| CD REVIEW Arkona |
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Band : Arkona To Europeans, Russia is quite an unknown country when it comes to metal. Most people fail to name even one single band. Fortunately, these past months, this might have changed, for Arkona is on the rise with a new powerful album, entitled Slovo, meaning 'word'. This pagan black metal band contains some truly outstanding songs, such as "Zakliatie", "Nikogda" and "Stenka Na Stenku". This last one has been turned into a video which is to be found on the internet. As you might have guessed, all tracks on Slovo are sung in Russian. This is quite a change for the average metal fan, but the female lead warrior Masha did a hell of a job in trying to keep the vocal lines strong as they are, evoking even a certain feeling of melancholy from time to time. Arkona treats us with a good dose of impressive blast beasts and heavy riffs and, in addition, the grunting of Masha is beyond breathtaking. The authentic instruments used on this pagan album (such as the flute, the violin, etc.) really succeed to embellish the whole package. Arkona's live performance at this year's Graspop Metal Meeting really proved them to be one of the absolute current highlights in the international pagan metal and the black metal genres. With Slovo, the band really put Russia on the map of metal, without any doubt. 83/100 Tim |
