JINJER is a Ukrainian metal band founded in 2009. The musicians write songs in English, actively tour abroad, and in 2016 signed a contract with the Austrian company Napalm Records. According to the magazine Blunt, since 2012, the group has gathered “a legion of followers all over the world.”
In August 2021, the band released their latest album—Wallflowers, a word often used to describe people who have difficulty fitting in society. Wallflowers are known for standing near the wall, rather than dancing in the center of the room at the prom, for example. With their creative work, the musicians have tried to express the downsides of being a “wallflower.”
One of the songs on the record, “Sleep Of The Righteous,” was written by vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk “in the fires of a personal battle with sleep paralysis.” The singer has said about the song’s narrator, “this person is suffering from sleep paralysis and constantly exhausted, having no rest. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this disorder, sleeping paralysis – It’s a terror.”
The song begins with a “rush of fear” before going to bed. It’s hard to breathe, and then something appears out of the darkness. “My body burns in its presence as I softly sink into the dream. The door has opened, I can’t resist,” the words sound. The guest looks like a black shadow with a wide grin and a snake’s tail, and the narrator feels two palms on her back. Thankfully, after a while, the minutes that seemed like a surreal hell end with liberation.
Like the album as a whole, the song is part of a general message about the deep problems of introverts. Let us add that sleep paralysis is one of the phase states, which also includes lucid dreams, out-of-body and near-death experiences, etc.
What do your experiences of sleep paralysis look like, if you’ve had any?
The song is available on YouTube.
