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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:10 am 
 

Arkona-Khram(2018)

Track list:

1. Mantra (Intro)
2. Shtorm
3. Tseluya zhizn’
4. Rebionok bez imeni
5. Khram
6. V pogonie za beloj ten’yu
7. V ladonyah bogov
8. Volchitsa
9. Mantra (Outro)

Khram, is the Russian word for temple – and the upcoming title of ARKONA's hotly anticipated, eighth studio album, set to be released on January 19th 2018 via Napalm Records!

A Khram is a temple shrouded in natural mysticism slumbering behind nocturnal treetops, yet open to everyone. The sincerity and depth that binds all five band members together resonates in the sumptuously dark cover artwork and leading lady Masha`s lyrics that are written in her own blood (which is also part of the artwork)! ARKONA may have used sound samples in their early days, but nowadays cellos, brass parts, wind instruments and throat singing are recorded live meticulously and flow naturally into the band's harsh metal tunes.

Now Russia's leading pagan metal band has unveiled the stunning album artwork for Khram!

King-sized songs effortlessly shift from blackened pagan metal masterpieces to epic tracks with crystal-clear melodies and piano infusions. Mark your calendars for January 19th 2018, as ARKONA’s Khram is an exuberant and demanding affair that defies genre boundaries with untamable spirit!


Artwork:

Image

So the well-known Russian folk metal band is set to release a new album entitled "Khram". The artwork is a clear departure from the much more colourful artworks made by Kris. It may indicate also a great change in their sound. Last album was clearly underwhelming mainly due to the weak vocals, so I hope this one will be better. Thoughts?

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~Guest 334273
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Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:19 am
Posts: 2513
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:34 am 
 

Looks good and different from their usual fare indeed.. i really hope this means a darker sound, as i really like their more black metal influenced songs and dislike their party folk ones

Interested! :lol:

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Dooders
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:00 am
Posts: 760
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 6:25 am 
 

They really have a good handle on melodies and songwriting, but the vocals detract sometimes while other songs get the beer swillin' in the tavern thing going a bit too much. Hopefully it is more bleak and menacing than their previous efforts because I think they really have a ton of talent, but they are really unique regardless.

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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:31 am 
 

I really like Masha´s vocals, both the clean and harsh ones are very good. But on "Явь"(what a truly beautiful artwork this album has) she sounded weak, I don´t know why.

I think they were great up to "Goi Rode Goi", adding many folk instruments. But on "Слово"(which I stil enjoy) they gave too much importance to the orquestations and similar stuff. They should go back to their folk roots even though they may sound darker on this new cd.

"Serious" stuff is good but I still love some of their happy folkie songs.

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Element_man
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:37 am
Posts: 1021
Location: Vancouver, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:54 am 
 

Always liked this band. I thought Явь from 2014 was their best album... so cool and proggy and full of weird interesting shit. Curious to hear what they've got now as I didn't even know they put out an album since then. I prefer it when they nix all the goofy bullshit.
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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 9:23 pm 
 

Element_man wrote:
Always liked this band. I thought Явь from 2014 was their best album... so cool and proggy and full of weird interesting shit. Curious to hear what they've got now as I didn't even know they put out an album since then. I prefer it when they nix all the goofy bullshit.

Agreed about Yav (or Jav, whatever). They did a great job integrating the prog, folk, rock, and pompous eastern black metal elements with a degree of coherence that only Khors (Return to Abandoned) and Nokturnal Mortum (Verity) have reached. This kind of genre blending is a lot more interesting than the the usual folk metal thing of just playing folk tunes on guitars and having an violin wailing in the background, or the viking metal thing of playing two Enslaved riffs for 10 minutes with casio choirs wailing in the background (looking at you, Saor).

The description definitely sounds like they are continuing down this road, and the art looks pretty cool. Hopping on the hype train!

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pfk505
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:04 am
Posts: 420
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 3:34 am 
 

Pretty hyped for this one, I have spent countless (usually drunken) hours listening to this band over the years and they hold a truly special place in my heart. I saw them live at a dive bar around the corner from my house a few years ago and it was surreal - one of the greatest experiences of my life. I'm already twitching with anticipation for this.

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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:11 am 
 

The first teaser is here!


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Emanon
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:19 am
Posts: 270
Location: Shqipëria
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:31 am 
 

Quote:
and leading lady Masha`s lyrics that are written in her own blood


Well aren't we edgy.

Good live band though, and if their sound is actually progressing in a new direction, I'll definitely give their album a listen.
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Element_man
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:37 am
Posts: 1021
Location: Vancouver, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:20 pm 
 

John_Sunlight wrote:
Agreed about Yav (or Jav, whatever). They did a great job integrating the prog, folk, rock, and pompous eastern black metal elements with a degree of coherence that only Khors (Return to Abandoned) and Nokturnal Mortum (Verity) have reached. This kind of genre blending is a lot more interesting than the the usual folk metal thing of just playing folk tunes on guitars and having an violin wailing in the background, or the viking metal thing of playing two Enslaved riffs for 10 minutes with casio choirs wailing in the background (looking at you, Saor).
Yeah you've summed up my thoughts on the genre(s) as well. I really like what Nok Morty have been up to lately. I'll have to check out that Khors album you mentioned.

Off to a good start with the teaser. Lots of stuff that sounds promising and a distinct lack of goofy bullshit that I hate.
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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:27 pm 
 

You can add Sgurr by Thy Catafalque to that list as well. :)

Anyway, as I said in the 2018 albums thread: This sounds a bit darker than Yav. A dark Yav? w00t

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ChildClownOutlet
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Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:52 pm
Posts: 1579
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:03 pm 
 

Paganbasque wrote:
The first teaser is here!


Man I just can't get into Arkona, I dunno if it's because of the vocalist or because I think Dalriada are much better.
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pfk505
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:04 am
Posts: 420
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:12 pm 
 

Paganbasque wrote:
The first teaser is here!



Sounds pretty good, definitely a continuation of the sound developed on Yav

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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:26 am 
 

ChildClownOutlet wrote:
Paganbasque wrote:
The first teaser is here!


Man I just can't get into Arkona, I dunno if it's because of the vocalist or because I think Dalriada are much better.


Even thoug both bands play folk they sound very different. I really like Dalriada though.

This teaser sounds darker and a logic evolution from Yav, sadly I doubt I will like this.

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IamDBR
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 2:58 am
Posts: 1462
PostPosted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 11:56 am 
 

Oh nice! Gonna' check this out as well.

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narsilianshard
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Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:22 pm
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Location: PDX
PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:46 pm 
 

pre-orders up: https://arkonamoscow.bandcamp.com/album/khram
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DoomMetalAlchemist
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:10 am
Posts: 2860
PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:52 pm 
 

narsilianshard wrote:


Despite the initial teaser giving me the concern there would not be enough folk instrumentation for my liking, I liked the first single, Shtorm. Pretty decent amount of folk instrumentation, and I enjoyed the parts without it, and Masha's vocals sounded good. I'm more hopeful now.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 11:10 pm 
 

I was hopeful to begin with, but now believe this album will be balleriffic (to use the hip vernacular of the youth).

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DoomMetalAlchemist
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:10 am
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:41 am 
 

John_Sunlight wrote:
I was hopeful to begin with, but now believe this album will be balleriffic (to use the hip vernacular of the youth).


:lol: Why though?

EDIT: Now I realized I may have misinterpreted what you meant by "ballerific". Like it's gonna be baller (awesome) or its gonna be balls (bad)?


Last edited by DoomMetalAlchemist on Sat Dec 16, 2017 4:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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~Guest 334273
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Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:19 am
Posts: 2513
PostPosted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 3:52 am 
 

Thats exactly the sound i wanted from them. Great song and high hopes for the album!

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Pitiless Wanderer
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 7:34 pm
Posts: 1710
Location: Ankara
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 11:00 am 
 

http://www.nocleansinging.com/

new single. sounds good

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:54 pm 
 

New track can be listened to on bandcamp: https://arkonamoscow.bandcamp.com/track ... eloj-tenyu

A softer track, less folk instrumentation, but with gentle, almost electronic beats. Builds to a classic atmo-black crescendo which climaxes with the repetition of the original verse. Based on these two songs so far, this might be Masha's best vokill performance yet of both harsh and clean vokills!. Looks like this will be quite a diverse album as well. Based on its position in the tracklisting, I'm assuming this is the cooldown track after the mid point peak with the title track setting up the latter half of the album. Hype train keeps on a'rollin.

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pfk505
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:04 am
Posts: 420
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:39 am 
 

I loved the newest single (the music video on youtube is fucking awesome too) but I thought Masha's harsh vocals sounded a bit weak for once, like they might be fading with age. Hope that's not the case! I wish this thing would hurry up and release already.

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~Guest 226319
President Satan

Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:41 am
Posts: 6570
PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:15 pm 
 

Only one week left. :( :)

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DoomMetalAlchemist
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:10 am
Posts: 2860
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:12 pm 
 

New interview with Masha: http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/en/interviews/view/id/6320

Funny, she confirmed my fear there was less folk instrumentation on Khram than even on Yav, and even addresses that people like me had that criticism as well. :lol: She seems to want to move away from the "folk" label without moving away from the "pagan" label.

Very good read. In addition to the above, she also addresses that the reviews for Yav were mixed, and that some of the drawbacks for that album she addressed with Khram. The interviewer said that Khram was sort of a continuation of the sound developed on Yav and that there are similarities to Moonsorrow, but Masha denied both of those points ( :lol: ) and explained the first one rather well.

Those were just my highlights, there's other interesting stuff covered.

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pfk505
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:04 am
Posts: 420
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:21 am 
 

My first impressions are that it's not much better than Yav on the whole and is still well short of living up to mid-period Arkona.. but there are some definite highlights. The 17 minute Tseluya zhizn' is one of their better songs (which is saying something). The album also finishes well, with the last 3 songs also being pretty solid. It's only the middle 20 minutes which really drag the album down. Good, but not great.

Also, my previous comments about the vocals were totally unfounded. Strong and majestic as ever!

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DoomMetalAlchemist
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:10 am
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:27 am 
 

I enjoyed the first 4 or five tracks well enough (didn't love them though) and after that I was bored out of my mind the rest of the way through.

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DividerOfShadows
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2016 1:58 pm
Posts: 404
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 8:36 am 
 

Never listened to Arkona before, but this album sold me. Holy shit this is perfect.
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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 6:24 am 
 

At least vocals are far better than in the previous album. I need more spins to get used to the new sound but I can find some interesting moments, so this could be a grower, maybe.

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