2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
The Arkona group is known both at home and abroad, thanks to the talent of a modest girl named Masha. The compositions combined the pagan motifs of Ancient Russia with heavy metal. The style is characterized as pagan-folk, which is a very uncommon direction. The project is interesting from all sides, because there are few such outstanding teams on the Russian heavy metal scene as the rock band Arkona.
Start
This story began 16 years ago in January 2002, when two adherents of the cult of pre-Christian Russia (the Dolgo-Prudnensky Rodnoverie community "Vyatichi") Alexander "Warlock" Korolev and Masha "Scream" Arkhipova decided to put together their gang.
The demo album of the same year "Rus" became the first sign, after which the guys began active performances with such cool bands as: Therion, Pagan Reign, Rossomahaar, Butterfly Temple and Svarga. This was followed by a two-year pause due to the fact that the participants dispersed in different directions, and further prospects wereunknown.
Promotion
2004 was a very fruitful year, as the albums of the group "Arkona" "Vozrozhdeniye" and "Lepta" were released one after another. And all this thanks to the persistence of Masha, who wrote the music and lyrics, and then asked her friends from Nargathrond to help her with the realization of her ideas, because there were no own musicians at the time of the recording of the first album.
The team instantly received the status of the best performers within this genre, which is quite logical, since not many of us "cut" the pagan-folk-metal style.
The next album "To the glory of the great!" was released in 2005, and was distinguished by the fact that the music was enriched with new ethnic instruments. This was followed by a concert and recording of new material. In 2006, a CD was born called "Life for Glory", which was accompanied by a full DVD.
Weightening
May 2007 came, and the group "Arkona" started studio work again. The sound of the new album called "From the Heart to the Sky" turned out to be more interesting, as it combined such metal styles as: death, black and doom. However, the compositions, as before, were filled with Slavic themes, reflecting the worldview of the musicians themselves. Representatives of the Belarusian choir "Guest" participated in the creation of the new material.
Today, the team includes the following members:
- Masha "Scream" - vocals;
- Sergey "Lazar" - guitar;
- Ruslan "Kniaz" - bass guitar;
- Vladimir "Volk" - folk instruments;
- Andrey Ischenko - drums.
World class
The year 2008 came and Arkona went to Ragnarök Festival V, which is one of the biggest festivals for pagan-metal representatives. Moreover, the guys were headliners there and won the ardent love of an audience of thousands. Returning to their homeland, the Arkonovites received an unexpected offer from the cool European label Napalm Records, which firmly took up the musicians, organizing the release of the next album and a tour of Europe.
Disc "Goy, Rode, Goy!" was released in 2009, along with a DVD called Velesov's Night. Forty people participated in the recording of the new album, so the work turned out to be longer and more difficult, but the result was worthy. The main treasure was the song of the group "Arkona" with the patriotic title "On my land", which is notable for the fact that musicians from such cult bands as Heidevolk, Menhir, Obtest, Skyforger and Månegarm took part in its realization.
Tour time
The year 2010 has come and was filled with interesting trips to such coolest European festivals as: Ragnarök, Paganfest and Metalfest. The Arkona group traveled pretty much from Scandinavia to the Balkans, attracting more and more new admirers. In total, 2010 brought the guys a little more than 150 concerts, which was an absolute breakthrough in the career of musicians.
Hard-working Masha, during the long tour, found time to prepare material for recording a new album. Work in the studio fell on November of the same year, andcompleted in the summer of 2011. The sixth album, titled The Word, was as massive as its predecessors, and in addition to the choir, a symphony orchestra was involved in the recording.
In 2011, the Arkona group went on their first world tour, and a year later, while in Moscow, they celebrated their first anniversary - 10 years together with a string quartet and a choir. Then the guys again plunged into traveling around the world, taking part in the world's largest festivals.
Line-up changes
The year 2013 came, and the guys who returned from the tour started working on a new brainchild called "Yav". However, Vlad "Artist" soon decided to leave, but he finished recording some songs for this disc. Andrey Ivashchenko took his place.
The new album turned out to be even more powerful and technically complex, but the usual choir and plucked string instruments were not noticed during the sound.
After that, a major Russian tour followed, and then the Arkona group again went to perform at European festivals. In 2017, the musicians celebrated their fifteenth anniversary by giving fans new concerts.
Our time
In early 2018, the pagans released an album called "Temple", which is particularly heavy with a touch of hopeless darkness. Then the guys again plunged into large-scale trips around the world.
Speaking of the Arkona group, one thing can be said - they are the pride of the Russian heavy scene, and in the European media there are extremely positive reviews about them.
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