Arkona - Goi, Rode, Goi! (2009)

Hailing from the cold lands of Russia, Arkona presents us their fifth full length album. This album is probably one of the longest Paga/Folk Metal albums that I’ve heard in my life clocking nearly 80 minutes of very attractive music.

The band has been refining their Pagan/Folk style since they formed in 2002 and with “Goi, Rode, Goi!” they hava produced their best album to date, but it’s too long. I’m all about getting more for my money, but sometimes is better just to split stuff into an EP and a full length album.

The band has managed to write a very complex album that will take more than a few listens to fully digest. The flow of the album is very interesting since the band starts with the ‘heavier’ side of their Pagan Metal style and then it progresses into more melodic songs, and at the end it goes all Folk Metal. A very interesting progression that I think it works very well for the album.

Arkona used a huge number of guest musicians in this album and I will just name a few of the bands that the come from: Månegarm, Skyforger, Tverd and Heidevolk. These guest performances are focused in a couple of songs and those songs are the albums biggests feats and my favorite songs overall (“Na Moey Zemle” and “Tuchi Mrachniye”). Providing an endless myriad of instruments that you will send quite a while trying to figure out.

The band also goes all out with all the instruments presented in this album by actually playing them instead of using a synth and getting all sounds in that way. This is one of the things that I think make Arkona stand out from many other Pagan/Folk Metal that provide enough synth magic to put David Copperfield to shame.

The ‘Metal’ aspect of this album is limited to electric guitars that are very consistent throughout the album and might get a bit dull after a while, as well as the male harsh vocals that are also ok, but nothing out of the ordinary. All the instrumentation and the different vocal styles is what makes this band stand out from other Pagan/Folk Metal bands.

Overall “Goi, Rode, Goi!” is a very solid effort by Arkona that will help them move closer to the Pagan/Folk Metal elite. If you are looking for a solid album in this genre and have not heard of Arkona, I can guarantee this is a pretty solid buy that you will not regret.

Release: November 3rd, 2009

Country: Russia