Exclusive

Premiere Of Newly Re-Recorded Song "Pod Mechami" Available From Arkona

Russia's Arkona's debut album "Vozrozhdenie" was originally released in 2004 and firmly entrenched both the band and its mother country squarely on the pagan/folk metal map. Frontwoman Masha's powerful performance, plus Slavic mysticism and varied songwriting, turned the first release (its name means "revival") of a young Arkona into a success story, launching a remarkable career that has spanned 14 years and eight full length studio releases.

To celebrate that landmark release, the band has re-recorded "Vozrozhdenie" to truly revisit their roots! The re-recording of lets those old songs shine with a massive new production and instrumental skills! "Vozrozhdenie" will be released on November 11th.

Today, Arkona has teamed up with Metal Underground.com to premiere the newly re-recorded "Pod Mechami," which you can check out streaming in the player below.

The band commented: "Friends, we would like to present you the song 'Pod Mechami' from our re-recorded album 'Vozrozhdenie,' which will be released on November 11th in a super fat digibook with beautiful illustrations of "Pagan artist" Kris Verwimp! It can be ordered right now at this location."

The band also provided insight in to the album and "Pod Mechami" itself:

"Initially the album 'Vozrozhdenie' was planned as an album with 9 songs, from the repertoire of the first line-up of Arkona. Songs 'Pod Mechami,' 'K domu Svaroga,' 'Zov Predkov' were created by Masha in the summer of 2003, when all the other band members had left the band. [The] song 'Pod Mechami' was planned for the common project with the band members of 'Pagan Reign,' but, for some forgotten reasons this cooperation has not worked out. Later this song was moved to the debut album and became a track with guest participation of Alexei Agafonov, the member of the band 'Butterfly Temple.'

"The new version of the song [is] perhaps the closest to 'as it had to be' for several reasons. At first, all the vocals performed only by Masha, except for the dialogue parts, which were done by guitarist Sergei. Second, the presence of the classical guitar parts, which were written back in the days for Dmitriy 'Vetrodar' (Pagan Reign, Tverd), but he never recorded them. Now it was recorded by 'Svarga' guitarist Alexander Strelnikov, and we want to send many thanks to him! The third reason: the new version has the original arrangement, which Masha created more than 13 years ago!

"In combination with the gentle sound of the sopilka and flute by Vladimir Volk and furious drums by Andrey Ishchenko, all of the mentioned reasons are giving a new life to the old song. By the way, a curious fact: the working title of the song 'Pod Mechami' [was] 'New1'! Enjoy!"

The track list is:

1. Kolyada
2. Maslenitsa
3. K Domu Svaroga
4. Chernye Vorony
5. Vozrozhdenie
6. Rus’
7. Brate Slavyane
8. Solntsevorot
9. Pod Mechami
10. Po Zverinym Tropam
11. Zalozhny
12. Zov Predkov

Metal Underground.com is proud to present "Pod Mechami" here: