Band:	Alkonost
Album:	The Path We've Never Made
Style:	Pagan folk metal
Release date:	April 2006

01. The Forest Voice
02. The Indiscernible Path
03. The Night Before The Battle
04. Nivushka-Niva
05. Darkness
06. The Dream Sea
07. Heat-Lightning Thoughts

Alkonost is without any doubt the new killer band with a female vocalist. This band is simply one of the best combos that I had the luck to listen to lately and I will be extremely proud if my review helps them a bit to get the reorganization that they deserve. Alkonost comes from Russia, and Alyona the singer sings in Russian. Alkonost plays a music that you'll not be able to listen to easily since that they play a really dark Pagan Folk Metal. Near of Doom sometime, not so far away of Gothic some others time, "The Path We've Never Made" their last album is a real enchanting album and I'm sure that the Metalheads who like this kind of music will be amazed by the quality of the compositions of this young band from Russia.

The first thing that will touch you with this album is without any doubt the voice of Alyona. This alto sings with a symphonic voice but let me tell you that it's a lot better than all the "famous" singers of the category. The quality and the purity of her voice are so great that it will give you shivers. But don't worry, even if Alyona sings with this kind of "trendy" voice, Alkonost is not a new Nightwish. At the opposite we're more in the same lines than bands like Mindnattsol which means that Alkonost plays Folk Metal.

But even if Alkonost plays Folk Metal, you'll not be able to find real folk instruments. Here, and that's probably my only little regret with this release (but if it's not a problem really), all the folk instrumentations are played by the keyboards, but also those "folk" melodies and sonorities are done by the guitars. It sounds good but the Keyboard sometime is a bit too much "mechanic" and not so acoustic. But anyway, the music of Alkonost is punchy with a lot of rhythm, even if the riffs are heavy and loud and not so fast and even if we also have some death vocals sometime. It's dark but with a lot of intelligence, the band knew how to write catchy beautiful songs that will touch a lot of listeners.

I will not talk about the lyrics, all is in Russian (sorry I cannot read Cyrillic!) but you must know that the main themes of the bands are Pagan stuff. On the other hand I think that it was a good idea to sing in Russian, especially when you play Folk Music? because it just sounds great and give a little exotic touch for someone from the western countries that fits perfectly with Pagan Folk Metal?

With a a lot of hits (I didn't talk about a specific song of the album since all the songs are just great really!) a really good production with great musicians and a sensational singer, "The Path We've Never Made" is the album that the fans of Folk Metal will have to buy! I'm also sure that the fans of Gothic or Doom Metal like the ones who listen to Symphonic "stuff" (Power etc?) will enjoy a lot of this record. It's beautiful, touching and I can only recommend you this band and their records. I just hope that the fact that they sing in Russian will never be a brake for you and for their future exportation out of Russia. Just magical?