Band:	Arkona
Album:	Kob'
Style:	Progressive black metal, Pagan folk metal
Release date:	June 2023

01. Izrechenie. Nachalo
02. Kob'
03. Ydi
04. Ugasaya
05. Mor
06. Na Zakate Bagrovogo Solntsa
07. Razryvaya Plot' Ot Bezyskhodnosti Bytiya
08. Izrechenie. Iskhod

Arkona’s follow-up to the amazing Khram from 2018, where they made a U-turn music-wise into something truly unexpected, has been a long time in the making. Their new album does not disappoint, and it makes me happy to know good things can still come out of Russia. In case you have been living in a war bunker the past couple of years, you probably didn’t know that Arkona on their last album turned out to have some of the biggest balls in all metal. They could have just as well continued on their easy-listening, popular brand of folk black metal. It is hard to believe that the same band who made “Yarilo”, featured in The Office (US) out of all places, made the bleak, harsh, and progressive Khram.

So, five years have passed, and Masha and the gang are back with Kob’ (Sorcery). A lot has happened in five years, which is evident already from the first proper song, “Kob’”. Following an ambient synth prelude, “Kob’” is a beast of a song. It starts out unassuming enough, but after a little while it explodes into a mid-paced, ritualistic dirge, where Masha barks out the Russian lyrics in a fantastically rhythmic fashion supported by a damn catchy and hypnotic guitar hook. I swear, one lick of that hook, and I’m in a different state of mind; meditative yet harsh, bleak yet hopeful, and just as you get used to the hook, the song drops into full ambient mode complete with electronic trip-hop drums. “Kob’” introduces all the elements of the band in a masterful way, as the ambience gets supported by a solemn flute, before it all explodes again into an anthemic, ritualistic, spiritual groove that yet again dies down into sombre ambience. Masha’s soaring clean vocals trade places with her hoarse screams, and finally that earwormy hook returns to close the song out. The themes here (and as seen on the video) revolve around digging up a brutal past, which one naturally can draw their own conclusions from. However, without getting political, and without understanding the lyrics any better than by Google Translate, it's safe to say that this is not the same band that used to write anthems to the glory of the old Rus' empire.

Next up is the longest song, “Ydi”, clocking in at nearly 12 minutes and it goes from anthemic black metal to full-on mayhem with Masha screaming her lungs out into a neo-classical guitar solo and ritualistic chanting before surprising us with a classic Arkona folk hook that leads into a great variety of different, dynamical sections ranging from whispering to atmospheric black metal before escalating into an operatic part replete with choirs that come right out of the blue but fits fantastically. “Ugasaya” (Fadin’ Away) offers another pleasant surprise, with a groovy bassline and synth arpeggios introducing Masha’s clean singing, almost as if they want to lure us into having made a trance ballad. It sounds like an electronically infused pagan lament, and Masha has never sounded so great. It later evolves into a hard rocking black metal cut which just keeps evolving into various parts, some melodic, some melancholic, some groovy; too many to mention.

The honour of most interesting song goes to “Mor” which is absolutely bat shit insane. For all its 9 minutes, there is nigh a single repeated section as the song jumps from idea to idea—ideas that by themselves could have been the basis for entire songs, mind you—and somehow it all gels together. Wait, I have to listen to it again just to figure out all that’s going on. It stars out innocently enough, with whispers and acoustic guitars. Then, a melancholic guitar introduces a harsher part which later succumbs to the opening false sense of security. Acoustic tremolo guitars are playing in the background as it explodes again, this time with a chord progression so epic a lesser band would make an entire album around this; Arkona, however, never gives the listener a moment of respite, as the song drops into a fantastically catchy 7/4 groove that as far as I’m concerned could go on for the entire rest of the song. But no, Arkona want to take us on a journey here, as more whispers, and too many layered folk instruments to keep track of escalate into a blackened death section that just keeps evolving into more and more ritualistic pleasure. If “Tseluya Zhizn'” from Khram was their most ambitious song to date, “Mor” is the condensed version of this: an entire album full of ideas in one song among many others, and I have the utmost respect for Arkona for managing to piece together such a coherent piece of music considering all that’s going on.

I’m running out of space. Suffice to say that the atmospheric, depressive “Na Zakate Bagrovogo Solntsa” (At The Crimson Sunset) has a big surprise for you during its second half, going all tribal and semi-unplugged folk anthem, and “Razryvaya Plot' Ot Bezyskhodnosti Bytiya” (Tearing The Flesh Owing To The Despair Of Being) with its classical piano intro that then juxtaposes some sort of operatic, nearly gothic section and an unforgettable chord progression with moments of black metal outbursts won’t leave you wanting… except for more.

The variety on display on Kob' is simply astounding and the creativity and conviction in the masterful songwriting makes this hour-long album feel not nearly as long, and I will replay it until I figure out every badass twist and turn on offer here. Don’t expect old Arkona, don’t expect Khram, expect something unexpected; something that will surprise you at every moment. Expect melodic, hypnotic, pagan yet constantly progressive black metal. Expect a magical journey through Arkona’s finest album to date.