I first wrote about Saint Petersburg, Russia's Stubborn back in 2015 after they contacted me about their Discontent Hostility Coarseness EP, and had been hoping to hear more for some time, so I was beyond psyched when they hit me up a while back about their debut full-length—and first new material in four years—Life Out of Balance. As expected, this is more sludgy, brutishly groove-soaked metalcore delivered with crushing production and drawing from a pool of influences that results in a sound akin to an endless series of classic Hatebreed breakdowns meets Crowbar with a dash of mid-'90s Sepultura. Toss in a smidge of bitter, morose dissonance, and this shit hits the mark spot-on.
To my great dismay, I just learned over the weekend that Stubborn's vocalist, Serega Baranov, passed away about a week ago. This comes as quite a shock, as I was just messaging with him last month because I've been trying to work on a more substantial interview/feature about Stubborn and this album, being such a fan of their work. Who knows if the band will continue on after such a tragic turn of events, but—now more than ever—this music very much deserves to be heard, perhaps acting as a memorial extension of Serega's spirit.
Life Out of Balance and The First 10 Years in the Void (a 16-track collection of early recordings) both remain available as name your price downloads through Bandcamp (check Spotify, too), and I encourage you to give them a listen.
R.I.P., Serega...
