Arkona – Goi Rode Goi

Either you listen to pagan/folk metal or not this album captivates your attention from the first seeing of the layout: the scenery of a ritual to a pagan God by some worshipers, one drakaar and a marvelous view of a storm.

“Goi, Rode, Goi!” is the fifth full-length album of Arkona, filled with legends from the Russian folklore. This atmosphere is also based on a great variety of musical instruments that are used, not only metal instruments but also traditional instruments, violins and even psalmodies of women.

The band plays together very balanced, the instruments do not start a race and each and everyone of them is playing in the right time and for the right duration, achieving a nice flowing of the songs. Growls and clean-melodic vocals are replacing one another in a harmonious dance. The album does not give you the feeling that lacks in heaviness, and none of the instruments is pinpointed most. Arkona in this album can play from black metal to classical choruses of folk.

One of the highlights of “Goi, Rode, Goi!” is the singing. Most fans of pagan/folk metal consider that Masha is the best frontman in this kind, but….that frontman(!?) is a woman. Her voice travels you in all that stories and myths somewhere between the main heroes. She gives a perfect feeling to the listener and grabs you in the Russian folklore, making you not to understand the ‘chasma’ in the language, because all lyrics are written in the Russian language, which is best in my opinion. So, these stories are in their genuine form, in the form that they came in reality. Masha’s singing is extremely passionate, and that is probably happening because she believes and respects what she sings, as she belongs to a pagan cult called Vyatichi.

In this gig all the “afan guatte” of pagan metal is contributing either as singers or folk-instrument players. Musicians from Svarga, Obtest, Menhir, Tverd and other groups can be found, mostly in the song “Na Moey Zemle” where a Russian musician travels in Europe trying to find his ‘Ithace’, where he can live happily. On the road he finds traditional musicians, and each guest band is singing in the language of their fatherland playing the role of these musicians.

The love of the band for what they are playing makes this ‘diamond’ shine more and showing to the metal scene that this is the time to let yourself free to be taken by the songs of Arkona. One must for the fans of Korpiklaani, Turisas, Tyr.