Written by Promonex on 27.11.2006 at 14:19

I just found on the website of Wolfsangel that they share a gig with Arkona in February next year. Looks like Arkona still are alive after all

Ahhh, thats great to hear Thanks for the update Promo!

Well, I wanna say that Arkona is alive and active. They just had a break, because Masha Screma became mother about two weeks ago.

Just a short note to let ARKONA fans we now have their new t-shirt available:

ARKONA - Vo Slavy Velikim T-shirts:
Gorgeous full-color, double-sided, silkscreened on 100% cotton Fruit of the Loom heavyweight shirts. Made in USA. Only 100 made, sizes from M to XXL.



To grab yours, please visit us at http://www.stormspell.com

I like this band, I have almost all of their albums including their newest live, and it is great. I enjoyed couple of time watching it and I will watch it again in the near future.

That sounds cool man!

Grab a shirt and make your friends turn green with envy

This is a great band. I just love their first album Vozrozhdenie. Every song on it is great. I haven't heard the other albums, but I expect them to be the same as Vozrozhdenie or even better.

Written by [user id=23107] on 05.05.2007 at 21:49

This is a great band. I just love their first album Vozrozhdenie. Every song on it is great. I haven't heard the other albums, but I expect them to be the same as Vozrozhdenie or even better.

They are better, try to find their DVD, it is awesome...

I watched a few of their videos and found it good but it seemed to lack something. Maybe it was because I didn't read the lyrics and didn't make them out while listening. The vocalist was good though and the melodies too. I think that if I listen some more to it, I will start to like the band. I searched for the book about the fortress too but found nothing, I only found out that the fortress had a temple dedicated to the god(or goddess) off fertility, that it was situated in eastern Gemany and that it was captured buy Danish knights.

I don't know for how long they were already there, but I just noticed they put up 2 new songs on myspace. Take a peek, I already quite like them

http://www.myspace.com/arkonarussia

Written by Eddie on 26.10.2007 at 15:55

I don't know for how long they were already there, but I just noticed they put up 2 new songs on myspace. Take a peek, I already quite like them

http://www.myspace.com/arkonarussia

I know, they've been on there for quite a while now. But you might want to take a peek here

Written by Promonex on 26.10.2007 at 19:12

I know, they've been on there for quite a while now. But you might want to take a peek here

Haha yeah, it would be awesome to be able to make it there

Good songs I like them realy good new and old are good

It is a bit hard to find their stuff here in the states, some guy at concert recommended me to give Arkona a try, and since then it took me about 5 months to get my hand on a couple of their albums, I have their live album as well as their 2005 release "Vo Slavu Velikim". So far my favorite song is Rus, I only heard the live version.
And last week I got their DVD, too bad it is in PAL format, so I would not be able to see it until I return to Kuwait.

Did Arkona ever have male vocals at some point? Or was it solely scream the entire time?

Russ was their debut, and no, there were no male vocals, Masha do the screaming and growling all the time anyway, but, they had male vocals in few songs.

PS, I bought Russ directly from the band several years ago, it is very rare, so try to contact them sooner than later.

I recently got to know them, havent listened to much of their songs yet, but up till now, theyre great!

one of the many good Slavic folk metal bands, I really like Masha's vocals.
their cd's are hard to find unfortunally. there are many good Slavic folk metal bands by the way

Written by APOHAKC on 26.11.2007 at 09:24

PS, I bought Russ directly from the band several years ago, it is very rare, so try to contact them sooner than later.

Thanks for the tip, I emailed them, now I am waiting on the response

If you fail to buy Cd, at least download it, it is awesome, try over Pagan Front or Slavic Unity web pages, maybe they can sell you a copy.

The Temple of Arkona was the main sacred site of polabian slavic tribes (called Rans or Lutici) located on the island of Rujana (Ruegen). The temple was the centre of Svantevit (four-headed god) worshippers. There was a larger-than-life wooden statue of Svantevit in the main sanctuary. Also a sacred white horse was kept in Arkona. Only head priest could ride this horse and the legends say that Svantevit himself rode it in the nights. This horse was used also for zoomancy : the hoof he first cross the crossed spears gave the priests indicia on the result of upcoming war. It was a bad sign when horse died. The head priest of Arkona was in higher position than the slavic prince and was accompanied by suite of thee hundered horsemen.
It is said that the priests shouldn't breathe when cleaned the temple so they always had to go out to draw a deep breath and than come back to continue in cleaning.

The old danish chronicle wrote: " ... very nice wooden temple, favoured not only spectacular rites but also for the statue of god inside. Ring fence outside was decoraded by rich woodcarvings containing also various paintings. There was only gate opened to coming people. The sanctuary was surrounded by double barrier - the outer one was carrying the roof while inner one with four pillars instead of walls shined bz suspension courtains. In the sanctuary there was giant idol with four heads and four napes. It has shaved bears and cutted hair as the creator wanted to imitate the customs of Rani-people. In right hand the statue had a horn from different metals, every year filled with wine during ceremonies to predict the wealth for upcoming year. The left hand was nestled on waist and the pedestal was part of the floor. Nearby there were reins and saddle and other signs of gods' power. The most fascinating was the sword of unussual size decoraded with both scabbard and blade by silver inlaided"

In 1168 was Ruegen conquered by danish christian king Waldermar First the Great and Arkona was destroyed by order of arch-bishop Absolon. The statue of Svantevit cut to pieces and burned in front of views of humiliated slavic people. Afterthat the forced christianisation was applied on the whole island. By this was old slavic religion perished since Arkona was the only remaining place of slavic belief.


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This is translation of different source in czech wikipedia related to Temple of Arkona
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And now to the russian Arkona .. if anyone wants to see the live photos - I visited their gig in the Czech republic one month ago and shoot following:
http://xichty.cz/?article=1711-perunica-festival-ii-brno-svatoboj&page=3#note5227 (and do not forget to continue on page 4 of that photo-report)

@darkmetal - nice man
Anyway, I like this band, really interesting and good music, and Ive thought lot about it, do I like th Temnozor or Arkona better... and I couldnt decide... They seem to be so similar yet so different in some things, ok maybe most by vocals, but also, Arkona has significantly better production/sound, so thats a + , but i kinda like Temnozor's slightly rawer style, so.... Great band anyway.

Just heard their new album, Ot Serdca K Nebu, and I'm completely blown away. This is purely amazing.. as pagan metal should be! I really enjoy all the different elements, instruments, and textures they use. It can eamlessly go from being agressive and upbeat to sombre and beautiful and back again like it's nothing. Inspiring! Definitely one of my top 2007 albums

Just listened to their Ot Serdca K Nebu album yesterday...damn that's some good shit The music is just amazing. The vocals are both brilliant and annoying at times but mostly brilliant. It's some of the best folk metal I've heard...

EDIT: thank you Lyrinan...you're responsible for me getting to know them

@GT hehehe yay! Glad you enjoyed it, glad to help

I just discovered Arkona. Lots of times I have listened to Ot Serdca K Nebu. I totally love it!! Such great music! But it seems that they are pretty unknown, strange for a band that makes sucht great music!
I wanted to ask if some of you have a reccomandition for an other great band like Arkona?

Written by kotohime on 06.03.2008 at 12:47

I just discovered Arkona. Lots of times I have listened to Ot Serdca K Nebu. I totally love it!! Such great music! But it seems that they are pretty unknown, strange for a band that makes sucht great music!
I wanted to ask if some of you have a reccomandition for an other great band like Arkona?

Arkona are pretty well-known in Russia and are about to spread their fame to the rest of the world. And I'm gonna see them at the end of the month being one of the headliners of the Ragnarök Festival

There are a couple of bands from the same area which are highly recommendable:

Alkonost is a Russian folk metal band that focuses more on the fragile guitar sound and on clean female vocals. Their sound overall is rather calm, not as upbeat as Arkona's, but I'm sure you'll like them.

Pagan Reign is another well-known pagan metal band from Russia. Well, they don't have a hyperactive female for vocalist, but are quite similar to Arkona in most other regards.

Nevid is the band of Lesiar, formerly of Butterfly Temple and contributor of the male vocals to Arkona's music. They are pretty straight-forward and while I couldn't get into their second album yet, their debut is pretty much fun. They've also got a very good female vocalist who makes for some awesome duets with Lesiar.

Butterfly Temple might not be the most well-known Russian pagan metal group, but they definitely are one of the first. Their sound is rather laid-back, more of the doomy kind, in some rare occasions even complemented with a saxophone. Albeit playing pagan metal, a style which is known for it's upbeat and positive nature, the atmosphere in Butterfly Temple's works is mostly sinister. They don't have a Myspace and the English part of their website is far from complete as well, but if you want to give them a try, here are some MP3's: 1 2 3 4

Thanks a lot for the suggestions Promonex!! Already listening to Butterfly Temple, it sounds nice till now. I will search for the other bands also!

As far as I know here in the Netherlands it seems not to be very known but I am glad to hear they are getting more fame! Hopefully they will come to the Netherlands then!

I really envy you, some days ago I saw the line-up from Ragnarök and I thought I was going to die (really!!) I would kill to see a lot of those bands! But unfortunatly I can't go It is a bit to far and I have no car. But who knows, all those bands will visit the Netherlands! (Trying to think positiv)

Written by kotohime on 06.03.2008 at 16:41

Thanks a lot for the suggestions Promonex!! Already listening to Butterfly Temple, it sounds nice till now. I will search for the other bands also!

In case you didn't notice, the band names were links to their Myspace sites

Written by kotohime on 06.03.2008 at 16:41

I really envy you, some days ago I saw the line-up from Ragnarök and I thought I was going to die (really!!) I would kill to see a lot of those bands! But unfortunatly I can't go It is a bit to far and I have no car. But who knows, all those bands will visit the Netherlands! (Trying to think positiv)

How about trying to get a ride? There's lots of people coming from the Netherlands, so you could give it a go at the official forum; there's also quite an active thread about the Ragnarök at Zwaremetalen where you might find a ride.

Hahaha, okay thanks, clearly I didn't notice that...

Hmm yeah I considerd it, I have not been on the forum of ZM yet, I was already considering to register there. Though I am a little bit scared to drive with strangers. But I will take a look. Thanks for the suggestion!
Nice you know of ZM since it is Dutch!

I've listened to some Arkona stuff,and I must admit,they sound pretty well.

mmmm... I like this band! There are very popular here, in Russia!