Текст песни Аркона - Явь

To say that I was waiting for this album is to say nothing. Arkona has become one of my favorite folk metal bands for a long time. It's about the quality of the material, and the Slavic motives, and the charisma of the vocalist. But the main advantage, I think, is a confident leadership in Russian folk metal - you will not find any more band whose releases are as technical as they are frequent. So I waited for the album with inexhaustible optimism.

The very first composition shocked me. Some kind of fusion of hums, eerie electronics, and then an indistinct melody and Masha's whisper. The clanking of the guitar gave way to drums and the low hum of an electronic guitar. The whisper remained.

I turned off the player. What was it? Instead of the usual pagan, I am offered not even black metal, but God knows what! Naturally, I immediately went to the album page and read the comments. At first I wanted to write something like "I couldn't listen to the end", but then I was ashamed. Like this! Make an opinion without listening to the album completely from cover to cover? What, then, is the objectivity of the reviewer? And I continued the torture.

And here is the paradox. By the middle of the track, you really start to get addicted. Let the beginning be absurdly pretentious, even if you do not like the whisper and indistinct lyrics, but how can you resist the monotonous blast-beat background, the increasing strength of the orchestra of folk instruments and guitars, Masha's "Scream" vocals gaining power, the thunder of cymbals and the lightning of guitar solo?

Each track is developed slowly but persistently, and after surprise comes understanding, followed by adoration. In other words, at first it seems to you that you will no longer be able to listen to a single second, then the meaning of this incomprehensible Chaos reaches you, you gradually catch the melody and structure of the composition. And then you cannot help but wave your hair to the tune you like from repeated repetition ...

The music is monotonous and viscous, it is either sadly melancholy, like the murmur of a brook, or violently depressive, like a lake circulation. Sorrow. It is felt all the time in music. The transition from pagan to black is impossible to miss. Of course, a lot of clean vocals - here I do not argue. But pay attention to the monotony of the rhythm, the abundance of blast-beats, the constant gloomy harmony - in my opinion, it's easy to guess from which style this tradition came.

I want to devote a separate paragraph to vocals. In addition to pure, here, oddly enough, there is an extreme already familiar from previous albums. Only he has changed a little. The general mood of the music adds falsetto notes to the growl, which in some places turn into a real shrike. I must admit that I was quite surprised, it seemed to me for a moment that I was listening to DSBM! Yes, gentlemen, Arkona has changed a lot. And I won't say that I don't like it.

The only caveat to the album is the clean vocals. It has become less "popular" and more alternative. Instead of the beloved folk cry, melodic classical tunes await us.

Total: we have an interesting technical album that you need to feel, so if you do not have a free hour, you better not listen to the album at all, so as not to mislead yourself. The album's rating is a solid four, because the album could have been the best (a couple of hits like "Goy, Rode" wouldn't hurt him). On the other hand, a huge plus for an unforgettable experience from experiments. Therefore, as you already understood, 4+.

1. Origin
2. Guarding New Years
3. Serbia
4. Call of Empty Villages
5. City of Dreams
6. Witch
7. Child of Indigo
8. Reality
9. In the arms of Cramola