocals and pleases the listener with either thick-fleshed growl or impressive clean vocals, then the final result exceeds all possible expectations.
Druknroll’s inventive approach is already visible on the album’s opening track “Bots”, which amazes the imagination with a sophisticated genre mix and an improvisational-instrumental approach. At the same time, I ask you to consider that this is the most straightforward and predictable number on the album – can you imagine what awaits you next? And you will find three vocalists, six lead guitarists and Druknroll himself (this is the name of both the group and the nickname of its leader), who is responsible for the guitar, bass and keyboards. Wow.
“Skeptical Mind” is very good and shows us simply the highest level of Druknroll’s progressive thought. Technical thrash riffs evoke thoughts of Annihilator’s early work and Coroner’s experimental moments, and extreme interludes do not let the listener relax for a moment. At the same time, the dynamics are simply fantastic – the feeling is as if you are setting off on a journey on a burning locomotive without any brakes – and it seems that the body is groaning from the animal fear of death, but the mind enjoys the injection of adrenaline and literally demands: more! “My Spiteful Clone” can only be compared to a roller coaster with unpredictable turns, bends and loops. And everything starts relatively calmly – with an acoustic prelude, which, on the one hand, relaxes and dissipates attention, but, on the other hand, slowly and mercilessly builds up the atmosphere and prepares the listener for an explosion of madness. The rhythm section and reinforced concrete guitar riffs come into play, and the listener is sent straight to … well, you know where. Here, by the way, I would especially like to note the vocal parts, which please with their diversity and expressiveness.
“Dull Pain” is also good, where the intensity of madness reaches the boiling point, and the instrumental narrative finally breaks loose and beats the listeners with slaps, kicks and blows. But either I’m a masochist, or it was intended that way, because I want more and more. The album also has the excellent “Höllenwald”, where the main emphasis is on melody, and Druknroll begin to sound like the glorious representatives of the Swedish melodic death scene.
I talk about this in every review of each new Druknroll album, but I am sincerely surprised that the musicians do not stop developing and find new ways of self-expression. “Gross Puzzle” is a real mind-blower and simply a magnificent mix of primal anger, unyielding heaviness and insanely professorial experimentalism. I am more than sure that this album will be appreciated by both fans of more straightforward music and admirers of the world of progressive. Certainly, one of the best releases of the domestic heavy scene of the past year, which deserves much more attention from the public.
Nikolay Chuvikov
https://dzen.ru/a/Z6suwsNWwlP0gEMA
ONMUSICSTAGE
Saratov Jesuit brainwashers continue their collaboration with Dark East Productions and, in collaboration with the label, present their eighth full-length album, the essence of which can be understood by the title. “Gross Puzzle” is the quintessence of those same horror puzzles that drunenrolls have always been famous for, and now they have brought this art of putting together mental pictures from disparate phobias and neuroses to a new and even more impressive level. As they say, if you torture yourself for a very long time in one direction, then sooner or later, it simply must become, if not a masterpiece, then something acceptable for use. “If you torture yourself for a long time, something will come of it.” The same emotionally unstable prog-thrash-death that DRUKNROOLL have been focusing on for a long time awaits us on “Gross Puzzle”, and the difference in this case is only in their growing professionalism, as well as in the concentration and the strength of the authors’ passion for all these actions. They burn and blaze, they tremble with delight and anticipation, and this feverish impatience, of course, is transmitted to the listener. The attentive eye of those who have already heard the recent DRUKNROLL EP “3,14” will easily notice familiar titles from that mini-album in the tracklist of their fresh giant disc, and the current album was conceived as an extended version of their recent mathematical EP-frenzy. The Saratov guys finished it, thought up many interesting nuances and then put a bunch of the resulting fragments together to form a harmonious and impressive puzzle, which, without thinking twice, they called a “gross puzzle”. And “Gross Puzzle” seems to mark a new era in the development of DRUKNROLL, who have completely gone crazy and reached a new level of mental paradoxes. When you listen to this album, you get the total feeling that you are completely stuck in the Looking Glass, sitting at a table with the Hatter and his whole cheerful company, and in addition to tea, buns, bagels and other unusually tasty tea delicacies, bizarre puzzles are laid out in front of you, in the details of which everyone recognizes their secret phobias and innermost nightmares. You have an infinite and completely unlimited time limit to solve these bizarre puzzles, and all this happens to rhythmic, intricate and very technical music in the best traditions of prog-trash, which may remind someone of classic films like “Cube”. For fans of the theme of mind games and cheerful, but not devoid of some harshness, madness “Gross Puzzle” is not an album, but simply a dream come true and a pot of rich borscht, promising the same rich gastronomic orgasm! The authors crossed the technogenic fantasies of Voivod with the pressure of Soilwork and the technicality of the late Coroner, and as a result they issued a simply dizzying release, teeming with unexpected turns and massive sound fantasies. The crushing barrel organ “Bots” opens the album with jagged riffs and a kaleidoscope of pure vocal melodies, the already familiar to many “Pandora’s Box” makes everything chopped even more chopped, and everything chaotic even more chaotic, but only for all this to bloom again with poisonous flowers of ballad phantasmagoria in the dominating and sweeping-symphonic “Retrogradation Of Fate”. Echoes of the late Annihilator are heard in “Sceptical Mind”, and in “Höllenwald” and “Programmed To Fail” someone will remember the best of the technogenic feats of Fear Factory. But “My Spiteful Clone” simply surprised me. It’s as if Ray Charles (or Johnny Cash?) suddenly started humming his hits to the accompaniment of a psychedelic thrash band, but it turned out strange, but still very beautiful and cool. Whatever you say, the level of druknrolls is growing by leaps and bounds, and now, in addition to focusing on pure technicality, they have noticeably advanced in songwriting.
Particularly noticeable is the harmony in the composition of juicy tracks and the virtuoso juggling of acquired skills in the contrasting, psychedelic-anxious “Dull Pain”, but “I’ll be In Black” is no longer just VoiVod, but also in some places almost Alice In Chains. DRUKNROLL are increasingly limiting themselves in terms of the choice of means and styles for expressing their thoughts, and at times it turns out not just strange, but almost unbelievable, but still interesting and pleasant. A solid tracklist of ten full-fledged tracks, the parade of which ends with the triumphal counting rhyme “3.14”, and a considerable duration of this whole action gives a lot of scope for imagination and is guaranteed to give you all the opportunities to turn around to the fullest, diving into the paradoxes of mental deviations, animated on their disc by the participants of DRUKNROLL. The orchestra of crazy mechanics playing psychiatrists, know to themselves will play and let off steam from ears and other holes, and if you wanted a tough, full of dissonances and various kinds of irregularities, but still verified, harmonious and mathematically impeccable madness, “Gross Puzzle” is it and exactly that. No worse than the same Voivod and Coroner, and the general style is as signature and confident as that of the titans of the direction in their best years. I give it 10 out of 10, and for fans of such things this is a real masterpiece and a monumental borscht orgasm (or orgasmic borscht – from the change of places of the terms, the value of the number pi and the coordinates of the g-point, you know, do not change).
10/10
Diana Tepes
https://onmusicstage.com/view/8897#like
ASTARTA
The Saratov monsters of heaviness and mental puzzles are back with their eighth full-length album, and it’s once again a jaw-dropping hell in their signature style at the junction of thrash, death, prog, groove, mat metal and modern metal, which the authors themselves (apparently having lost hope of finding a more precise and unambiguous definition) directly call a rough and tough puzzle. And yes, here we really have everything that we loved so much, for example, the techno-trash charades of Coroner with their “Mental Vortex” and “Grin”, but heavier, more massive, tougher and with a greater emphasis on groove and diverse musical prog decay. And it all starts in the album opener “Bots” as a real, slightly heavier and groove-spiced techno-trash with a pumping rhythm, episodic “breaks in power lines” and meaningful fills that techno-thrashers love. The rudeness of the vocals and the manner of performance have always been a characteristic feature of this team, and now all these harsh and technically skidding ingredients also rule the roost at Druknroll in all their atonal and schizophrenic beauty. The musicians have settled in under the wing of Dark East Productions, and now confidently direct their previous ideas to new horizons, not limiting themselves in anything. The bass now and then juts forward, ahead of other instruments, the drums pour out like crazy nightingales of the underworld, and the guitars chop up the sound like a giant mixer of inevitability, and all this is already present in the album opener with its disturbing samples and disharmonious overtones. Druknroll are heavy and assertive, technical and furiously meticulous to the smallest detail, and it is precisely because of these very details that the album ultimately seems so oppressive and monumental, and ultimately so chic and practically unattainable. Here, everything is verified to the smallest detail, and all the chaos is strictly organized and orderly laid out on the shelves. “Pandora’s Box” continues to bend the same line in the same style of Annihilator, Sacrosanct, Slayer and Coroner passed through the meat grinder of mat metal, but the pace of the presentation of mental disorders in this case is even slower, which, combined with the Slayer-like intensity of the vocal tracks, creates a very interesting and paradoxical impression. Once again we are pleased with the elastic and merciless bass and psychotherapeutic riffs, and they are echoed in the coda of this piece by some otherworldly choirs of crazy ghosts now complaining about their unenviable fate.
“Retrogradation Of Fate” slows down the tempo even more and tries to add stellar scatterings of lyricism to all this sentimental reflection, “Sceptical Mind”, without a doubt, throws something in the spirit of Slayer from the times of “Divine Intervention” into its brew of chaotic groove-modern-mat-metal, and unexpectedly the German-language track “Höllenwald” does the same thing, but with even greater frenzy, in which this time something from the space aliens VoiVod appears, and even the voices of the alien invaders sound very authentic, reliable and convincing.
There is even more total loneliness in the contrasting, even frightening with these burning contrasts “Dull Pain”, but “I’ll Be In Black” on the contrary increases the tempo to the maximum. Probably, if Coroner in the 90s had followed the path of Overkill and hit the groove metal, they could have got something similar, but history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, and today we have “Gross Puzzle” from Druknroll, which is better not to compare with anyone or anything, but just listen, enjoy and watch how they “clone” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” in “My Spiteful Clone”, rush into long wanderings through the deserts of mental restlessness in “Programmed To Fail”, and then finish with the “3.14” EP, already familiar to all interested people. Druknroll demonstrate stability, raising the flag of loyalty to their broken style high above their heads, and their long-awaited longplay will definitely please all fans of technical noise of this kind. The further into the forest, the more meaningful and melodic their music becomes, the deeper they dig into the depths of the origin of mental fractures, and along the way they do not forget to explore musical dissonances. “Gross Puzzle” is ultimately perceived as such a study, and its academic seriousness evokes undoubted respect, although it is still worth recommending this to lovers of thrash of the 90s and 00s, not to the eighties – our today’s heroes clearly do not suffer from nostalgia, here is something else.
Alexey “Astarte Eel” Irineev
https://astartaview.ru/reczenziya-na-albom-gruppy-druknroll-gross-puzzle/
DARK CITY №137-2025
Saratov band Druknroll has long expanded the musical boundaries of their work. Taking thrash/death metal as a basis, they fill it with modern and progressive elements. Some component dominates on one album (or in several compositions on different albums), some are completely eliminated, sending the unnecessary sound to the trash. But all this can now be called briefly and succinctly – Druknroll Music. The new album is called ‘The Great Puzzle’ and the title corresponds to its message. We have not heard more twisted and at the same time oppressive music for a long time. The modern vocals that Druknroll loves so much now bite into the ears worse than noise motives, and the guitars sometimes acquire an almost industrial sound. Now modern death with small thrash vignettes reigns here. Choral interludes and almost neoclassical interludes finish it all off, sending the listener into the jaws of madness in contrast.
The concept is also to some extent dedicated to madness. Crazy streets where it is impossible to hide and be alone. Crowds of fake programs and unnecessary people. A person who, in madness, puts himself in the place of God (unless, of course, it is artificial intelligence).
The Saratovites have created a truly complex puzzle. And it is not so easy to solve.
Menschenmaterial
ROCKCOR № 4-2025
Saratov monsters of heaviness and mental puzzles are back with their eighth full-length album, and it’s once again a teeth-grinding hell in their signature style at the junction of thrash, death, prog, groove, mat-metal and modern-metal, which the authors themselves directly call a rough puzzle. Here, everything is really present for which we loved the techno-thrash charades of Coroner, but heavier, more massive, harsher and with a greater emphasis on the groove and diverse musical prog-decay. And everything starts as the most real, slightly heavier and groove-seasoned techno-thrash with a pumping rhythm, episodic “breaks in power lines” and meaningful fills that techno-thrashers love. The roughness of the vocals and the manner of performance have always been a characteristic feature of this team, and now all these harsh and technically skidding ingredients also rule the roost at Druknroll in all their atonal and schizophrenic glory. They demonstrate stability, raising high above their heads the flag of loyalty to their broken style, and their long-awaited longplay will definitely please all lovers of technical noise of this kind. The further into the forest, the more meaningful and melodic their music becomes, the deeper they dig into the depths of the origin of mental fractures, and along the way they do not forget to explore musical dissonances. “Gross Puzzle” is ultimately perceived as such a study, and its academic seriousness evokes undoubted respect, although it is still worth recommending this to lovers of thrash of the 90s and 00s, not to the eighties – our today’s heroes clearly do not suffer from nostalgia, here, after all, something else. 5/5
Alexey “Astarte Eel” Irineev
HEAVYMUSIC
So, friends, today we have on our agenda an amazing project from Saratov with a long history – Druknroll and its eighth full-length album – “Gross Puzzle”.
Yes, yes, those who are friends with English, understood that this is “Grubaya Golovolomka”. The album was released in 2024, completely in English. Well, metal lovers, are you ready to dive into real trash?! Then let’s go listen to and analyze the new album of the musicians.
Let’s start with the cover. In principle, it fits the title very harmoniously, as we already wrote above – Gross Puzzle (“Grubaya Golovolomka”).
It is a human face in a dripping form, either a ghost, or a drowned man, or a person with a severe form of schizophrenia that appears before us. What is in his head, the answer will be in the tracks of the album themselves. And the color scheme of the cover is very much in theme – black and blue. We are breaking stereotypes, this is not “red on black” by the group Alisa.
And now let’s move on to the music itself. The album includes 10 tracks – this is not a small amount. You can listen and listen to it. Which is what we will do now. The first track Bots stuns the listener, like shooting from a machine gun. It is the first composition that gives rise to the entire album. And accordingly, you can understand the approximate nature of further actions from it. The growling in the compositions is simply off the scale, the guitar riffs are chilling. In general, the following tracks sound in about the same rhythm. By the way, this is a real return 15 years ago to the wild slam at a concert and stage diving. The vocalist gets the crowd going so much. That’s the impression I got.
Sometimes you get the feeling that you are in a cemetery of the sinister dead.
The song Retrogradation of Fate reminded me of Rammstein in the verses, but again, we will repeat ourselves only in the verses.
What distinguishes this album is the long, frightening introductions to each track, just before we hear the vocalist’s voice. The composition Höllenwald was especially memorable for this. And the bell beating in the background reminded me of the ringing of a regular Russian triangle, only it was all like in a horror movie, accompanied by a choir of voices.
In general, the introductions to the songs are a separate art form in this album. Take the track My spiteful clone for example. You are transported back several decades, where in some old kitchen they are looking for a wave on a vintage radio and voila – they find it, we hear the first chords and the growling of DRUKNROLL.
On the track I’ll be in black you seem to get into a meat grinder, where you are being ground hard and fast, and most importantly you do not resist this slaughter, you turn into a certain mixture that the musicians carry with them throughout the track. Well, in the last track I remember the cocktail mix of instruments and a minimum of vocals. The conclusion is this – the album can be listened to anywhere and in any state, the main thing is that you should be imbued with and understand this genre – trash / death metal.
10/10
Alena FleurFox
http://www.heavymusic.ru/review/1656/druknroll-gross-puzzle/