Who's Going to Paganfest 2012?

I am!  I just bought my ticket for the Seattle show and it was a very reasonable $20 plus $2.24 for fees.  The dollar is at par these days so it's an even better deal!  I have a friend in Seattle I can stay with, but she's not into metal (though she did accompany me to Sabaton/Evergrey in October) so I am going to the event alone.  But I'm cool with that!

The bill includes, as you can see from the poster, Turisas, Alestrom, Ex Deo (I have no idea who they are), Arkona, and Huntress.  I have seen Arkona live before, in December in Vancouver, when they opened for Korpiklaani. They were great live and I'm stoked that I'm going to get another opportunity to see them live so soon!

The Seattle show is April 15.  Can't wait!

"Yarilo" by Arkona

If you're into pagan folk metal kind of stuff, which I am, you might like the Russian group Arkona (Аркона). I think I found them through Eric, if I'm not mistaken, and even though there is a language barrier, I really enjoyed their most recent album, Goi, Rode, Goi!!!. They have a new video out for their song "Yarilo" that I thought I'd share here. I don't really know much about these guys, but I was really surprised when the female lead singer, Masha, started in on the growling! I love it, even though I'm not a huge fan of growling. Here is sounds so happy, though!