Arkona – Goi, Rode, Goi

Releasedate: 30-10-2009; Label: Napalm Records
By: Elvira Visser

Although I have never heard of this Russian band the beginnings of Arkona date back to 2002. The band was called Hyperborea back in the days. It wasn’t until 2002 that Arkona and its folk surfaced from the Russian underground scene. They now released their 5th album, which resulted in being a quite unique one. Goi, Rode, Goi is definitely one you should hear when you are into folk metal.

I was happily surprised with this album, but not the first time. I thought it was awful a lot of chaos but when I gave it another chance I started to really like Arkona. I hear a little Korpiklaani, the happy dance along tunes, the use of old traditional instruments like Omnia and the singing something near chanting Russian Slavic story. Which reminds me of the Indian chants. On the other hand the metal and grunts are also present, this all creates the sound of Arkona. So the music might come across as a lot of layers and what I mentioned as a chaos, after pushing the repeat button a couple of times you will notice things will fall into place. You have to grow into it.

Knowing that the CD is an epic story, the heart of the album is the saga “Na Moey Zemble” which tells the story of a Slav in European countries. I was very surprised when I thought I heard something Dutch on that track. For this track features the voices of members of Heidevolk, Manegarm and Menhir. The band is trying to bring back a little of the Slavic believes. On the last track or more outro you hear some bird sounds, which calmed me down which was needed after this quite long CD. When your new to this band this might be an overkill, but I do have to mention that the whole album is of good quality. There are some of them which are more folk-ish and some has more the metal sounds. Simply a great album. Arkona made a folk metal album that does stands out from others

Tracklist: 01. Goi, Rode, Goi! 02. Tropoiu Nevedannoi (On the Unknown Trail ) 03. Nevidal (The Wonder) 04. Na Moey Zemle (In My Land) 05. Pritcha (The Parable) 06. V Tsepiakh Drevney Tainy (In Chains of Ancient Mystery) 07. Yarilo 08. Liki Bessmertnykh Bogov (Faces of Immortal Gods) 09. Kolo Navi (Kolo of Nav) 10. Korochun 11. Pamiat (The Memory) 12. Kupalets 13. Arkona 14. Nebo Hmuroe, Tuchi Mrachniye (Sullen Sky Lurid Clouds)

Links:
Arkona MySpace
Arkona Official