Formed originally in 1996, Rakoth have always set out to be something of an enigma. Named after a character in Nick Perumov's "Chronicle of Hjorvard", Rakoth is the half-god, the so-called "True Mage", who had the title "Master Of Darkness".
The band's unique take on black metal, combining intelligent song-writing skills with a Tolkein inspired folk leaning was apparent from the beginning. Various line-up changes befouled the band before they finally settled with the line up of Rustam (Keyboards / Programming), P.Noir (Vocals / Flute) Dy (Guitars) and Leshy (Drums).
The first demo "Tales of the Worlds Unreal" was recorded in Rustam's garage in August 1997. This cassette fell into the hands of A. Arzamascev, the head of Arzamascev's Music Centre (later - Signal Studios). He decided to allow the band to record free at his studio. The demo tape "Dark Ages Chronicle" was recorded live, with no post-mixing, taking only 4 hours in total! In October 1997 Leshy suddenly left RAKOTH and the drummer was never replaced.
By February 1998 - The first reviews for the "Dark Ages Chronicle" tape begin to appear, and distros across Eastern Europe begin to sell the tape in large quantities.
In August 1998 - The band entered Signal Studios to record their new creation. By strange coincidence they began the recording at the same day that was chosen (a year previously) week of work the band finally celebrated the birth of their first full-length (57 minutes) album, titled "Superstatic Equilibrium". Again, this was released to hails of fantastic reviews across the underground metal scene. Rakoth were finally getting noticed and were gaining the reputation they deserved.
The band eventually signed to new Italian label Code666, and Planeshift is recorded in 1999 for release in March 2000. The initial response from the press was nothing short of staggering: - Planeshift scored 100/100 in Aardshok Magazine (Holland) & 6/6 in Scream Magazine (Norway) as well as dozens more like it. Rakoth were well on their way to creating something truly unique
2001 saw the band release "Jabberworks", again on Code666. The album featured re-recorded versions of old demo tracks and again the reaction from the press was nothing short of miraculous.
In late 2001 the band signed a four-album deal with Elitist Records, the Earache imprint label specialising in the most out-there cutting edge metal. Rakoth fit the "cutting edge" bill in every sense of the term and the "out-there" tag even more closely. They dare to experiment, their musicianship is nothing short of supreme and they will continue to strive to push the boundaries of the metal genre. In an agreement with Code666, Elitist was able to introduce the fantastic debut CD "Planeshift" to a wider audience. Repackaged by Peppe at TemnoUnArt and re-mastered by Tim Turan of Turan Audio (Emperor, Opeth etc), this album showed a young band brimming with potential, and served as a perfect taster of the great things to come.
Summer 2002. Really hot summer. Smoke from the burning woods fills the streets of the cities. The band enters Signal Studios to record "Tiny Deaths", the strangest album indeed. As usual no band member is sure about what they will get in the end, but everyone is sure that it'll be complex, challenging and different. Having spent nearly two months in the hell of the heat in the studio, recording, re-recording, mixing and remixing, they emerge with a brilliant result that defies simple categorisation, bursting with all manner of influences and experimentataion. The album is full of sarcasm and unusual elements, even by Rakoth standards!. Besides the epic black metal-esque and "kinda-doom" metal parts, on 'Just Another Lament', "Rakoth-metal" could be described as a combination of trip-hop, ethereal, darkwave, retro-electronics and other non-metal stuff!
Rakoth are already working on the follow up to "Tiny Deaths".