Во славу великим!

After the exceptional debut full-length 'Vozrozhdenie' and the more metal-focused follow up 'Lepta', Arkona has struck a balance between traditional Russian music and modern black metal in 'Vo Slavu Velikim!', resulting in an album that conjures a ritualistic, upbeat atmosphere of ancient Slavic tradition and myth.

The problem most people seem to have with folk metal is with the metal half of the equation. The guitar work is just boring. If you take away all the interesting vocals and folk instruments, they say, you just have a shitty melodic death metal album on your hands. The issue with this logic, of course, is that the vocals and folk instruments are there to stay, and they are what defines folk metal as a subgenre. However, this tired argument can't even be made with 'Vo Slavu Velikim!', as every component of the album is exceptional, metal motifs leading into folk motifs seamlessly.

Literally every track on this album is listenable and addictive. Sweeping crescendos in the track 'Rus Iznachalnaya' lead into a beautiful vocal section where harmonies and folk instruments create a piece of music that you will want to repeat and play back over and over again.

It would be a shame to split the album into its component parts, but Masha's vocal work deserves special attention, as it is fantastic throughout. Her best moments are when she isn't singing any lyrics at all, but just vocalizing in harmony, like the beginning of 'Vosstanie Roda'.

'Vo Slavu 'Velikim is an emotionally diverse album, evoking feelings of joy, festivity, sadness, victory, defeat, and more, sometimes all in one track. It is a landmark folk metal album, which all fans of the genre must listen to.

I'm not too sure about his folk metal stuff anymore. Some bands I can still stand and I'll give this band the thumbs up on catchiness and (likely) kick-ass concerts, but it doesn't really pull me in like it used to a couple years ago. Take away the folk instruments, and this is just a melodic death album; not a very impressive one at that, either. Yes, some songs do kick some ass, but not the entire way through. My biggest complaint is the vocals, but then the question of "why am I listening to this in the first place?" comes in.

In that, I'm not too sure either. At the heart it's a melodic death album (which is what I was big on back in the day), but its way more geared towards old school partying in a pub. The music is very uplifting, some instruments are incredibly annoying, and Masha's vocals are a hit or miss for me. Sometimes they're fantastic like with her opening lines in the title track - they sound so emotional and blissful there, but soon after she dives with her really cheesy screams. Then again, other times the cleans will just be way overdone and her growls are more focused and deep.

Production is great: crisp, clear, balanced; it helps to give a relaxed tone to the music. Instrumentally, the band is spot on when it comes to churning out a fun, jovial track. They're all concert tunes, and that's probably the only time I can picture myself really getting into them. However, I'm not really attached to these songs at all. The formula for achieving their sound works, but there's no personal connection established when I hear these songs (or this band as a whole). Drumming is rhythmically catchy, the riffs are all simple but heavy and dominating, and the bass does its job well enough for a full experience. The leads themselves don't really have any character to them, though; the direction is given by the folk tune, and the rest of the instruments merely execute that order and follow the guide.

Backing vocals are everywhere here, and its nice to see duets or a whole gang of people joining in. Again, these would make killer tracks live for the whole crowd to sing along with (I'm getting Blind Guardian vibes), but when its just me and the band, I can't feel anything. A ton of effort went into this, I can tell and won't excuse that. Maybe I'm just asking the right questions to the wrong band, but I've had this living on my hard-drive for no reason. Like At The Gates, this one's going to the recycle bin.

It is with third album "Vo Slavu Velikim!", originally released in 2005 (just 19 months after their debut) that Arkona start to resemble a band that really know who they are and what their existence in the folk/pagan world is just meant to be. In the case of the transition from "Lepta" to this one there is a big, if not giant, leap in the songwriting skills, the ambience and the local feeling in the folk element of the mix which here relishes in it's greatest emphasis of any of the three albums thus far. First song proper "Skvoz' Tuman Vekov" features largely the same components of what have been discussed on "Vozrozhdenie" and "Lepta" but with a more suitable production to bring out the folk-soaked nuances of the keyboards, pipes and accordion, and by damn some of the catchiest vocal choruses I have ever heard sung in the Motherland's tongue! Albums one and two weren't without these aspects but here it works - the guitars, though still negated to a supporting role for the 'folk instruments', sound more purposeful and the BM aspect to the riffs has hit come full circle to suggest a band utilising their musical ancestry for their own needs rather than in acts of pure plagiarism.

When it is time for the traditional folk instruments to have a break the synth breaks free for it's own aim of soundscape creation, bringing as it does elements of the pomposity of Dimmu Borgir's more recent output in the first half of the title-track, a track in which Masha's screams could be interpreted for the first time as those of a man's. My opinion would be of a strongest resemblance to Jens Ryden (ex-Naglfar, Thyrfing) but if you disagree, suggestions on a postcard please. Not content with a splash of pure folk here and a dribble of synthetic ambience there, Arkona aim for the heart by incorporating periods of "Loi loi loi's" in "Po Syroi Zemle", "Vedy Proshlogo" and the superb "Zov Bitvy" as perfected but the not-once-mentioned Turisas. Clearly realising the benefit of these simple three-letter words in a live, drunken setting, I need not add that it works fantastically.

As alluded to amidst the "Lepta" review, song structures in Arkona's work (and for the sake of debate virtually all of folk and extreme metal) are not simple, with countless separate passages in each song requiring a good number of listens to really grasp the full-scale of "Vo Slavu Velikim!”. Unlike "Lepta" though the dexterity of the band's musical progressive is not for the lesser here as sections blend together like the colours of a pagan rainbow, interspersed with ambience and reflection ("Tuman Yarom" and "Velikden'") that are the sign of an album's album rather than a collection of songs lumped under one banner.

As a conclusion to the three album review, in the space of a few months from being blessed with "Ot Serdtsa K Nebu" and now the re-release of Arkona's first three albums, these Russian pagans have earnt a place in my annals of great folk/pagan metal bands through a consistent refinement of their sound to a point where it has taken aspects of many other great bands and moulded them into their own needs with the result being two excellent albums in "Vo Slavu Velikim!" and "Ot...". These works come highly recommended to the expert and the intrigued in this growing corner of the metal universe - a perfect marriage of local folk tendencies and black metal. Who ever would've thought the two could be so compatible...

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

YES! This is the kind of stuff that gives METAL a good name. Incredibly epic pagan metal. No cheesiness. No crap of any kind. Yes and yes again. ARKONA is a great band; Masha’s vocals are some of the most renowned in the entire genre. She is a very proficient female singer capable of carrying a soft yet firm beautiful voice into a storm of harsh vocals. She is accompanied by ex- vocalist of BUTTERLY TEMPLE, whose former band is not entirely different from ARKONA itself, as well as the guys from
ROSSOMAHAAR.

Rossomahaar is also a band of growing potency, now having made the transition from synthetic sounds into real folk instruments alongside Arkona which has really improved their sound giving them a more organic and original atmosphere. Due to this, ‘Vo Slavu Velikim’ is richer and better developed than previous albums.

The songwriting on ‘Vo Slavu Velikim’ is impeccable; entirely memorable and enjoyable with its many instruments and sounds and excellent vocals. It accomplishes both a majestic and brutal sound combining traditional Slavic folk with symphonic black metal and throughout the generous length of the album never fails to satisfy. There is the occasional break from the hard-hitting folk metal to include a couple short ambient songs that feature a wind instrument playing over nature sounds and occasionally spoken dialogue. An example of this is the Intro but there are a couple others. You can spot them by their shorter length.

All the different elements ARKONA combines on ‘Vo Slavu Velikim’ gives it a magnificent shape. Arkona has certainly not broken stride with this album, arguably their strongest piece of work to date, and is picking up pace on a path that leads straight to the top of the too-often overlooked sub-genre of pagan folk metal.

Arkona, alongside their fellow-countrymen of Svarga, may well be amongst the best acts the bludgeoning Russian folk/pagan metal scene has to offer. Both bands are actually tied in some way, as two members of the aforementioned Svarga, including their amazing accordionist, are playing on this album. And what an album!

As surprising as it may sound for a band of this sort, Arkona’s music is not immediate to get into. I’ve to admit this album rather disappointed me the first time I listened to it. In a few words, the content here is without doubt complex. Using the term progressive would be a tad far-fetched, but you get the idea. It’s not progressive in the sense of overlong tracks and solos or outstanding technicity, as though there are some punctual solos, there are far from being the most memorable part of the release, and coming to technicity the guys certainly know how to play their metal, but don’t ask for much more.

This work would actually be progressive in term of complex structures, encounter of different styles, musical research, and slightly emergent insanity. Viking-influenced power metal which could stand the comparison with Ensiferum, stupid polka moments a la Finntroll or Korpiklaani backed by accordion, flute and tambourine, more slowed down epic parts with occasional orchestrations, without forgetting the punctual blastbeats and the slight black metal touch – you’ll find all these elements and many more, often intertwined in the same song. Just listen to the masterpiece Rus’ Iznachal’ naya to understand why I wrote before that this mixture sounded rather crazy. It’s just as if this amazing band had explored the folk genre to its ultimate boundaries, from its softest to its heaviest side.

Furthermore, this act seems to dispose from unlimited energy resources, and to do another stupid pun it may be fronted by a chick, but it undoubtedly has balls. Harsh female vocals, when done well, can display an unsuspected level of both madness and aggressiveness, and it’s the case here, but it’s still nothing compared to the almost ear-piercing shrieks miss Masha can occasionally produce to honour her nickname of “Scream”. Add to this the ever-present epic choirs, the both male and female clean parts, scarce but well-done, complete it by this pinnacle of vocal arrangements which is the interlude Tuman Yarom, and you’ll understand that once again the guys were willing to look after every detail of their work.

The epic feeling of this record almost never fades though it lasts around one hour, which is unusually long for release of this kind. The only letdown may be the eighth song Vedy Proshlogo which is more or less a filler, but it only seems like the band was stepping back to jump further as, right after a little one-minute long transition of natural sounds, greatness kicks in again with the both crushing and majestic Gnev Vremen, another highlight of the album this time reminiscent of the bombastic Viking metal of Moonsorrow. And it’s another epic journey which will last until the closing track, by far the softest here with its melodic, almost melancholic ending, but far from being the weakest.

Now if you can find your way through this forest of both metal and folk instruments – I don’t know exactly how many different instruments are used on this album, but it seems again rather unbelievable – you won’t regret it a single bit. Forget cheesiness, ridicule or monotony which often plague the genre, Vo Slavu Velikim is by far one of the cleverest pagan metal releases of these last few years – and, I tell you again, it’s truly INSANE.

Highlights: Rus’ Iznachal’naya, Zov Bitvy, Gnev Vremen, Vosstanie Roda