One gem from 2008 that I was able to notice only this year, thanks to a recommendation from a friend, is Finland's Kypck - read Kursk. One listen to their debut Cherno is all it takes to see that doom metal is alive and well, and has much more to offer than today's despicable "whining metal" - "ağlak metal," as we say in Turkish.
"Cherno" is doom at its best, with a great vocalist, a drummer that knows how to control his limbs and heavy, dark riffs. The second thing to be noticed has to be how the Russian language fits perfectly into doom metal. Yes, the band has opted for making music in Russian, and the album is a celebration of this originality. "Rozhdestvo v Murmanske," or "Christmas In Murmansk," for example, has to be one of the most powerful doom metal songs ever.
Having said that, the album is not "a gem from the past," as former Sentenced members remind all that this is a music of our age. I have no symphathy for today's "doom metal," to be frank, and Sentenced is arguably one of the bands that contributed much to that scene. So, here and there, one feels the "whining" that is absolutely absent from, say, Candlemass.
Dealing with and describing pain without complaining was - Paranoid - and is - Emperor of The Void - what gives its soul to doom metal.
Still, the "Sentenced effect," mostly observed in arpeggio parts and especially in the second half of the album, is not confusing or annoying, as it never rises above the general "doominess" of the music. It can even be seen as an original touch to doom metal, one that manages to display a fine act of balance.
On the conceptual level, Kypck is creating an atmosphere of the Soviet times and Soviet wars, which makes their music all the more interesting.
At first I thought Kypck was a Russian band whose members moved to Finland to "reach out to the West," and frankly was a bit concerned that the Finnish music scene would "soften them out." Apparently this was a misunderstanding, and there is nothing to lose for these fine musicians.
If you haven't listened to them yet, have a try at www.myspace.com/KYPCK. You won't be dissapointed.
