Weekly album: KYPCK - Ниже

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'

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)”

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.

Batushka - Litourgiya

Batushka - Litourgiya

2015 / Black metal, Doom metal

Mysticism has always been part of black metal and the interpretations of it usually differ from each other quite a lot. The mystic elements are not always present of course and on some albums the absence of these elements is one of the reasons they are dull. Also, some artists' views of the arcane element fail to evoke any sort of feelings  and some artists' executions of the element blow you away. Batushka definitely belongs to the latter group.

The identities of Batushka's musicians are still unknown, but that's only a visual element in their mysticism. The music itself, which is fantastic blend of black metal and doom metal elements, feels so mysterious, emotive and piercing. Even though at least some of Batushka's members are Polish, 'Litourgiya' always gives me Soviet era lo-fi vibes. Like a musical equivalent to the gloomy and melancholic Soviet produced cartoons. Somehow I link their production quality and especially their instrument tones to Soviet Union. These are not bad traits at all and in my opinion, for they are one of the largest factors in Batushka's sound's mysticism.

Quite many have praised Batushka's use of orthodox chants and I'll gladly join this crowd. Using orthodox chants isn't a new thing in black metal at all, but the usage is usually only a minor element. Batushka, on the other hand, uses the chants as a major element and it works wonderfully. Massive choir melodies on top of heavy doom and black metal riffs and parts that have focus on the chants show extraordinary songwriting skills and the chants aren't even the only reason for this. 'Litourgiya' is one of the most solid black metal albums I've heard and the album in its entirety has no weak points. When listening to 'Litourgiya' on vinyl, the coherence stays solid until the end. It's actually quite difficult to notice the moment when a track changes and that's actually an excellent thing in this case.

Black metal albums don't usually charm me instantly, but Batushka managed to succeed in that. I would go as far as to say that 'Litourgiya' might easily be the best black metal album released in 2015 and could be, even in 2010's.

Favourite track: 'Yekteníya 3'

Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

2012/ Black metal, Doom metal, Post-black metal

Agalloch, Portland's gift to the world, are usually known for their distinct atmospheric black metal sound which mixes black metal to doom metal and neofolk and so on. They are also known for their EPs that somewhat differ from their main releases. 'Faustian Echoes' is not an exception, even though its sound is closer to Agalloch's full-lengths' than most of their EPs.

'Faustian Echoes' consists of just one 21.5 minute song, which is the longest recorded Agalloch song to date. The lyrics are actually taken directly from Goethe's play Faust's English translation. The music itself ranges from traditional black metal to funeral doomish parts and to the familiar post-black metal-esque sound of Agalloch. The song manages to keep consistency all the way to the end and all the transitions are executed without breaking the flow.

The use of the samples from the 1994 movie 'Faust' are an excellent addition and the presence of the samples is a prime example of a successful sample usage. The song wouldn't be as powerful as it is without the samples, but since the samples aren't that frequent, their absence wouldn't ruin the song. 'Faustian Echoes' is recommended to anyone into atmospheric black metal or post-metal.

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

1993 / Death Metal, Doom Metal

Rippikoulu is as heavy as the hearts of Finns in the dead cold of winter. The demo Musta Seremonia encompasses this harsh, dark environment with it's sledge hammer riffs and melancholic atmosphere. 

While the production quality is a bit subpar, it perfectly fits the rawness of this demo. The guitar tone is one of my favorite aspects. With very dirty and undefined characteristics, it gives the music a chaotic and natural sound. 

Rippikoulu does a great job of evenly splitting the music between death and doom, allowing each genre to truly compliment the other. The doom passages provide an excellent build-up to the faster, death-influenced riffs, and the occasional use of synthesizers adds a beautiful atmosphere to the whole mix.

Favorite Song: Ikuinen Piina

Batushka - Litourgiya

Batushka - Litourgiya

2015 / Black metal, Doom metal

Since their debut release in early December of last year, Batushka has been storming the metal scenes, providing a new definition for the word "heavy". Shrouded in secrecy, little is known about the band. It is however, speculated that Batushka is a supergroup, composed of members from other well known bands in the scene.

Litourgiya is the title of the aforementioned album and it is a beast of a debut. Classifying the record as black metal just wouldn't feel rite. While some of the song writing is textbook black, it is infused with doom riffs so heavy they send tremors up my spine. This dark and heavy music is paired with a combination of traditional black metal vocals, and choral chants giving the songs a blasphemous yet spiritual atmosphere.

Favorite Song: Yekteniya 5