I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Arkona

I saw Arkona (Аркона) open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  I liked everything about them–their look, their sound and their lead singer, band creator, and primary songwriter Masha Scream (Maria Arkhipova).  The band were dressed in burlap robes, and they all had long hair.  There was a hand drum and skulls and all manner of arcana.  I assumed that they were huge (and I think they are in Europe).

So when they announced a show in Clifton, I just had to go–their first time in the States (otherthan NYC) since 2018.  It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).  I felt bad for the band who I know has played festivals with thousands of screaming fans.  And here we were, about 75 people.  Yikes.  I hope they didn’t lose money.

The roadies came out and hung up the Arkona banner (I think at other shows they’ve projected images behind the band, but there was no room for that here).  It was pretty funny seeing them hang the banner while standing on chairs–again a whole battle of the bands feel. 

They started playing Russian folk music on the speakers and I was sure the band was about to come out.  But there seemed to be some other kind of technical difficulty and it took a little while for them to get things going.  Finally the band came out in their brown hooded robes.  They played backing music for the band and soon enough they started playing properly.

And all of my concerns about the high school feel of the show vanished.  Because this was a real show at last.  I can’t really describe what was different.  It was like hearing a band on a TV speaker vs hearing it on a home stereo.  They sounded massive and they were all (well, Masha was) really intense.

She sings in a “death growl” for much of the songs.  But because her voice is higher than most men, the death growl is interesting, not just gibberish.  Or maybe it’s because she is singing in Russian that I know it’s gibberish to me, so I’m not trying to hear words.  But in between the growls, she demonstrated a beautiful singing voice as well.

On the far side of the stage was her husband Sergei “Lazar” Atrashkevich.  He has long hair like her and he towers over the stage. His guitar playing is heavy and fast.  I was in front of bassist Ruslan “Kniaz” Rosomaherovm who I feel a little bad about because I ignored him completely as I was focused on Masha.  I couldn’t really see their drummer Alexander “Noff” Smirnov very well.  But he had at least one iPad connected to his gear and I think he was triggering most of the sound effects.

Their last album came out in 2023, and it’s sort of what they were touring.  They played the second and third songs off of the album.  Now, I haven’t listened to this record (I like the band live but don’t listen to their music much).  Suffice it to say I didn’t realize that these two songs were 7 and 12 minutes respectively.  There are lots of parts and lots of vocal styles,so ididn’t know if there weremany songs or what.  But no.  It was just two.

In between songs, the band turned around–mostly I think so Masha could drink some water.  They would play some kind o interstitial music on the iPad and then the band would turn around and explode once more.

They followed these two songs up with two songs from their 2014 album Yav’.  And these two songs were really long as well (& and 13 minutes–so that was 40 some minutes and only 4 songs!).  It was wonderful.  I’m sure I would have liked it even more if I knew the songs.

From there they moved throuhg some of their other albums, playing songs that the played in 2018.  They played Khram, another ten minute epic (I’m sure these songs were shorter live–the albums have some intro music, but maybe that’s what was on the iPad).

They followed it up with the hyperactive blast of heaviness that is Goi Rode Goi!  It’s a very diferent sound from the other songs with heavy staccato chords pummeling the audience.  The other songs wer so long that this one felt like it was 2 minutes long.

Then came two of their folkier songs from the Slovo album, with traditional singing and chanting.  Zakliatie opens with Masha chanting a vocal line that sounds Native American (I have no idea if it is).  And that vocal line runs through the whole song.  It is super catchy and fun to sing along to even if you have no idea what is being sung.

And then the band left the stage.  I wasn’t certain that there would be an encore, but we chanted and stomped and they came back out for another song off of Slovo, the final song on the record, Zimushka.  This song opens similarly with Masha chanting while the instruments build around her.  These last two songs were highlights of the set for me.  I’m not sur if the venue fixed things, but it felt like her vocals were louder and clearer for these last two songs.  And I really liked hearing her clearly.

I enjoyed the set immensely and it wasn’t until I remembered that at the previous show, there was a guy playing folk instruments: (last time Vladimir “Volk” Reshetnikov played the flute and the bagpipes and several other “ethnic wind instruments”). He was not part of this show.  Did he not come to the States?  Was the venue too small?

Reading some forums it seems that many people are disappointed in the direction the band has moved in on the last few albums–more death / doom metal and less folk inspired.  This has to do with the state of the world and Masha’s reaction to everything going on (She was devastated about the attacks on Ukraine and that shows up in some of the lyrics apparently).  So yes, the newer stuff is more gloomy.  But they do still play the older songs.  And Masha is still a force to be reckoned with.  Even in front of only 75 people.

≥ Kob’ (2023)
ϖ Khram (2018)
∇ Yav’ (2014) 
§ Slovo (2011)
⊗ Goi Rode Goi! (2009)
& Vo slavu velikim! (2005)