Ilenkus

Ilenkus are a Galway-based five-piece DIY post-metal and hardcore group active since 2010. They form in Galway and release their first demo the same year, with three home-recorded songs. One of those songs later appears on the band’s debut LP.

Early releases

Their debut album, Rule By Thieves, is self-recorded and self-funded and comes out in 2011. It later draws attention from Savour Your Scene Records and receives positive critical response, including a description from Terrorizer Magazine as “expansive and well written”.

In 2012 the group releases the single Ram and begins touring outside Ireland. The following year they start writing a follow-up to Rule By Thieves.

Later work and touring

Ilenkus continue to tour in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. Their second LP, The Crossing, is released independently in 2014 and is mixed and mastered by Chris Common, whose credits include These Arms Are Snakes, Chelsea Wolfe and Pelican.

The video for Over The Fire, Under The Smoke features vocalist Chris Brennan performing the song a cappella on a busy shopping street and attracts more than 30,000 views in under a week.

Recognition and associations

The band is featured in an episode of Fractured, a documentary series about the Irish underground metal and extreme music scene. Their music is described by press outlets as “a scorching batch of tracks that places creativity and energy at its core”, “starkly intense passages of grinding rage”, and “a beautiful wall of sound marked by excellent guitar riffs, outstanding drumming and great vocals”.

Over the years, Ilenkus share bills with Norma Jean, Mutoid Man, The Ocean, Coilguns, Rolo Tomassi, The Afternoon Gentlemen, 7.5 Tonnes of Beard, The Atrocity Exhibit and Employed To Serve. Their sound is compared with Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Cult of Luna and Botch.