ARKONA – Pandora Star

vote
7.0

• Band:
  ARKONA (POL)
• Duration: 00:47:45
• Available from: 27/09/2024
• Label:

• Beware of the Dead

Streaming not yet available

Arkona (not to be confused with the Russian band of the same name) are one of the longest-running bands in Polish extreme metal and, with more than thirty years of career behind them and seven albums released, they have always occupied a very respectable place in a scene, that of black metal, which has however never seen them as true protagonists, also due to the cumbersome presence of a fellow countryman colossus like Behemoth.
Starting with a violent but very atmospheric sound and dirtied by orchestrations that blended well with the more strictly metal part, the group from Perzów has gradually gotten closer to a nihilistic and monolithic black, with a strong impact but perhaps a little to the detriment of that nocturnal and foggy aura of works like “Imperium” or the semi-masterpiece “Zeta Reticuli”.
With this new “Stella Pandora” the Poles seem to want to reintroduce those evocative and majestic characteristics that seemed lost, blending them in a very convincing way with the intensity and intransigence of a black metal close in some ways to the Swedish school of Dark Funeral and Dawn.
Tempos that are almost always very fast and suffocating are supported by a riffing that is nevertheless melodic, capable of shaping an epic and majestic atmosphere, thanks also and above all to a subtle but persistent carpet of never invasive orchestrations, all aided by a powerful and clean production that is not at all cold and that gives the right amount of roughness.
We are certainly not talking about something sensational but we must admit that, despite some moments in which the album goes on a bit too long, songs like “Pandora”, with its martial and depressive pace or the dramatic ride of “Elysium” do not leave you indifferent.
In songs like “Prometheus” then, the violence of a drum kit bordering on paroxysmal clashes with some of the most melodic guitars of the entire work, leaving a feeling of dizziness, almost as a counterpoint to “Aurora” which instead demonstrates an extremely dissonant and dreamlike harmonic dress.
The absolute highest moment is reached with the splendid “Necropolis”, capable of bringing to mind the symphonic landscapes of Emperor: almost eight extremely dense minutes in which circular riffs are dressed with elegant keyboard carpets, with a structural evolution aimed at accumulating that tension that is released in the second half in which we finally navigate on fast tempos that lead to a liberating ending. A song with an extremely narrative nature that develops throughout its duration and that absolutely MUST become the starting point for a possible future evolution of Arkona.
A valuable album this “Stella Pandora” that, even with some residue to smooth out – there is still in some places a tendency to want to forcefully lengthen the songs – gives us a band in great shape. Let's hope that this is finally the moment for the definitive consecration and not the umpteenth promise never completely kept.