The Duel Tour 2026: Jinjer, Entheos, Crystal Lake

Phantom Light Media
4 days ago
5 min read

It’s no secret that being a musician isn’t easy. There’s finances and logistics to consider, personal fortitude to take into account, and so many other factors that I couldn’t even begin to think of or name. But very few bands have shown the courage and resilience in the face of sheer adversity like Jinjer, the prog-metal darlings from Ukraine who recently visited Portland for the first time in nearly four full years. Despite a full-scale war of attrition being waged in their home country, they’ve just released the excellent new album Duel and were able to return to the United States for a headlining tour to promote it, following their last North American run with Trivium. With Crystal Lake and Entheos in tow, The Duel Tour stormed the Crystal Ballroom on July 7th for one of the most emotive shows I’ve witnessed yet, and one that I can truly say was an honor to cover for PLM.

Japan’s Crystal Lake were up first for the evening and I was very curious to see what they would bring given the recent news that their latest vocalist had stepped away just four months before this tour. The band’s answer was to bring a few different guest singers for each leg of the tour, and our show would see the group fronted by none other than Travis Worland of Enterprise Earth, a truly prolific vocalist who’s really been making a name for himself recently. Their set was short but punchy and featured tracks from the band’s latest effort, The Weight of Sound, that have been making regular appearances on their live sets as of late to promote the release. The last time I saw Crystal Lake was in 2024 with SIM at the Hawthorne Theater, and they haven’t slipped one bit on their live energy, even if I do mourn the absence of more Helix and The Sign-era tracks onstage. Travis really impressed me as someone who is aware of but hasn’t seen Enterprise Earth live before - he joined the tour for just the final week and yet he sounded like he’d been performing this material all his life. Our early evening crowd was also unexpectedly rowdy, with crowdsurfers appearing as early as the third song of the set (“Neversleep”) and a large mosh pit spawning for final legendary closing track “Apollo.” I sincerely hope that Crystal Lake are able to settle their tumultuous lineup issues and return to the US for a full-length headlining run at some point in the future. They have amazing live potential and a fantastic category to draw from that now includes The Weight of Sound, and I feel like they deserve much more than a 35-minute opening slot in front of North American audiences.

Entheos were the main support for this tour, and this was one set that I was extremely excited for since I missed their headlining show at Dante’s last winter. Over the past two years, they’ve been getting bigger and bigger on the backs of tours with the likes of Lorna Shore, Born of Osiris, and Unearth. They also are gearing up to release a new album in October that I fully expect to lift them to even higher heights based on the reception that they received at this show. Vocalist Chaney Crabb commanded the stage from the very first note of “All for Nothing” in one of the most stellar performances I have ever seen in the prog-death genre, and that’s coming from someone who’s seen Rivers of Nihil four times now. Ten songs just didn’t feel like enough time for the riff-driven antics of dual guitarists Michael Stancel and Scott Carstairs to shine, yet shine they did across selections from both currently-existing Entheos albums. One of the brighter moments was seeing Navene Koperweis absolutely dominate his drum kit following a broken ankle from the fall headlining tour - if it was still bothering him, there was no way you could tell from the precision and power he displayed. Needless to say, the crowd devoured every bit of Entheos’s stage energy and returned it in equal form. I counted somewhere between fifteen and twenty crowd surfers for the back half of the set alone, along with plenty of enthusiastic moshing and singalongs. Having gone into this show blind to everything Entheos-related but aware of their reputation, my expectations were absolutely shattered. If anything, that set made me more upset that I’d missed their headline date here. Next time Entheos comes to Portland, you can be certain I’ll be there as well, and I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t seen them before to make every effort to do so.

At long last, it was time for Jinjer to take the stage. The towering screen behind the drum kit burst to life in a hail of digital bloodstains as the intro to Duel’s title track (which, ironically, closes the album) rang out to raucous cheers. As the Ukrainians made their stage entrance, the cheers somehow got even louder than before - and fittingly so, for a band so near universally respected. They wasted no time tearing through Duel, Green Serpent, and Fast Draw from the new album, remaining characteristically composed onstage amid a deluge of crowd surfers and strikingly detailed projections from their lighting team. I was absolutely in awe of the surgical precision required by instrumentalists Roman Ibramkhalilov (guitar), Eugene Abdukhanov (bass), and Vladislav Ulasevich (drums) to deliver on the complex rhythmic patterns and blistering breakdowns that remain hallmarks of Jinjer’s live sound. Tatiana, of course, hit every note flawlessly and with perfect composure. Their unique combination of djent, groove metal, and jazz-inspired flair laid waste to the Crystal for 16 songs across five albums and 85 minutes. Duel was of course highly represented, but some deeper cuts and fan classics made well-received appearances such as Judgement (&Punishment) from Macro and Disclosure! from Wallflowers. And yes, they did play Pisces, and yes it was incredible live. One of my personal favorites, though, was hands-down the haunting tones of I Speak Astronomy, placed towards the end of the set and visualized through a stunning night sky on the display board. It’s been described by Tatiana herself as a love song to a soulmate from a previous life, but in the context of the modern world it almost felt like a ballad to her life before the war began, and it somehow made the song even more heartbreaking. The set closed with a thunderous encore of Sit Stay Roll Over during which I spotted at least four Ukrainian flags being waved from the audience, and which were definitely noticed by the band as they made their grand exit. The energy in the room had been infectiously positive all night, turning what could have been an ordinary everyday concert into a celebration of art and resilience through true tragedy as seen through the lens of a metal band. I think that Jinjer brings an extremely unique sense of awareness and purpose to their live shows because they want to show that their people are not being cowed by the events of the past, and instead are choosing to evolve with the times and master their craft to overcome said past. It took me five long years to see them live, but the show was well worth the wait, and I’ll be sure to catch them again whenever I next have the chance.