Photo Credits: Cristian Photography Lopez.
*In this segment we put guitarists and bassists from every metal genre you could imagine in the spotlight!*
Welcome to the first bassist that I will talk to you about today from our brand new segment Kings Of Strings, this will be a weekly segment that I will put out for you guys every friday. It main purpose will be to put the spotlight on a bassist or guitar player from every metal genre you could think of. This week will be all about bassist Eugene Kostyuk!
Eugene Kostyuk from Jinjer will be the first ever bassist that we feature in this segment, he is one of the few bassists that instantly stand out from the others. Before we go more in depth about his techniques and etcetera I will give you a quick run down through the band he plays for. As you might have already guessed by now Eugene Kostyuk is the bassist for the metalcore act with insane groove influences Jinjer. He is the original bassist since the bands formation in 2010. At that moment the band consisted of a bass and guitar player and a drummer, the only thing they were missing was a vocalist and that is where Tatiana Shmailyuk stepped in. Together they have created 1 EP and 2 full length studio albums. The debut EP ‘Inhale, Do Not Breathe’ got them right on track with the song ”Scissors”. The album ‘Cloud Factory’ was their first full length release via record label The Leaders. The latest release ‘King Of Everything’ was released via Napalm Records. This has been a huge deal for the band and I am glad that they finally got a spot on a very strong record label. Hopefully we will hear more from Jinjer very soon!
Jinjer
Right above you see the band Jinjer where Eugene Kostyuk plays bass, but a band wouldn’t be anything without a guitarist, drummer and a killer vocalist. Tatiana Shmailyuk does the vocals for the band, Roman Ibramkhalilov plays the guitar and Vladislav Ulasevish is the drummer of the band. These 4 musicians right here have been acknowledged as the best metal band from Ukraine in 2013, if this doesn’t already tell you how good the band is then I don’t know what will!
Now we will go more in depth about the guitar player, in this case the bass player. It is very hard to pick out a bassist and talk about what makes him special but after seeing the live session of ”Pisces” I was sold by the playing style of Eugene Kostyuk. Before I continue talking about the very techniques he used I suggest you take a close look at the video first!
I know that everything about this video is incredible but today we will set our focus on the bassist. Right when the song starts you will already notice the bass line, it is one of a kind and I could listen to it for hours. The technique he uses is ”Two-hand tapping”. This is basically a style where you immitate piano playing, 1 hand you play the bass line and with the other you take care of the high pithced notes. This technique is very difficult and you won’t be able to pull it of as a starter. You definitely need to have complete control of the bass. This technique is not used that much in metal but when it is used it normally only covers a part of the song and it is kind of in the background. Eugene Kostyuk used this technique through the whole song and it for sure is a main part of the song next to the vocals. When the vocals go softer you will hear it even better, he used this technique perfectly and I already want to hear more from Eugene Kostyuk. Definitely an underrated bassist!
I bet there are some bass players interested in the kind of guitar he plays, well I got the answer right here! He uses 2 guitars, a 5-string customshop by Stas Pokotilo, a complete cope of Fodera Monarch and a 4-string Ibanez SR900. This will do for the first bassist of the new segment Kings Of Strings. I left some songs for you guys at the end of the article, it would be highly appreciated if you guys checked out Jinjer‘s facebook page right below!
