There’s not much variation in musical style throughout the album, all the songs having a nice balanced combination of metal and folk instrumentals and follow more-or-less the same vein, but each songs stands on its own feet well enough. From the opening (and title) track’s epic choirs to the fifteen minute saga that is "Na Moyey Zemle" (In My Land), to the happy and festive "Yarilo", each song has a different feel to it, transporting one into the Russian wilderness, to the shores of the Baltic, or to a tribal campfire. Arkona is most and foremost a pagan band, and the role of the Slavonic gods and spirituality in everyday life play a big role in the music. "Liki Bessmertnykh Bogov" (Faces of the Immortal Gods) is about a man who finds meaning in his faith, while "Tropoyu Nevedannoy" (On the Unkown Trail) tells of a man driven insane by performing dark rituals. The song "Yarilo" goes on to describe the celebration of Yarilo, God of the Spring Sun, and "Pamyat" (Memory) is "a prayer to Gods, asking them to return the forgotten past and the Faith of ancestors to us." The lyrics are almost exclusively in Russian, though, so they are easily ignored if one (who doesn’t understand Russian) finds them unappealing. Unfortunately, the copies of the album released outside of Russia don’t include the Russian lyrics, merely short summaries of the songs and a few translated lines, so those interested in the lyrics must look elsewhere. The booklet is still gorgeous, and a nice addition to the album itself.

One of the true gems of this album, however, is the epic, fifteen minute monster saga, "Na Moyey Zemle". Sung in no less than six languages and featuring a variety of guest vocalist, this is one of the most epic tracks I’ve heard in a while. The song features vocalists from Månegarm singing in Swedish, Obtest singing in Lithuanian, Skyforger singing in Latvian, Menir singing in some unspecified language, and Heidevolk singing in Dutch, as well as Masha singing in Russian as the narrator of the song. It’s a story about a man who leaves his home country to search for happiness elsewhere, but when he asks the people of the country’s he passes through what makes them happy, they tell him that their families, traditions, and their land makes them happy, so he returns home and lives happily ever after.

Goi, Rode, Goi! is a whopping seventy nine and a half minutes long, but there’s not a boring minute throughout. Each song captures the imagination, whether one understand the lyrics or not. It ends with a ten minute folky finale by the name of "Nebo Khmuroye, Tuchi Mrachniye" (Sullen Sky, Gloomy Clouds) about a woman who drowns herself upon receiving the news that her husband died in war. Towards the end there are a few minutes of the sounds of a running stream, followed by a somewhat cheerful flute melody to end with a happy note. Life goes on, after all.

Standout tracks on this album are "Goi, Rode Goi!", "Na Moyey Zemle", "Yarilo", "Pamyat" and "Nebo Khmuroye, Tuchi Mrachniye".

9.5 / 10