In Nick Perumov's "Chronicle of Hjorvard" 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.
December, 1996 - the band is formed completely with coming of Black as vocalist with "clean" voice and changing bassist to Den. All music is written by Rustam and Ilya, lyrics - by Rustam. Now the band has its own face - Black's clean voice and Rustam's keys. The first song created is "Return of the Nameless" (first edition). The song becomes famous (in Obninsk) long before the first gig.
February, 1997 - the first concert together with Dissenter - techno-death band. The concert represents the fest titled "Rock against chemical dependence". Needless to say that everyone (especially some members of the band) is deadly drunk. Nevertheless the gig is extremely successful. Amazingly, public seems to know RAKOTH well although no tapes are distributed yet and no gigs were given before. RAKOTH plays own early songs "Return of the Nameless" (first variant), "Unholy Temple", "One Step Beyond" (which is unrecognizably transformed into the song "Beyond" later), "Dying Realm" and STORM's "Nagellstev".
March, 1997 - Tense relationship inside the band. Rustam claims to leave the band. Simultaneously Leshy and F. say they wanted to leave long ago. Band collapses. F., Leshy and Ilya form the band they call GORBUG and play black metal.
May, 1997 - Rustam decides to form new band and offers Black and Den to join. They plan to play doom with some other styles elements. Coincidentally, at the same time the band Dissenter falls apart and its guitarist/vocalist Dy wishes to play deeper music than death metal. Den invites him to the new band, which has no name yet. New line-up: Rustam - keys & voice, Black - voice, Den - bass, Dy - guitars. Leshy offers his help with drums. The band rehearses at Rustam's garage.
June, 1997 - Band is in search for the name. Many variants proposed (MEPHISTO, UNBORN, TEARS, DOWNFALL, IN THIS ROOM), but none satisfies. Finally, Dy proposes to use the name RAKOTH again. Taking into account that old band RAKOTH doesn't exist anymore and that the name was offered by Rustam in the beginning, the name RAKOTH is accepted.
July, 1997 - Leshy officially joins RAKOTH. The first demo "Tales of the Worlds Unreal" is recorded right in the garage.
August, 1997 - Tape is given to A. Arzamascev, the head of Arzamascev's Music Center (later - Signal Studios). He decides to allow the band to record free at his studio. Demo tape "Dark Ages Chronicle" is recorded live, with no post-mixing, during only 4 hours. The quality of recording is that high that noone believes in that short recording time and in live recording. Later, in review given in DEATHRIDER 'zine we can see: "This tape was recorded (according to legend) during only 4(!) hours…". Rustam starts sending the tapes everywhere.
September, 1997 - Solo-concert. As in the first case, the public knows the band well, so the gig goes perfectly. October, 1997 - Leshy suddenly leaves RAKOTH. He plays with Fascist (now Tuur) and Ilya (now Vuulko) in their band they renamed into Темнозорь. They play so-called "true" pagan metal.
February, 1998 - First review on "Dark Ages Chronicle" appears in VAE SOLIS web-zine. Positive one. All later reviews are positive as well.
March, 1998 - Latvian distro-label starts distributing "Dark Ages Chronicle". April, 1998 - Rustam starts his solo-project Umbral Presence in order to create something more aggressive (and personal) than RAKOTH.
June, 1998 - Another Latvian distro, Beverina Productions, starts distribution of "Dark Ages Chronicle".
August, 1998 - The band enters Signal Studios to record their new creation. By the strange coincidence they begin the recording at the same day which was chosen (a year ago) for recording of "Dark Ages Chronicle". It is 18th of August. After the week of work they finally can celebrate the birth of their first full-length (57 minutes) album, titled "Superstatic Equilibrium". During the same session Rustam records the demo for Umbral Presence, "…et germinet Chaos". Both tapes are immediately sent to Elven Witchcraft.
November, 1998 - "Superstatic Equilibrium" and "…et germinet Chaos" are now officially distributed by Elven Witchcraft.
April, 1999 - "code666" is interested in getting RAKOTH's tape. Rustam sends "Superstatic Equilibrium" to Italy.
June, 1999 - "code666" offers a deal to RAKOTH.
August, 1999 - The contract for recording of one album is signed.
November 1999 - The New Album “Planeshift” is out on code666 production (ITALY)
March 2000 - Planeshift took 100/100 on Aardschok Magazine (Holland) & 6/6 on Scream Magazine (Norway), and tons of other highly positive reviews.
April 2000 - a new Deal is signed with code666 for two more albums.
May-June 2000 - composing and arranging new songs for the next album…
... a lot of interesting things between 2000 — 2008 undescribed to fit the format yet...
September the 4th, 2008
After 2,5 years of cooperation Zafod B. the Utkinson announces the great start of his new project(s) which makes him leave Rakoth immediately. The band is still working on its new album nevertheless.
Just Another Lament
Rakoth Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How can I hold my beloved?
The abyss between us, the bottomless sea too wide to fly over... she is mortal...
Silvery crowns of the frostbitten trees sunlight so bright yet so cold
Ravens above me descend heed my pleas carry my cry to the gods to let her live...
War and disaster they took her away dismal is garden of light chaos and emptiness led me astray helpless emotions yet so strong...
Cursed be the life with a heart fool of gloom cursed be the laws of this world
Cursed be the curse my sinister doom the ages without her...what is it all for
Raven the Wise shed your lore onto me
How can I hold my bethrothed?
The abyss between us and so let it be I shall follow her... to the afterrealm
The song "Just Another Lament" by Rakoth is a melancholic piece that portrays the pain and struggle of a person who has lost their beloved. The vocalist seeks the assistance of the wise raven to help him hold his lover, but feels hopeless due to the distance between them being too grand to overcome. The imagery in the song paints a vivid picture of the sorrow and despair the vocalist is feeling, with the "dismal garden of light" that represents the chaos and emptiness that has overcome him after his lover's passing. Despite the helplessness and gloom, the vocalist hopes that his cry may reach the gods and persuade them to spare his lover's life. At the end of the song, the vocalist resigns himself to his fate, and vows to follow his lover to the afterrealm.
The lyrics of the song may have been inspired by a real-life tragedy or a work of fiction, but the emotions are undoubtedly relatable to anyone who has experienced profound loss. The use of raven and crow imagery in the song could represent the vocalist's wishes to communicate with the gods or to find solace in nature. Overall, the song is a moving tribute to the pain of loss and the powerlessness that comes with it.
Line by Line Meaning
Raven the Wise shed your lore onto me
I seek wisdom from the ravens, to help me in my sorrow.
How can I hold my beloved?
I am helpless without my love, and wish for a solution.
The abyss between us, the bottomless sea too wide to fly over... she is mortal...
The distance between us is insurmountable, and her mortality only adds to the difficulty.
Silvery crowns of the frostbitten trees sunlight so bright yet so cold
The world reflects my pain, with a deceptive beauty that only adds to the misery.
Ravens above me descend heed my pleas carry my cry to the gods to let her live...
I implore the ravens to carry my message to the divine, in hopes of saving my love.
War and disaster they took her away dismal is garden of light chaos and emptiness led me astray helpless emotions yet so strong...
The cruelty of the world robbed me of my love, and I am lost in despair with only my emotions to guide me.
Cursed be the life with a heart fool of gloom cursed be the laws of this world
I curse my own existence, as well as the unfairness of the world.
Cursed be the curse my sinister doom the ages without her...what is it all for
The curse that befalls me is a cruel fate, and leaves me questioning the purpose of life without her.
Carry my lament all over the plains over the white sylvan realms useless all magic of elven domains to keep us together in this existence...
I ask the ravens to spread my sorrow across the land, as even elven magic cannot keep us together in this life.
Raven the Wise shed your lore onto me
I reiterate my request for wisdom from the ravens.
How can I hold my bethrothed?
I accept the inevitability of joining my love in the afterlife, and ask for guidance in doing so.
The abyss between us and so let it be I shall follow her... to the afterrealm
I am resigned to following my love into the afterlife, as the distance between us is too great.
Contributed by Alex S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.