I was lucky enough to chance upon Arkona in a Supernal Music catalogue nearly two years ago, at a time when only the Russian Sound Age Productions edition of previous album ‘Ot Serdca K Nebu’ was available. Folk Metal is definitely a genre I appreciate, but like with all other genres, I’m very discerning, and find that if not done with a high(ish) degree of heaviness and class I will lose interest very quickly. As it happens, Arkona turned out to be nothing short of bloody marvellous, having more or less all the qualities I could ask for in such a band.
‘Ot Serdca K Nebu’ was a very multi-faceted album, drawing inspiration from a number of directions. It was heavy but mellow, raw but beautiful and liked to dart from one genre to another effortlessly, glancing from Death to Doom whilst retaining some degree of Folk through most of the album. Then there’s front-woman Masha ‘Scream’ who has a remarkably dexterous voice - kind of the equivalent of a female Mikael Akerfeldt really.
Sounds good doesn’t it? No? Well you’re clearly mad then.
Moving on to new album ‘Goi, Rode, Goi!’; I read that the band were working with an orchestra this time and was immediately sceptical that this would completely overpower the Folk instrumentation and ruin the band’s sound. Quite pointless really as it just adds another element to their already diverse sound. Admittedly they’ve toned the Death and Doom down a touch and have unexpectedly added more blast parts. Or perhaps that’s just due to the record being 20 minutes longer than its predecessor; almost 80 minutes in length! ‘Na Moey Zemle’ at 15 minutes is partly to blame for this - not that it’s a negative thing at all. Mild- mannered at first, with bagpipes at the fore of the sound, a metallic guitar is heard and all of a sudden everything kicks off! The orchestra appear from nowhere, drummer Vlad begins hammering his snare and Masha howls as if the moon has commanded her. It progresses well, delving back to mellow folk territory, chants abounding after a while with the sound of a male voice for once until they can bear it no longer and have to inject a healthy dose of pace and calamity with the dramatic sounds of the orchestra alongside the screaming Masha.
‘V Tsepiakh Drevney Tainy’ is possibly my favourite, melding a slightly doomy, ominous riff with a very upbeat folk feel and is more guitar oriented in general. Beginning the first verse with that pure voice of hers, Masha returns for the second, growling like a beast and as usual working expertly with the rhythm of the song.
‘Tropoiu Nevedannoi’ welcomes back the orchestra, lending the aggressive sections a darkness which was otherwise absent. Lazar’s guitar has the main say again but fills the background void out superbly when another instrument enters the fray, like when an unusually blackened riff finds itself flailing out amidst blast-beats and both the orchestra and Masha use this to their advantage. The clean vocals are absolutely wonderful following on from this, flourishing in vivid and very thoughtful melodies indeed.
The only criticism I have is the length, which is frankly bloody long even if you do have a talent for song writing as this band do. There aren’t any weak songs on here as such, but maybe they could have been a bit more selective. Either way, it’s another impressive record which has already been ordered by yours truly, so one day in the near future I’ll have a copy without voice-overs.
http://www.arkona-russia.com
http://www.myspace.com/arkonarussia
http://www.napalmrecords.com
