Shortparis release ‘Iliada,’ their first album since singer Nikolai Komyagin’s death

The Russian band Shortparis released the album “Iliada” (“Iliad”) on October 9. It is their first record since vocalist Nikolai Komyagin died suddenly in February 2026. Writing for Meduza, music critic Artyom Makarsky argues that the album's sound is unusual for the band, while its lyrics are probably the most candid in its catalog.

A different sound

Makarsky notes that posthumous albums in Russian are rare, and that in rock they usually reveal another side of the artist. Shortparis also change their style: acoustic keyboards increasingly replace synthesizers, horns appear, and the band moves toward epic rock. In the critic's view, only those who have not followed the band since keyboardist Alexander Galyanov left in 2023 will be truly surprised. Only “Gvozd” and “Zanovo” recall the old Shortparis sound.

The band released nothing in 2024 and may already have been working on the album then. After Komyagin's death, drummer Danila Kholodkov told the magazine Pravila Zhizni in the summer that nobody was even trying to think about new releases.

Themes

Makarsky identifies three main themes: death and the war that comes with it, silence, and doubt. The songs feature soldiers' coffins, propaganda and an allegorical reference to Ukraine. The narrator keeps recalling that he stayed silent and questions whether he has been singing about the right things. The critic argues that war demands an answer, so “Iliada” became the band's clearest album, even though its lyrics remain full of contradictions.

Unfinished quality

The album appears unfinished: some tracks are titled “Pervaya” (“First”), “Shestaya” (“Sixth”) and “Sedmaya” (“Seventh”), and in places the words are unintelligible, sounding like scratch vocals. Makarsky considers this the album's greatest strength, because the songs now feel more intimate.

The album's epigraph quotes Nikolai Chernyshevsky's novel “What Is to Be Done?” about the song “Ça ira,” whose words are full of hope. Komyagin read that text onstage in 2023.