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Arkona

TimCallahan

Philosopher
T
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
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I came across Arkona, a Russian pagan metal band quite by accident while looking up material on Novodevichy Convent for a poem I was writing. I was quite taken with their music, which is saying a lot, concidering that prefer classical and am closer to 70 than 60 in age.

What do the rest of you think of Arkona?

ETA: The group is named after a Slavic fortress / temple complex on the island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea. It was an important center of the Rani, a powerful western Slavic tribe that maintained its paganism until the middle of the 1100s, when they were forcibly Christianized.
 
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I love Arkona! And yeah, you are pretty far from the typical age group who enjoys that kind of music, which makes this thread rock even more, I'd say. :D

There are thousands of pagan slavic metal bands, but Arkona is one of the truly good ones, mixing metal and the slavic folk sound beautifully. I also appreciate that it's fronted by a young woman who, as far as I know, writes all of the material, a rare sight in quality metal (unfortunately). She's a history buff, so that probably inspired her for her lyrical themes (unfortunately for us non-Russian speakers, all the lyrics are in Russian). Her live performance is also very energetic and powerful. She can sing both in a very pretty feminine voice and with a solid growl. Masha rocks. :)
 
I shared this Youtube video with several friends, who are delighted with the find, as am I.
Thanks!
 
I love them! I them live a few weeks back and they were a blast.

Masha went to a private music school for a bit, but she thought they weren't teaching anything so she left. She developed her writing skills from practical experience and not music theory. It is unfortunate that finding translations is so difficult.
 
Thanks for posting this - I'm sharing it with lots of friends.
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
I love them! I them live a few weeks back and they were a blast.
Masha went to a private music school for a bit, but she thought they weren't teaching anything so she left. She developed her writing skills from practical experience and not music theory. It is unfortunate that finding translations is so difficult.
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I'm hoping they'll come to southern California sometime soon.
 
Morrigan said:
I love Arkona! And yeah, you are pretty far from the typical age group who enjoys that kind of music, which makes this thread rock even more, I'd say. :D)
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Yeah god forbid old people never listened to loud, fast or prog rock
 
I was excited for a second but turns out I like the Arkona from Poland (the original Arkona ;)).

As for this particular Russian Arkona, it's pretty good. There are literally hundreds of bands doing similar stuff if you need more.

I dig Vo Skorbyah and Oprich as well.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
So on this site the translations aren't so good?

The music is OK but I can't say I'm into the pagan ritual aspect. Seems a bit hokey.
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Part if the irony of my getting turned on to the Russian group, Arkona, is that I was originally looking for chants of the Russian Orthodox liturgy, generally done by men's baritone choirs. The reason for this is that my wife, Bonnie, and I had visited Russia in 1992, as the second week of a vacation, in which we had visited Oxford, England for the Tolkien Centennial, in the first week. On our last day in Russia, we visited the Nevodevichy Convent in Moscow. As we were coming out of the subway station, coming up from under the earth, we saw the towers of the convent, crowned with golden onion domes, in the summer sun. At that point, a men's chorus at the convent struck up the Russian liturgy. It was a truly magical moment.

Looking up the Russian liturgy for a poem I was writing on the incident, I came across Arkona, and praticularly Slavsia Rus.

As with the actual lyrics of the Russian Orthodox liturgy, I don't really care about the translation of the lyrics. What is important to me is the music of the language, partictularly when I cannot understand it. I even wrote a poem on the subject.
 
Still impressive, considering most people (even those in my age group or younger) would immediately be put off by the harsh vocals. :)

Let me know if you ever want more recommendations in that style, I could spam the forum with those, lol.
 
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