KYPCK - Ниже
2010 / Doom metal
1. Гифарус (Gifarus)
2. После (After)
3. Аллея Сталина (The Alley of Stalin)
4. Чужой (Stranger)
5. Фелица (Felitsa)
6. Разрыв (Rupture)
7. Бурлаки на Волге (Burlaks on the Volga)
8. Бардак (Brothel)
9. Товарищам (Comrades)
10. Вальс смерти (Death Waltz)
Orostider: Курск have been around for a while now and if someone mentions Russian doom or sludge metal, Курск are usually brought to the conversation. The twist is, they're Finnish and dedicate the project to Soviet Union themed grief filled doom. Their style isn't exactly comparable to traditional doom metal. Some of the people speak of them as a sludge/doom artist, but as the hardcore elements are scarce, they shouldn't be categorized as sludge.
'Ниже' was released in 2011 and showed a bit faster side of Курск. Their first album, 'Черно', managed to keep the overall tempo rather slow. When I first heard 'Ниже' in 2011 I instantly noticed it being a bit more hectic. Not a bad thing at all, because the band manages to keep the despair sounding atmosphere throughout the whole album. All of the Курск albums require several spins before they really open up. Some people may find the stress on the Russian language and spelling. Despite not being a native speaker, Seppänen manages to perform solid vocals with tons of emotions.
As I've told people asking how Курск sound: They're the Soviet T-34 of doom metal, while not exactly being doom metal. Each of their elements somehow enhance the utter heaviness while still being tone rich and interesting. The soundscapes are surely similar to traditional doom metal atmospheres, but the thing Курск has is the ability to tie the sound to a certain image. Deserted metro tunnels, Soviet era industrial areas and oppression.
Курск fits for those who do not search and search for doom metal simultaneously. Their albums require patience and are not exactly albums for any occasion.
Favourite tracks: 'После', 'Товарищам', 'Аллея Сталина'
tp5170: It took a couple of spins before I got used to ‘Nizhe’, but now that I am at least slightly familiar with the band’s style I can safely say that it’s a decent album overall. I dig the soviet style used on the album a lot, but can’t help to think that they could have pressed those influences even harder and maybe made the album and its atmosphere more unique and memorable.
Otherwise the album felt like pretty standard doom metal to me and everything seemed to work the way one would expect in this genre, and maybe that’s the thing that bothered me the most with it. Everything is well executed and the composition is surely neat, but I think the album lacks in surprises and the sound ends up being maybe a bit too plain for my taste. It’s as if there were points in the songs that felt like downtime between the actually interesting parts, because the atmosphere was not simply fleshed out well enough in them. But this is of course something that comes down to a personal preference.
In the end I think it’s the soviet influences and theme that makes ‘Nizhe’ rather interesting experience and even if it didn’t exactly match my ideal doom metal it was still easily worth the listen.
'Ниже' was released in 2011 and showed a bit faster side of Курск. Their first album, 'Черно', managed to keep the overall tempo rather slow. When I first heard 'Ниже' in 2011 I instantly noticed it being a bit more hectic. Not a bad thing at all, because the band manages to keep the despair sounding atmosphere throughout the whole album. All of the Курск albums require several spins before they really open up. Some people may find the stress on the Russian language and spelling. Despite not being a native speaker, Seppänen manages to perform solid vocals with tons of emotions.
As I've told people asking how Курск sound: They're the Soviet T-34 of doom metal, while not exactly being doom metal. Each of their elements somehow enhance the utter heaviness while still being tone rich and interesting. The soundscapes are surely similar to traditional doom metal atmospheres, but the thing Курск has is the ability to tie the sound to a certain image. Deserted metro tunnels, Soviet era industrial areas and oppression.
Курск fits for those who do not search and search for doom metal simultaneously. Their albums require patience and are not exactly albums for any occasion.
Favourite tracks: 'После', 'Товарищам', 'Аллея Сталина'
btcarey: A Finnish doom metal project dedicated to Russian war history; with lyrics, track names, and album titles all written in Russian, sounds pretty cool at first glance. Because of this alluring description, and the fact that Finns are know for producing some pretty good Doom, it was no wonder that I was intrigued when I was first told of KYPCK. Unfortunately KYPCK’s “Ниже” really didn’t stand out to me as an exceptional album, which left me feeling really disappointed after all the hype.
“Ниже” isn’t necessarily bad; in fact there were some pretty good moments throughout the album. It just didn’t offer anything I hadn’t already heard from the genre, the vocals, being my least favorite aspect of the record. The cleaner vocals just felt weak and dominated most of the tracks. The harsher vocals were actually quite good and had me wishing the band would have concentrated on them more, leaving the cleans for the calmer moments.
The instrumentation was good but for me the vocals play just as an import role. When it comes to Doom, if you have average vocals, you get an average album.
Favorite Tracks: “Бардак (Brothel)”, “Товарищам (Comrades)”
“Ниже” isn’t necessarily bad; in fact there were some pretty good moments throughout the album. It just didn’t offer anything I hadn’t already heard from the genre, the vocals, being my least favorite aspect of the record. The cleaner vocals just felt weak and dominated most of the tracks. The harsher vocals were actually quite good and had me wishing the band would have concentrated on them more, leaving the cleans for the calmer moments.
The instrumentation was good but for me the vocals play just as an import role. When it comes to Doom, if you have average vocals, you get an average album.
Favorite Tracks: “Бардак (Brothel)”, “Товарищам (Comrades)”
tp5170: It took a couple of spins before I got used to ‘Nizhe’, but now that I am at least slightly familiar with the band’s style I can safely say that it’s a decent album overall. I dig the soviet style used on the album a lot, but can’t help to think that they could have pressed those influences even harder and maybe made the album and its atmosphere more unique and memorable.
Otherwise the album felt like pretty standard doom metal to me and everything seemed to work the way one would expect in this genre, and maybe that’s the thing that bothered me the most with it. Everything is well executed and the composition is surely neat, but I think the album lacks in surprises and the sound ends up being maybe a bit too plain for my taste. It’s as if there were points in the songs that felt like downtime between the actually interesting parts, because the atmosphere was not simply fleshed out well enough in them. But this is of course something that comes down to a personal preference.
In the end I think it’s the soviet influences and theme that makes ‘Nizhe’ rather interesting experience and even if it didn’t exactly match my ideal doom metal it was still easily worth the listen.
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