Antaeus The Giant
K-141
A Far From Home
The Disaster
Lost Signal
Awaiting
The Ninth Compartment
A Time To Die
Raising The Kursk
The Last Voyage
Requiem

We don’t live in a perfect world. If we did there would be no wars, diseases, famine or poverty. If we did we would all live to be 100 years old and have no money or stress problems. If we did groups like Rukkanor would be collecting awards on television and be on the front cover of every top class music publication. The world isn’t perfect. We all know this. Our rose tinted glasses having been smashed to pulp long ago. Poor Rukkanor. Destined to be classed as a cult group because the world has yet to fully embrace or understand music that dares to be different. Music that is ignored because it doesn’t match commercial criteria. Music of the soul that won’t sell because of the apathy of buyers content to accept their lot and buy into corporate visions of what they should be listening to. Lemmings of the world unite. Buck the trends before you run headlong into oblivion off the cliff called indifference.

Rukkanor’s cause to bring quality music to the masses isn’t helped by the fact that the War Office Propaganda label have seen fit to release their debut recording CDr to a staggeringly limited edition of 200 copies. I suppose 200 lemmings saved from extinction is a small start towards global mass acceptance. I’m glad those thoughts have been purged from my system.

"Requiem for K-141 KYPCK" is a recording dedicated to the nuclear submarine Kursk that sank in the Barents Sea in 2000. With so many disasters taking place daily this tragedy has already been forgotten by all but those whose lives were deeply affected by it. That’s the way of the world. Rukkanor aren’t the first group, nor will they be the last, to tackle real life events through the medium of music. Other genres, like folk or rock, have attempted to translate such events but have never fully managed to evoke the right timbre of solemn weariness that, for want of a better word, Industrial music has managed to encapsulate. Through this style of music the full horrific events are easily presentable and digestible making the experience more ‘real’. By utilising samples and sounds taken from the actual ship and placing them over and next to the melancholy orchestral styled electronic pieces, with additional choirs and subdued pulsating beats, the story can be pieced together and told a thousand times better without the need for distracting loud instruments. Here the shock and pain as the events slowly unfurl is an unsettling experience but treated with the respect so deserved to those who lost their lives. There are no noise histrionics present. Just beautifully tragic musical ambience that touches and the breaks the heart.

A ghoulish subject matter "Requiem for K-141 KYPCK" may well be but the story needs telling lest we forget too easily the personal suffering endured of others of a time already consigned to the history books. The world as we know it sucks the big one but with groups like Rukkanor around we can at least get some enjoyment from it for howe ver long we remain on this earth.

ANM