| CD REVIEW Kypck |
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Band : Kypck If the name of this band seems somewhat weird to you, don't worry...as it's written in Russian syrillic letters! In our alphabet, the word would say "Kursk", a name which became international news when the nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk sank in the Barents Sea in the year 2000, and the Russians' decline of any offered help from several nations (including the US) led to the tragic death of all 118 occupants. Kursk also happens to be a Russian city which had its first records in 1032, and joined the centralized Russian state in 1508. The town first became world news when the Germans invaded Russia in 1943 and launched the largest tank attack in history in what would later become known as "The Battle Of Kursk". Finally, Kursk is also the new Finland based band of former Sentenced guitarist S.S. Lopakka, who formed the band only last year, completing the line-up with singer E. Seppänen, bassist J.T. Ylä-Rautio, and drummer K.H.M. Hiilesmaa (also known as producer of Apocalyptica, HIM, Lordi, Moonspell, Sentenced, Sepultura and many more). With Kursk, he aims to play a somewhat peculiar kind of Doomy and depressive music which he calls "Doomsday Metal" (a down-paced Metal with a prominent role for àll instruments, with the drummer occasionally bringing additional percussion in stead of actual drumming, and where the bass occasionally comes to the fore in a very distorted mode to emulate the sound of a rhythm guitar while the guitarist adds other little oddities to the whole), and which apparently (please forgive and correct me when I'm wrong) takes several gloomy passages in Russian history as lyrical background. The Russian obsession goes even further that that, because all lyrics are brought in that language! Obviously, anyone not fluent in that language is not going to understand a lot, but that, along with the wacky vocal style (which favours very good pronounciation with a somewhat spoken word quality, above soaring melodic singing) works to make the overall atmosphere even that much gloomier, especially so when the lead singer is backed by that deep basso profundo voice (or that almost choral bass)! The band has however been friendly enough to give a translation of the song titles, and in a way I suspect "Ocherednye" (translated as "The Usual") to be about the K-141 disaster (or why else would the band use those sonar sounds -also used in album opening instrumental "Gidrolokator" akà "Depth Finder" – in the song?) The album was first released through Finnish label UHO Production in March, and entered the Finnish Top40 charts at #11. To have a sneak preview of the band's material, surf to myspace.com/kypck, where the band posted the songs "Stalingrad" (definitely one of the most melodic, and possibly "fastest", tracks on the album) and the 7:49 album closing song "Demon". Find a video for the weird "1917" at the band's own website kypck-doom.com (I fail to understand what that date has to do with the video's story – a guys having killed his girlfriend/ wife being picked up by clearly "modern" Russian police). End conclusion: I'm afraid even head-strong Doom Metal lovers are goona find this album difficult enough to get into. Of course, Russian music lovers, and people living within the influence sphere of the Russian language will have a field day...always providing they like their music as doomy and depressive as this, of course! Meanwhile Finnish based Amfisound Guitars have hand-crafted a baritone guitar for Lopakka in the shape of an AK-47 Kalashnikov gun (specifications for the "Lopashnikov" can be found through a link at the blog section on MySpace). As for my personal appreciation, I have to say that the band's specific vocal style and use of Russian as language puts me off a little, in spite of my usual love for "exotic" elements in music, and my love for Doom in general! 90/100 Tony. |