Admittedly, I have always been intrigued by metal that hails from places where metal doesn’t normally hail from; by metal being created and played by people outside of metal’s lily-white, cis-het establishment; by metal that is unexpected and unforeseen. Call it lib-tard patronisation or some form of metallic affirmative action if you will. But, I prefer to view this interest — nay obsession — through the same lens that had me scouring fanzines, tape trading and distro lists and magazine fine print for as much of the original extreme music explosion I could get my ears on back in the day. Before everything was handed to humanity with the mouse-click or screen-touch.
“in our primal traditional spirituality, there is no Satan. So, the stereotype of the devil thing does not apply to our music.”
My latest obsession hails from the West African country of Togo and goes by the name Arka’n Asrafokor. While rock and metal aren’t entirely foreign sounds in the tiny Togolese Republic, Arka’n Asrafokor — broken down and translated from the Ewe language ‘Arka’n’ means ‘things you see and feel outside your regular senses,’ ‘Asrafo’ means ‘warrior’ and ‘kor’ means ‘fist’ — have silkily sledgehammered hard rock, groove, nü-, thrash and bits of death metal into the ancestral chants, tribal rhythms, traditional percussion, folk music and languages of their native land and have made global headway in the process. Fifteen years ago, guitarist/vocalist Kodzo ‘Rock’ Ahavi first made the move to playing metal via Metallica and Scorpions covers, then original music under the moniker Arka’n. At the same time his younger brother Elom ‘Enrico’ Ahavi was playing in a rap-metal band called H Weapons. When those outfits dissolved, the Ahavi’s joined forces, recruited bassist Koffi Ametefe ‘Francis’ Amevo, drummer Komla Siko ‘Richard’ Tamakloe-Azamesu and percussionist Yao Justin ‘Mass’ Aholou to form Arka’n Asrafokor, never imagining they’d be spreading their sound beyond the dispersed sparseness of Africa’s metal scene, where 24-hour bus rides to play one-off gigs were a fact of life.
But, Arka’n Asrafokor have done what no other metal band from Togo has done previously: 1) exist, because they are Togo’s only metal band, 2) recorded and released not one, but a pair of full-length albums, and 3) toured and made festival appearances in Europe starting in 2022. Their independently released debut from 2019, Zâ Keli caught the attention of ears at Reigning Phoenix Music who introduced the band and their second album, 2024’s Dzikkuh to the world. Brimming with as much positive vibe, uplifting messaging and heritage tributes as hyper-melodic riffing, pocket-punching groove and as many hooks as there in a fisherman’s hat, Dzikkuh is a world-colliding marvel. The album presents as natural and seamless as it does indescribably left-field and unique, traits that metal are always in short supply of. We subjected Rock Ahavi to a series of “loaded and packed” questions via email to which the guitarist/vocalist, who is still getting used to being the focus of attention and all the responsibility that comes with it, sat down and worked his fingers to aching nubs to in order to proffer the following excited responses.
What can you tell us about the history of rock and metal music in Togo? How did you discover metal in the first place and what drew you to the heavier side of music?
Rock Ahavi: “I guess rock and metal music have travelled the whole world with the influence of Western music all around. West Africa, and Togo in particular, were not immune to that. Togo has been a culturally open country to art coming from Africa and from the world. Togolese artists used to travel to the West and Western artists used to come visit us. Here in Togo, in Lomé, the capital city, and even in some towns inside the country, one could find rock and metal tapes or records as I found in markets, cassette and CD shops. We also had our own local rock scene in the past as rock music did appeal to people. It was never a very popular genre, though, as African music is quite rich and diverse, ranging from traditional to modern, yet rock has been present for decades. That is how I got to discover rock music and immediately felt drawn to it and, later, metal music. I can’t tell if there is a reason why I loved metal at first sight. Maybe because it resonated in me, as an expression of a hidden side of my personality or as the best way to express my feelings. For my bandmates, I feel that they like the sense of power and freedom, as well as the musical challenge metal can procure.
At what point did you make the move from being a fan of heavy metal to wanting to learn to play instruments then start a band? Was it difficult to obtain quality gear and find people willing to sacrifice the time, energy and money that it takes to be in a band?
Actually, I began to play the keyboard when I was a child and I went to acoustic guitar later. My guitar learning was not rock or metal oriented at first. With time, listening to more rock and metal and turning into a real fan, I decided to buy my first electric guitar and my first distortion pedal. It was the beginning of the real thing! It was not that hard to find instruments to buy, at that time, as it was in the earlier past. You could find some average ones in music shops here, or just come across individual sellers who had great quality and well-maintained second-hand guitars and basses of all brands: Ibanez, Jackson, Fender, and so on, also pedals and amps. Or you could just order instruments from abroad. That’s how I bought my Ibanez guitar in Lomé, sold to me by a friend, ordered the [Boss] Metal Zone [pedal] from the USA, Line 6 [amp] from Belgium, then I got to order my first 7-string Jackson guitar from the States at the time the second line-up of Arka’n was born in 2016. Some drums we found here can be decent for rock and metal if well tuned, mixed and played with passion! Not top notch metal quality, but easily manageable.
With all that in mind, how did Arka’n Asrafokor come to be?
I have always been fortunate enough to cross paths with the brothers in Arka’n who accepted to join in. They really loved the demo I made and we gathered our strength to push the project forward. Each had their own projects and activities that bring some personal income, but we would find time and dedication to rehearse together, in other places at first and then in our studio. It’s not always easy, but the passion is real and the sense of brotherhood is strong. We got our songs ready to hit the road and performed here and there in the capital city of Lomé, until we started performing in the subregion, in neighbouring Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire. We recorded and released our first album Zâ Keli in our studio in Togo early 2019. That year also marked a turning point when we took part in a Pan-African festival (Africa Conference for Collaborations, Exchange and Showcases, a.k.a. ACCES, organised by Music in Africa) where our performance stood out and we were then invited to perform in France, Switzerland and Germany (2022, 2023 and 2024). We got signed to metal label Reigning Phoenix Music (Opeth, Kerry King, Meshuggah, Eleine…) and released our second album Dzikkuh in 2024.
“The stereotypes fall down as they somehow realise how natural metal can sound when we blend it with our traditional rhythms.”
Does being a metal fan carry the same prejudice and stigma in Togo as it does in most other places of the world. How does the every day Togolese person respond to the image and sound of heavy metal?
Well, metal music gets the same reception here as anywhere else, I guess. People who do not know metal may have the same preconceived ideas as in other places where it is not as popular as in some Western countries. So, some people might say it is and looks “foreign” or caries foreign values. However, whenever people come to an Arka’n show they realise how little they really know about metal, and the stereotypes fall down as they somehow realise how natural metal can sound when we blend it with our traditional rhythms, creating our sound which we call ‘Asrafocore’ that we describe as ‘metal music of the warriors.’ It must also be said that in our primal traditional spirituality, there is no Satan. So, the stereotype of the devil thing does not apply to our music. We put forward messages inspired by African wisdom and values. Quite universal values in a sense. So, we see ourselves part of a great metal community and wherever we go, we know we will find metalheads, whether the genre is popular or not, in a given African country.
What sorts of barriers did you find yourselves fighting against when you started playing shows and your name got out there more?
I can’t really tell if we had to fight any barriers as we are building our path by ourselves, counting on ourselves and on the support of our fans and venue owners who really love Arka’n. As long as we can rehearse as we want, record songs as we want, play in the venues we want and that there’s an audience who like us, I think we are just happy to be, and we give to people the most of us and the best of us.
“The most important thing for me is the message we bring to people.”
What were some of your early musical influences — metal and non-metal — that drove the band in its early days and how have those changed over the years as you’ve developed your musical identity and gained more experience?
Arka’n style was a little bit diverse in its early days. We were all musicians playing in clubs all genres of music and, even if I was personally deep into metal, I used to compose songs which could fit the musical background of my fellow musicians and of most of the people here too. So, in those days, at our shows you could hear rock, hard rock, fusion of hard rock/metal and reggae, funk and, of course, our ancestral music. We enjoyed those moments a lot, experimenting fusions and having a lot of fun. The most important thing for me was, and still is, the message we bring to people, giving them hope, power, words of wisdom and strength to never give up. With time, the lyrics were becoming more fight oriented, and somehow, with more “ancestrality.” So, clearly, there was a need for more extreme music style and attitude. So, I just brought the project to my real world which is metal and ancestral sound. The shift became more effective after the second Arka’n line up. You can feel it in Zâ Keli and even more in Dzikkuh, both recorded by the present lineup. To be honest, our major musical influences are our traditional music patterns and instruments. We were born into our culture and its musical expressions. When metal bands came into our world, we first and foremost simply adored the bands we got to become familiar with. When I started composing my songs, I did not try to emulate the bands I admired. I actually wanted to pass on the same power and rage and energy with the tools around me, and our tradition came naturally to play a major part in the compositions. That is why for example in Zâ Keli you will see how, in most songs, our traditional patterns come to merge with an array of rock and metal genres. However, with time, we were exploring heavier sounds to better fit the intensity of the flame inside of us. That is what led us to fine tune our sound that we showcase in Dzikkuh: a heavier blend of metal and our rhythms. A better definition of ‘Asrafocore.’
“Metal comes from rock, which comes from the blues, which derives from negro spirituals, which were born from the chants of enslaved Africans.”
What are some of the parallels between metal and traditional Togolese music, and was it difficult or challenging to smoothly combine the two sonic worlds in creating your sound?
That’s an interesting question. As I said previously, it became very natural to want to combine both worlds because they corresponded to who we are, what we are used to, what we like and what we want to express. And surprisingly enough, the combination came rather smoothly. In actual fact, if you look closely, you will realise that the patterns blend in perfectly, and it should come as no surprise. Indeed, as we have already stated in other interviews, metal comes from rock, which comes from the blues, which derives from negro spirituals, which were born from the chants of enslaved Africans, chants that are an expression of the musical patterns that we still know of today. That is why at some of our shows, you can easily see people dancing our traditional dances, while others headbang and mosh pits are formed. It’s a crazy and totally wild sight to see.
How long did it take to write and record your first album? What are some of the major lessons you learned from the first studio experience that you brought to the recording of your second?
Wow! That is a packed question! Actually, it calls for a very simple answer given the place that brought both Zâ Keli and Dzikkuh to life: our own studio, in Lomé, Togo. As I said previously, metal is not a popular genre, so there is no market per se and no studio which can really do the job we want done. We are truly blessed to have our own studio — my brother and I are both into recording and mixing — and we decided to fine tune our sound by ourselves. Because of the (no) market reality, Zâ Keli was our first DIY project, gathering tracks that were written over a span of nine years. We ended up compiling the very latest versions of those 12 songs and released our 100% self-produced album in early 2019. I was actually still working on the mastering just an hour before we had our first press conference announcing its release! Since that moment, we were really into exploring the sound that would define Dzikkuh, drawing on the heaviness of tracks such as ‘Tears of the Dead’ and ‘Return of the Ancient Sword’ from Zã Keli. We kept writing songs, fine tuning the sound we wanted to achieve, and in 2024 Dzikkuh was born. This time we were being backed up by a label. We had to learn to combine the never-ending search for perfection with the respect of deadlines!
“Markus Steiger had Atomic Fire reach out to us. It was a truly thrilling moment, and we have never looked back.”
How would you compare and contrast the two albums?
Zâ Keli is like a description of our musical and personal journey from the beginning, throughout our influences. That’s why it’s so diverse in term of style and sound, with the oldest song written in 2003 and the newest in 2019. On that album, on purpose, we didn’t mix all the songs the same, we were not really seeking homogeneity. We tweaked some sounds differently to keep the original feelings of the songs. Dzikkuh seems more straightforward, with a more defined sound style, which is normal. It’s a bit more aggressive too, pushing forward the fighting spirit a little more. It shows more of the ‘Asrafocore’ philosophy.
At what point did Reigning Phoenix Music come onto the scene? What’s the story about how you came to their attention and ended up signing with them? How has life changed with the label in the picture?
That’s a story we are truly grateful for. RPM came into play thanks to the self-produced music video we made of ‘Tears of the Dead’. Markus Steiger, formerly of Nuclear Blast then Atomic Fire Records, spotted the band and had Atomic Fire reach out to us. It was a truly thrilling moment and we have never looked back. Atomic Fire Records was then acquired by Reigning Phoenix Music and work kept being done with the new team. We must admit the move was not easy at first. Though extremely honoured, Arka’n was then an independent band and we were not all familiar with the world of labels and what being signed to one entailed. There were a lot of exchanges with them to better understand what all this was all about; a lot of questions that were answered. Very constructive dialogues took place with the help of professionals in the field. We also considered the larger picture: here was a then-German metal label, wanting to sign a band from Togo, West Africa, and help us promote our music for the world to listen! It was a turning point for us and also a great responsibility. We took that into account, hoping it would garner even more interest for metal made on the continent. In terms of impact, yes, we can definitely say the label has helped us reach a much wider audience and we are truly grateful for the team’s efforts in having our music hit farther shores! We are also truly grateful for the label to have given us total carte blanche to do the music we wanted, have it made, mixed, mastered, produced in our studio, on African soil. This is very important to us and, again, we commend the label for their trust. We are super-happy with the result and for being very well accompanied with the promotion. So life has been more dense since we have to produce more: album, video clips with deadlines. However, we remain the same and are happy about that. We keep living and working in our country and are always ready to hit the stage anywhere we are wanted.
When you eventually made it over to tour in Europe, what were some of the more surprising things you encountered and noticed? Of all the experiences you had while over there, which ones stood out the most?
One of our most powerful experiences may have been our performance at Motocultor Festival in France in 2023. It was our first participation in a metal festival and it took me back to when it all started and it was wild to see the audience’s response to our sound. That is my own personal favourite. Other band members may fondly remember when we performed in clubs in France — Paloma in Nîmes, La Cave in Argenteuil or Espace Django in Strasbourg to name a few — or performing at Paleo Festival in Switzerland. We all keep in mind our performance on Eurockéennes main stage in 2022, after the festival had to cancel shows because of an extreme weather event. When it resumed, we were allowed to perform the following day and it was a mad ode to the festival’s resilience! We were truly happy and honoured to be performing there! While we usually organised shows by ourselves in our country or were invited to regional festivals once in a while, touring in Europe taught us to work with touring partners — Cartel Concerts and Bluebird Booking — and it was an amazing experience!
How were the metal scenes different in Europe from what you’d experienced in Togo and other African countries?
The main difference would be the audience sizes. As explained before, our area is not very metal-prone and we usually perform in front of more modest audiences either in clubs or festivals. When we reached 2000, 3000, 5000 people, it just felt amazing. We enjoy performing at home, in our region, or farther from home. We love what we do and to see the audience resonate. But like any band anywhere, seeing that kind of effect ripple an audience of 5000 people definitely elates you!
“Music is my world,
And I am truly blessed I have
found a way to share it.”
Obviously, when you started the band, there were a particular set of goals: simple things like write songs, play shows, record a demo… As things have progressed and the band has grown, how are your goals and aspirations different and what are you hoping to accomplish with the release of Dzikkuh?
To tell you the truth, my goals have not changed. My goals from day one have always been to share Arka’n’s music to the world and to be able to perform it everywhere, bringing something to people, like empowerment, some joy, our modest share of light and positive vibration. I think I am not the only musician to share that dream. But to achieve this you need to go step by step, like writing songs, recording demos at home, playing in modest local venues, etc. and always having in mind what you bring to people. The band growing and having more opportunity means spreading our music wider, sending our energy to more people. Music is my world. And I am truly blessed I have found a way, with my brothers and my team, to share some of it with an audience I look forward to meeting and thanking every day for the amazing support and appreciation.
