By Jonny Bakes
You know I’m a sucker for metal with a bit of a twist to keep me excited, and in particular I’ve been getting really into bands with folk music influences. It started with the classic Finnish/Nordic folk metal but then branched out into folk metal from other cultures with a recent obsession being the fantastic Bloodywood. So when the opportunity to check out an African metal band who weave traditional folk elements into their music there was no way I would pass that up. I may be having a terrible time trying to spell it, but I’m keen to get involved with Arka’n Asrafokor’s ‘Dzikkuh’.
Hailing from Togo, Arka’n Asrofokor have been turning heads since their inception in 2009 but have yet to really make a stir in the ÜK… or at least if they have, it has passed me by so far! By blending together traditional chanting, tribal drumming and metal, this band manages to craft something that reminds me a little of Tÿr, but less grim and frostbitten. There’s a mix of languages too, with the traditional language (Ewe) mixing with English and I’m pretty sure there’s even a bit of French in there too which gives a deeper dive into Togolese culture. It’s one of the things I love about the metal community, that we’re able to bridge cultural divides by mixing culture and metal to produce something that feels like a dialect of a common language instead of something completely alien, and it’s something that Arka’n Asrafokor certainly achieved.
‘Dzikkuh’ opens with ‘The Truth’ which immediately hits you with energetic hand drums, akin to bongos, and whilst you may not understand the lyrics, you’ll find that the chanting chorus is incredibly catchy. This song stayed stuck in my head long after I had finished listening to the album and is something I can see myself going back to time and time again. The guitar riff shows off some good quality shredding to bring the metal aspect into play and reminds me of some of Gojira’s recent offerings, which probably explains why I took to this as quickly as I did! ‘The Truth’ has a real primal feel to it, giving it an infectious quality that appeals to the base instincts and frankly I can’t get enough of it!
On the flip side, Arka’n Asrofokor shows off a deeper side with ‘The Calling’ which closes out this beast of an album. After being beaten around the head with energetic tribal rhythms, it’s time to slow things down and reflect to bring the album to a close with what could possibly be the band’s own ‘Nothing Else Matters’. It’s a slow and melancholic number sung entirely in English that starts with a gentle guitar melody with a little bit of well crafted guitar wankery thrown in. The gravelly vocals bring this song to life and really encourages you to hear ‘The Calling’. Now of course, it wouldn’t be a metal ballad without a few guitar solos thrown in, and each one seems to be the perfect fit, adding some musical emotion without taking it too far and being a distraction from the rest of the song. I can certainly see this being a closing song for the live shows with a sea of flames waving in the crowd.
All in all ‘Dzikkuh’ is a fantastic album for the musically adventurous.If you want to expand your musical palette with a taste of a different culture, then you really must check out Arka’n Asrafokor to experience Togolese tradition with a metal twist. Easily something that will appeal to fans of folk metal but also potentially those who are still only just dipping their toes into the world of metal music as this can hardly be considered to be on the extreme side. Which is a good thing in my opinion as it enables the band to gain a wider popularity by building on influences from universally popular metal bands, such as Metallica (in the same way that Bloodywood built their sound on nu-metal stylings).
I hope to see bigger and better things coming from Arka’n Asrafokor in future, and if there’s someone reading this who perhaps runs a niche metal festival then I think you can do far worse than to ship this band over to break into the ÜK scene!
- ‘Dzikkuh’ is released on 19 July.
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