THE PAGAN MUSIC LIST #5
The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
Previous collections in this series have been archived here, and new collections of reviews will be posted monthly (supporters get early access to new collections—find out more here).
We also provide a constantly updated index of artists that we have reviewed by name and genre.
And if you are a Spotify listener, you can click on the embedded player to listen to the full updated playlist!
COLLECTION #5: ARKONA, EIVØR, ADVERSUS, PERKELT
ARKONA
METAL
RECOMMENDED ALBUM: SLOVO
WEBSITE: HTTPS://LABEL.NAPALMRECORDS.COM/ARKONA
Arkona is a female-fronted slavic Russian pagan metal band whose been around for almost 20 years. Their members are all practictioners of Rodnovery, the revival of traditional Slavic polytheism whose popularity has been growing in Europe. Their songs heavily evoke Slavic myths and gods, and their name itself is a tribute to one of the last Pagan temples to be destroyed by the Christians in Europe (Arkona was a citadel temple devoted to the Slavic god of battle, Svantovit).
Lead singer Maria 'Masha Scream' Arkhipova is incredibly talented, and is known to be one of the first woman metal singers to employ typical growling metal vocals so well that her voice is indistinguishable from a male growl.
Arkona has eight albums, of which the best is their 2011 release, Slovo, which uses more folk instruments and melodies than other albums. It’s also probably their most accessible album to listeners who have not yet developed an ear for metal.
My all time favorite of their songs is Zimushka (“Winter”). With gorgeous vocals, the lyrics tell of a woman who kills her husband in anger only to then miss him so much in the winter that she follows him into death.
She went to the green garden
And called her husbands name
Oh, husband, you are my husband
You are my darlingYou are husband, my husband
Yes, you are my darling
Oh, you are my darling
Yes, we shall go home.
Another accessible song from the same album is Stenka na Stenku (“Wall on Wall”). Stenka na Stenku was a mass bare-fisted brawling ritual devotion to the Slavic god Perun that appalled both Christian missionaries and Tsars alike.
Wall to wall
Fears away
Lightning rune on this day of Perun
Calls again to go into a fist fight
Hey, walk, Slavic brethren!
Hey hey, more fun!
Oh, oh, fight again!
EIVØR
FOLK/TRADITIONAL, ELECTRONIC, POP
RECOMMENDED ALBUM:SLøR
WEBSITE: HTTPS://EIVOR.COM
Eivør Pálsdóttir is a Faroese singer with a gorgeous, haunting voice. Listeners may already know her from some of her soundtrack work (The Last Kingdom, God of War). Eivørs songs mix electronic and pop elements with more traditional instruments and her own traditional throat singing and sometimes sultry, sometimes innocent vocals, while drawing from her rich Nordic heritage for her lyrics.
Trøllabundin (Spellbound, or literally “troll bound”) is a love song in the metaphor of enchantment.
Spellbound I am, I am
The wizard has enchanted me, enchanted me
Spellbound deep in my soul, in my soul
In my heart burns a sizzling fire, a sizzling fireSpellbound I am, I am
The wizard has enchanted me, enchanted me
Spellbound in my heart's root, my heart's root
My eyes gaze to where the wizard stood
And Brotin (Broken) summons the listener to release from their sorrow through the imagery of witch initiation:
How do you unbind this knot in your soul
How do you break out between the narrow bars
Into an open world that can hold you
Dancing wildly in the black night
Don´t know the morning yet
Our broken hearts
Take one step at a time
I know that you are not unlike me
Under covering skin
Woven from the same fabric
Longing for happiness just like me
Dancing wildly in the red night
Don´t know the morning yet
Fighting against the current
Taking one step at a time
ADVERSUS
ELECTRONIC, WEIRD
RECOMMENDED ALBUM: WINTER, SO UNSAGBAR WINTER
WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.ADVERSUS.DE/
I finally get to tell the world about my secret little addiction, Adversus. Adversus is absolutely crazy, utterly incomprehensible, and the best trip of your life. If you were to mix Japanese video game music with opera, laudanum, underground drum&bass, and a renaissance festival, you have Adversus.
Their lyrics (are those lyrics or channelings?) evoke esoteric, existentialist, and alchemical themes firmly situated in German romanticist poetics. But more fun and wild are their transitions and progressions which will each time leave you saying “wait what just happened to the song I was listening to three seconds ago???“ But don’t worry: it will change back, or change again, who knows? Just keep listening. They’re addictive, insane, and the best time of your life.
Seelenwinter (Soul-winter) is oh-my-gods-what-is-this? fun, and is about the dark night of the soul (nigredo) and especially becoming yourself again after lost love:
Sink in the everlasting tide
Drown in the deepest green lakes,
Float like a corpse down the river
Be silent forever on the seabed.
Only the soul winter knows the names
Those who are not resurrected
Because the grim of winter knows no mercy.Learn to suffer
And truth at last will shine in you.
Klingentanz (blade-dance, or war fury) describes the redirection of unhealed personal pain into misplaced rage against the world. It’s also the best song for cardio I’ve ever found.
Everything won and so much lost
Died in pain and reborn in steel
Ashes to ashes and hope to grave
I look at myself and ask the question
What ever moved me to tears?
And then follow the star that leads me to the end
PERKELT
FOLK/TRADITIONAL, MEDIEVAL
RECOMMENDED ALBUM: DOWRY OF A TROLLWOMAN
WEBSITE: HTTPS://PERKELT.COM
PerKelt is a UK-based band who accurately describe themselves as “Pagan Speed Folk.” Their renditions of both traditional and modern songs are delightful in their simplicity, and yeah—they’re pretty fast! Also, I’m pretty certain their name is a play on a traditional Eastern European goulash (the lead singer is Czech).
For an example of the speed of their songs, take their rendition of the traditional Occitan song, Ai Vist Lo Lop (I saw the wolf), one of the first songs my (tragically defunct) own band learned and played. Their recorder work is a lot fast than mine.
Less fast and quite beautiful is their version of the traditional song from 16th century English troubador John Dowland, If My Complaints Could Passions Move, a song noted for its undertones of same-sex affection:
Can Love be rich, and yet I want?
Is Love my judge, and yet I am condemn'd?
Thou plenty hast, yet me dost scant:
Thou made a God, and yet thy power contemn'd
That I do live, it is thy power:
That I desire it is thy worth.
The Next Collection will be posted 1 January, 2021 on our supporters Journal, Another World, and will be available Four weeks later On our public journal, A Beautiful Resistance.
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