If you had asked me about pagan metal two months ago, I would have known nothing about it nor would I have known anything about Arkona. Luckily, that all changed when they released their single “Kob’”. I fell in love with Arkona and their sound.
Arkona consists of Masha “Scream” (vocals, keyboards, percussion), Sergei “Lazar” (guitars), Ruslan “Kniaz” (bass), Vladimir “Volk”(wind instruments) and Alexander Smirnov (drums) and their ninth studio album, is absolute perfection.
I’ve spent a week listening to Kob’ daily as I wanted to this review to do the album and Akrona‘s work justice, and if it’s not the most played album of 2023 for me, I will be shocked, as it has already solidified its number one spot as the best album of 2023. A bold statement since there are 6 months left of the year.
Nonetheless, topping Arkona’s work in Kob’ will be damn hard.
On the album, the band says,
“Kob’ is Arkona’s darkest creation to date. Conceptually, the album describes six steps of the descent into the abyss, where each of the songs is the epitome of every step. We invite everyone to recognize the truth of the Primordial Darkness by plunging gradually into the world of the black reality of Suicidal Humanity through its complete annihilation.”
Kob’ opens with “Izrechenie. Nachalo” (English translation, “The Speech. The Beginning”) and it is hauntingly stunning with ominous murmuring voices and howling winds that send chills across the skin. One becomes acutely aware that something magical is about to happen, be it dark magic or light magic is up to the listener.
Outsiders to metal and pagan metal, will more than likely try to force Arkona and Kob’ into the darkness due to the heaviness of their sound, Masha’s scream, and the band’s aesthetic, but to do so robs every soul of the beauty that lies within Arkona’s sound, vocals, and aesthetic and the beauty that lies within Kob’.
The title track translates to the word spell in English and “Kob'” is poetically beautiful and just like its meaning, the music flows with the ease of a spell slipping from one’s lips but what I find absolutely fascinating are the vocals of Masha. She is the voice of nightmares. Whether she is singing or howling like a demon, there is a magnificent power within her vocals that is truly captivating.
The longest song on Kob’ is “Ydi” and it clocks in at eleven minutes and forty-eight seconds and saying it’s epic is an understatement. The song showcases the brilliant talent of each individual member of the band. It has soul crushing drumming that blast beat after beat at one’s soul. The guitars wail and cry out and the bass rumbles across one’s very spine, but it’s Masha’s vocals that shine. She is the definition of feminine and masculine vocal energy and her screams and guttural growls have become my favourite of all metal vocalists. While many may lean toward the thought of masculine equates with vocal screaming, I am the complete opposite. For me, her vocal femininity shines best when she is empowered from the depths of her very soul unleashing the inner divinity within and Masha’s vocal masculinity is the softer side of her vocals…delicate yet strong.
It’s the bass in “Ugasaya” that clinches this song as my favourite. Utterly haunting yet heartbreakingly beautiful. There is a wonderful delicateness to the song and Masha’s cleaner vocals lull the listener into a false sense of security and safety before it is ripped away through musical and vocal brutality that crushes and captivates.
The band says this on “Ugasaya”,
This song tells about an ecological catastrophe, the inevitable result of the insane deeds committed by human beings throughout their entire existence and worthless living at the expense of the endless suffering of Mother Earth. It’s about natural cataclysms and disasters, as consequences of human intervention in the desire to rise above the true divine essence of nature, resulting in all the elements rebel against the humans, and nature, initially being the only parent – Creator, killing its insensitive and selfish child.
As “Mor” opens with an acoustic guitar riff that is quiet, lovely, and beautiful and a bass line that sears into the soul, like “Ugasaya” it deceives the listener.
The English word for “Mor” is plague and the band says this about the song,
This song is about epidemics, diseases, and multiple deaths that have been haunting mankind through centuries, but subsequently, man himself artificially created the main plague of our time, which has become his next step on the road to hell.
I wrote before that Masha’s vocals on “Mor” are the epitome of yin and yang and Shakti and Shiva. Masha’s harsh vocals are powerful and filled with a strength that is pure primordial cosmic energy and clean vocals are hauntingly beautiful and have an ability to transform the chaos of the universe but also bring an awareness that to transform one sometimes has to destroy. While Masha creates, transforms, and destroys, the rest of Arkona provide music that is both unnerving with the persistent drums and surprisingly blissful with acoustic guitar.
The opening drums for “Na zakate bagrovogo solntsa” is enchanting and drags one deeper into the magic of Arkona. It is a non stop assault on the aural sense with merciless drums, ferocious vocals, savage guitars and bass. If there were a song to bring about the apocalypse, then “Na zakate bagrovogo solntsa” is that song.
Translating into ‘tearing the flesh owing to the despair of being’, “Razryvaya plot’ ot bezyskhodnosti bytiya” opens with an emotional piano before it erupts into aggression. There’s a tete-a-tete between the quiet and aggression that feels as if it’s an internal battle being played out between the fragility of the piano and wind instruments and the heaviness of the bass, drums, and guitars. Masha’s vocals toe the line between both with ease and grace.
The quiet and haunting close of “Izrechenie. Iskhod” (“The Speech. The Conclusion”) brings the listener full circle on the Kob’ journey. Like “Izrechenie. Nachalo” the murmuring voices, howling winds, and thundering drums, once again sends chills across the skin.
One has witnessed magic from Arkona.
One has been enveloped in the magic of Arkona.
One has been told the future demise of Mother Earth and mankind through Kob’. It’s now in the hands and heart of the listener to be the light that helps or the dark that destroys.
Kob’ is perfect.
Photo by by Edaliana Rennenkampf
