Space of Variations are a Ukrainian modern metalcore band who build their songs around contrast, djent weight, electronic pressure, and hooks that are meant to land harder in a room than on headphones. Their third album Poisoned Art arrives on February 13, 2026 via Napalm Records, with 12 tracks and a pre-release run already anchored by videos for songs Tribe and Halo.
The Band’s story has two starts. Guitarist Alex Zatserkovny traces the first version back to 2009, then a shutdown, and a second launch in 2015. That relaunch is the real pivot, the name switches to English, the lyrics switch to English, and the band begins aiming at a wider European and US audiences rather than staying local.
The biggest change behind Poisoned Art is authorship. Earlier releases go through an outside ear, with the band sending near-finished demos for mixing. This time Alex takes the mix himself, how riffs are written, how guitar tone is designed, how drums sit, and how transitions and effects get built into the arrangement instead of sprinkled on later.
Dima Kozhuhar hears the evolution as expansion. Since Mind Darknet, more electronics move into the center, more beat experiments, more texture play, and more clean vocals from him than before. At the same time Alex pushes the guitars into a new low-feeling register without simply tuning down, leaning on octave processing to make some tracks hit heavier than the band’s earlier material.
Their writing method is practical and remote. Alex and bassist Anton Kasatkin build a backlog of drafts, post them into a private Telegram channel, then pick favorite parts and stitch them into full songs. Alex assembles and edits in one project, then the band meet to lock structure and drum decisions. Dima’s side of the process is the reality of making an album under unstable conditions, DIY vocal setups that literally in a closet surrounded by clothes.
Lyrically, the band avoid calling Poisoned Art a concept album. Dima says the 12 songs do not form one clean narrative, but they connect through recurring questions and a shared headspace, with room left open for the listener. The title lands late, pulled from a line in a song the band finish at the end of the process, and once it appears it suddenly frames the whole record. For Dima the phrase points straight at the years behind it. ”This trauma is like a poison”, he says, tying the album’s atmosphere to what the band carry from the war and the personal heaviness around it.
After release, the plan is touring. Poisoned Art is the document of a hard period, but the year 2026 is framed in simple terms, more singles, more videos, and the band back on the road.
Space Of Variations interview 10.12.2025
Alex Zatserkovny & Dima Kozhuhar
Producer: Janne Vuorela
https://www.instagram.com/spaceofvariations_band/
WinAudioClean: https://github.com/PikkuJanne/WinAudioClean
Picture: Daria Kasatkina / Space Of Variations
