Band:	Kypck
Album:	Имена На Стене
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	March 21, 2014
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Пророк
02. Имя На Стене
03. Воскресение
04. Дети Биркенау
05. Грязный Герой
06. Как Философия Губит Самоотверженных, Бескорыстных Бюрократов
07. Белорусский Снег
08. Всегда Так Было
09. Этой Песни Нет
10. Трос, Грузовик И Темный Балкон

Kypck's first album was a masterpiece - a devastatingly heavy and bleak ice-cold doom tomb that sounded like it had just stumbled in from the gulag. Their follow-up left something to be desired, with some songs that just didn't quite finish telling their stories, and others that never had much of one in the first place. So what direction does Имена на стене take?

As the plodding, gargantuan first notes of "Пророк" indicate, the focused heaviness of Черно is back in a big way. Kypck have managed to bring the unholy atmosphere that haunted those songs, once again turning an album into a forced march through six feet of snow. "Как философия губит самоотверженных, бескорыстных бюрократов" and "Дети Биркенау" showcase the divine crossroads forged by deep, dark, distorted guitars and the gritty, pained vocals of Erkki Seppänen. Evil riffs and an impenetrable wall of rhythm section collide with Seppänen's sometimes threatening, sometimes anguished delivery to create an unforgettable journey through imminent doom. This album has what Ниже lacked - power, fear, energy, and memorable melodies.

One of Kypck's strengths is their ability to create this abysmal atmosphere torn from an abandoned Soviet factory and encase them in songs that, while obviously musical and even catchy at times, do not sacrifice the powerful, overarching feeling for being individual units of sound. They can write riffs, melodies, whole songs that are saturated with impossible heaviness and yet still eerie, hollow, and ghostly. It is as if there is an angry spirit haunting the machine that grinds through the collective mind of Kypck, churning out these wicked death march soundtracks. As far as songwriting is concerned, they are slightly more adventurous and varied than on Черно, and the results are fantastic.

Имена на стене ends on a note quite representative of Kypck's whole approach. While "Трос, грузовик и темный балкон" is uncharacteristically up-tempo at times, it combines the band's talent for combining depressing forlornness with simple heaviness. Thusly the album ends, wistful and nearly dead.

Kypck are clearly still rockin' around the gulag. Имена на стене is a much stronger album than I had anticipated, and sits right alongside their first as an expert marriage of atmosphere and individual songs.