I’m guessing President Brandon is going to keep Ukraine and Russia in the news again this week. I’m not going to write any more about it — I really don’t care if Russia invades Ukraine or not as long as the US stays out of it — but what I absolutely WILL do is post some of my favorite Ukrainian and Russian metal bands for your listening pleasure!
My policy from here on out, just so y’all know, is that you don’t get to have an opinion about Ukraine if you can’t name even one Ukrainian band. So get with the program, chickenhawks! I expect to see Max Boot in a Nokturnal Mortem tee in his next CNN vomit session…
Anyway, without question, the greatest Ukrainian band ever is the aforementioned Nokturnal Mortum. Here’s their 2009 album The Voice of Steel in full — in my opinion, it remains their best work, and a true black metal classic:
Another excellent Ukrainian black metal band is Drudkh. Trying to pick a single track to post is impossible — they have at least a half-dozen great albums — so I’ll just go with my gut and introduce you to the 2006 record Blood In Our Wells:
Both NM and Drudkh use Ukrainian and Slavic folklore and pagan ideas as the central themes for their music. If there is such a thing as Ukrainian nationalism, they certainly embody it. I tried to find an interview somewhere where they opined on Russia, but couldn’t find much.
But let’s not leave Russia out! Just like with Ukraine, I have no difficulty deciding who my favorite Russian band is — Arkona. I saw these guys in Atlanta a few years ago and the singer, Masha, absolutely blew me away. Here is an Arkona classic that I would probably get stuck in my head more often if I understood any of the lyrics:
Here is an English translation of the lyrics (from this site, which also includes commentary on the religious meaning of some of the references):
Mother Earth is great, Rus the Great!
Oh, how wide are your lands,
Through the golden fields
Dazhdbog’s children came there.Through the old eternal thickets,
Through the distant lands,
Our native brothers began their way –
They are Dazhdbog’s sons.
Raising our menacing flags up,
We’ll revive the Rus of bygone times!
We’ll keep the testament of Prav,
I swear to the Gods!Oh, Mother-night, daughter of Svarog,
I beg you to hide the ancient behests of ancestors,
I beg you to hide them from an evil eye of enemy
In the thickets of holy forests.My heart was dying down
When I said words hardly breathing:
“A glory to you, my dear mother!
A glory to you, Russian soul!
Through the old eternal thickets,
Through the distant lands,
Dear brother, let us say:
“A glory to you, Rus, my Land!”
It’s immediately obvious that, like NM and Drudkh, Arkona uses Slavic pagan folklore as the basis for their music, and all three are deeply inspired by their nation’s history and culture. I have to admit that I don’t know a whole lot about the Slavic pagan tradition, but I would be very interested to know how much overlap there is between how the Russians and the Ukrainians view their pre-Christian traditions. If I’m not mistaken, the first Rus kingdoms were formed in what is today Ukraine, by Viking adventurers. So perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Russia is an extension of Ukraine than vice versa? Who knows, but I would have to hazard a guess that Slavs who look to their ancient past for inspiration probably don’t think much of the modern political borders of the post-USSR world, any more than Western heathens care much for the current political regimes of North America and Western Europe. Regardless, the music is awesome, long live Slavic pagan black metal!
The Antisocial Darwinist 