The Heavy Metal World Tour is a companion piece to a weekly segment on The Metal Dad Radio Show. Each week we play a block of bands from a specific location from around the world, picked entirely at random. This week: St. Petersburg, Russia
Russia’s history of heavy metal exports is probably richer than even the average metal fan may know. But even the most savvy metal fan would rightfully think to focus their search of Russia’s capitol city, Moscow, before all others. We wound up about 720 km to the northwest in Russia’s second most populous city, St. Petersburg. With a population well over five million people, it should be no surprise that this historic city nestled on the Baltic Sea is rife with metal bands. Below are three of our favorite, currently active bands from St. Petersburg.
Chaosbringer
There is no mincing words here: pretty much everything about Chaosbringer screams Bolt Thrower worship. From the trudging, thundering riffs right down to the album artwork, these guys are doing their best to resurrect one of the greatest metal bands of all-time. This is definitely not a knock on these guys. We all have our heroes, and Chaosbringer has enough talent and originality to make it work. Their newest album, 2017’s Turn Into Ruins, is an absolutely dominant experience, and if I had heard it about six months sooner there’s a good chance it would have wound up on my year-end list.
https://chaosbringer.bandcamp.com/album/turn-into-ruins
Show Me A Dinosaur
This is one band which has proven the whole “blackgaze” thing has truly become a global phenomenon. Mixing chaotic drumming, tortured screams, and enough tremolo-picking to melt the corpse paint right off your face with atmospheric, and often ethereal passages, Show Me A Dinosaur are seemingly taking the harsh Russian winters and turning them into a sonic experience. Call it post-metal, post-black metal, blackgaze, atmospheric black metal, or even “hipster” black metal, it doesn’t really matter. Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, this is a band whose music is truly built on harrowing atmosphere and a foundation of classic second wave black metal. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates black metal’s more experimental side. Now if we could just do something about that band name… (Note: Still not the silliest band name ever as We Butter The Bread With Butter still wears that crown.) The killer track we played from these guys came off of their stellar 2016, self-titled album.
https://showmeadinosaur.bandcamp.com/album/show-me-a-dinosaur
Blazing Rust
Possibly no band in the St. Petersburg scene does as well in capturing past metal glories as Blazing Rust. With a constant nod to various hard rock elements, Blazing Rust take classic heavy metal and run it through the time machine we all wish actually existed. Their 2017 full-length, Armed To Exist, is a ripper of a record and highly recommended for fans of such classic acts as Judas Priest, Dio, Saxon, and early Riot.
https://blazingrust.bandcamp.com/album/armed-to-exist
The Metal Dad 