Rakoth - "Planeshift"
(Code666)
A new miracle of beauty comes from Russia: Rakoth's "Planeshift"! Rakoth is the half-God so-called "True Mage" who had the title Master Of Darkness for using Darkness for his magic. He rose against the Young Gods accusing them of being Liars stealing mortals' freedom. After his second try, he was defeated, disincarnated and bound to the world called "The Bottom of Worlds". With help of his friend, Hedin "Aware Of Darkness", he returned and overthrew the Young Gods thus becoming the New God along with Hedin. This is actually the story from Nick Perumov's "Chronicle Of Hjorvard", referred in the press info paper.

From the first listening of Rakoth's third (and code666 debut) album one will for sure feel like he is transfered in a distant dreamland, full of elves, fairies, castles and forests, with hobs everywhere! Their music is so simple, but also so complicated! Charming with its simplicity, "Planeshift" manages to offer a complexity of emotions, through the enchanting melodies of flute, atmospheric keyboards and simple vocals. Sometimes, there are black metal parts, but very few. That is, in the vocal and guitar sections... Consisted of 10 tracks, from which the first and the last one are an intro and an outro as well. The lyrics imprint stories of romance, fantasy and epic splendor! To be more exact, their label (Code666) characterizes them as "Fantasy Metal". Nice characterization and I guess I could agree... But let's see what known ideas we meet in Rakoth's "Planeshift". First of all, sometimes, they reminded me Magus Wampire Daoloth's vocals, as far as his project "N.A.O.S." is concerned. Secondly, there is an introduction of an fabulous instrumental creation, entitled "Noldor Exodus". It is almost the same as Mercyful Fate's "Time", in the beginning! In some other moments they reminded me of Misanthrope...

The promo CD I received was a great-looking digipack with an amazing cover! Best songs of the album: Fear (wasn't in the Design)- Gorthaur Aulendil - The unquiet Grave. A good release which, I believe, is a must for everyone who loves epic stories in distant dreamlands... in the world of pure fantasy!

Dimitris "Slatan" Petrakis

PS: For BAND CORRESPONDENCE:
Code666 c/o Emiliano Lanzoni - Via Billi 2 - 40026 Imola (BO) - Italy
code666@imola.queen.it
www.code666.cjb.net