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| KYPCK, “Kursk” in the
western alphabet, is a Russian-singing Finnish doomsday
metal band.
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BIO IN
BRIEF |
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1032 – The first written records of
Kursk,
the Russian city. |
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1508 – The city of Kursk joins the centralized Russian
state. |
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1943 –
The Battle of
Kursk.
The largest tank battle in military history takes place
in Kursk. |
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1994 – The nuclear submarine
K-141 Kursk
is launched. |
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2000 – K-141 Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea taking 118
lives with her. |
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2007 – The band
Kursk
is formed and their debut album recorded. |
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2008 – The band's debut album 'Cherno' is released. |
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2010 – The band’s second album is completed. |
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2011 – The band’s new album ‘Nizhe’ is released. |
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2013 – The band’s third album is completed. |
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2014 – The band’s new album ‘Imena Na Stene’ is released. |
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INTRODUCTION |
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KYPCK's crew features vocalist E. Seppänen, guitarists S.S. Lopakka
and S. Kukkohovi, bassist J.T. Ylä-Rautio and drummer
A.K. Karihtala. The band's studio sound production lies
on the shoulders of Hiili Hiilesmaa, who is also a
renowned producer for HIM, Sentenced, Moonspell,
Apocalyptica and many others. Hiilesmaa was also the
band's drummer on the first two albums.
The dry dock for KYPCK was built in 1999 while Lopakka
and Hiilesmaa were working on
Sentenced’s “Crimson”. They talked about making music
that would be very desolate and dark, with a raw yet
massive sound incorporating some elements of doom-metal
while still having a very unique and modern character.
Something that hits you like a massive, endless wave,
something that is crushing yet calm. Something that is
melancholic and agonizing at the same time. |
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BUILDING THE BASICS |
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It
took a while until the first parts of KYPCK could be
assembled, but the blueprints for it were taken out of
the vault every time Lopakka and Hiilesmaa met. Mainly due to the two engineers’ tight
schedules, it took until January 2007 when words were
put into action. This was also the time when they
decided that the language of KYPCK would be Russian to
set them further apart from most metal bands.
All this was even before the singer Seppänen came into the picture, and it seemed
quite a quest to find a person who could both sing and
be a frontman and do it all in fluent Russian.
Despite the challenge it didn’t take longer than a week
in the end. Seppänen is a singer who has lived in
Russia for over 2 years, studied in St. Petersburg and
worked at the embassy in Moscow. He holds a degree in
Russian literature from Oxford and also teaches Russian
part-time in Tampere, Finland. All things considered, he
is more than a legitimate choice as the singer and
lyric-writer of KYPCK. Finally, a long time friend of Hiilesmaa, Ylä-Rautio (who now plays the
1-stringed bass called “Kypcklop”) completed the crew.
The Finnish label UHO Production was so excited by the
sole idea that they signed KYPCK without even hearing a
single note. |
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LOADING THE TORPEDOES |
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Back
in the early days of the band, Lopakka commented:
“We all were so thrilled about the new band and the
whole idea that in less than four months we had material
for one and a half albums already. It was like a dam
being cracked open - a massive load just poured out”.
In KYPCK, Lopakka plays an AK-47-shaped custom baritone
guitar, “Lopashnikov”, made by Amfisound Guitars.
In
January
2007 the band was ready. In May Hiilesmaa was already
recording the first drums. The rest of Cherno was
recorded together in July. “At that point we noticed
that we have something truly original in our hands”,
remembers Seppänen. “And although it was clear
that this band was a big step away from mainstream
metal, I knew that material this strong would find a
select audience…” Upon the album’s release on March
12th 2008 it went straight to #11 in the Finnish charts.
Later on Century Media released the debut worldwide. |
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IN ACTION |
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Cherno was followed by a
few shows in Finnish clubs, as well as a number of
festival appearances, including the main metal event of
the Finnish Summer, Tuska Festival in Helsinki. The
shows fine-tuned the band both on and off stage and
proved that there was a strong live act here to present
the challenging material to the audience. Later that
year, KYPCK was also invited on a small New Year’s tour
with HIM. The inevitable and long-awaited first shows in
Russia took place in 2009, in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
There the reception was phenomenal and the atmosphere
something quite unprecedented, as KYPCK was the first
foreign band to perform in Russian, down to all the
in-between-songs rants. It had long been clear to the
guys in the band that KYPCK would make more albums.
After those visits, it was clear to everyone. |
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GETTING LOWER |
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After the shows in Russia, KYPCK took
a clean break from doing shows. Despite wanting to focus
on writing and recording some new material, the band
insisted on keeping the concerts as special occasions,
and turned down many offers for shows. Instead, work
began on the next KYPCK album.
With the debut done, almost
experimenting, the band now had more experience and –
thanks to all the shows – a focused mind on what they
wanted to do. Especially Seppänen felt that there was
a lot more to be said and explored in terms of the
lyrics. “I had a feeling I wanted to dig deeper into
history and broaden the band’s horizons that way. Also,
after the shows we did and the people we met, there was
a more obvious personal angle to it. With the first
album, I wrote for a projected audience. Now there was
an actual audience,” Seppänen describes.
Musically, too, the band had grown
richer and everybody had their place inside the
steel-beast cylinder. This was not to be another
experiment – this was a premeditated, rehearsed and
well-executed bombing raid. The result is called
Nizhe, which in English means “lower” and, as such,
is a perfect description of the sound and atmosphere of
KYPCK’s 2nd album. Written and recorded
during 2009-2010, the album was released February 9th,
2011. A promotional, pre-release listening party for the
media is held January 12th in Helsinki, in
the main stage of prestigious Finnish National Theather,
of all places. Where else could the only foreign
Russian-singing metal band hold this event, except in a
theatre built in a time when Finland was a part of
Russia? |
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MORE… |
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The booklets of
KYPCK’s all albums feature
the original lyrics in Cyrillic Russian with
English translations on the side. The lyrics contain
numerous literary and historical references, some songs
being directly inspired by famous Russian literary
works. Although written by a non-native speaker of Russian, the
lyrics have been proof-read by Russian native
professionals and contain no unintended mistakes.
KYPCK line-up:
E. Seppänen - vocals
S.S. Lopakka - guitars
S. Kukkohovi - guitars
J.T. Ylä-Rautio - bass
A.K. Karihtala - drums
KYPCK discography:
Cherno - 2008
Nizhe - 2011
Imena Na Stene - 2014 |
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