ARCTURUS

Excellent debute album from this already legendary band named Arcturus. Aspera hyems symphonia issued in 1996 is to me at least if not for many one of the most inventive symphonic black metal album ever with clearly many progressive touches in his 42 min lengh. Formed by well known names in this field , but specially Carl August Tidemann from Winds fame, who is a fenomenal guitarsit, his mark on this album is top notch. Quite complex and yet in same time melodic black metal album, this has nothing to do with the raw black of Immortal or early stuff, Aspera hyems is full of intelligent passgaes where the melodic side of black metal almost progressive metal in places because of the guitar and sound overall is melted with the voice who is raw and in black metal type because the instrumenets even are well performed by each member in some parts the sound is little precare and amatorish. Anyway I love this album, I have it since it was released more then 15 years ago, what a treat for my ears was then as now, still very fresh in ideas and one hell of a great ride for me. Like a lot the guitar who is very avangarde and goes progressive metal most of the time nice solos by Tidemann aswell, the use of keyboards is great and gives a perfect symphonic atmosphere. For me easy 4 stars a fine album all the way. No weak tracks for sure, all are winners.

I have deliberately hurt and I have deliberately tried to understand why. I casually tried to figure out what was the Black Metal and Death Metal. There are things that I like very much and things that I hate. "My Angel" is one of the things that like me. A strange EP, delivered by a band that some of my friends idolized/ idolize! For various reasons I have not pursued the discovery of a world that does not attract me.

The lineup for this EP consisted of Marius Vold (vocals, Bass), Steiner Sverd Johnsen (Keyboards, Guitars) and Hellhammer (drums). That is, for the uninitiated, we are at a non-return (and at the highest level) of the Scandinavian Black Metal/ Death Metal. But to say that if you are not followers of this scene, what is proposed here is a pure massacre (it is defined) is the minimum. Describe the music is superfluous.

Imagine an old horror film from the 1930's/1940's and that creepy gothic pump organ that looms in the background. Put that seventy years in the future, LA MASQUERADE INFERNALE might just be that type of music with thick metal guitars. A darker, creepier Black Sabbath meets keys equally as bombastic as those of Par Lindh Project, and then put a singer over the top who sounds like he has problems.

Most of the album is pretty overdone in the dramatics, the bombast, the heaviness, yet MASQUERADE is the type of album where I can bypass all of that and take it as a fun album to listen to. This isn't the most instantly accessible album, but how tight the ideas are stitched and how well the album flows as a whole keeps my curiosity level on notice. ''Master of Disguise'' and ''The Chaos Path'' in particular set the tone of the whole album.

Yes this is twisted and demented, but it's a treat. If you feel that this is way too over-the-top, try to sit back and not take MASQUERADE seriously. The metal riffs themselves are good enough to stand on their own merit to the point where everything else is icing even if everything else sounds silly.

Something Wicked...

As a fan of avant-garde metal, it was probably inevitable that I'd find my way to Arcturus' MASQUERADE INFERNALE. This album has a bit of a legendary place in the metal mythology, but sadly the music itself really doesn't match the reputation. On paper, this should be great with Garm's vocals and a Bunglesque carnival fetish added to a black metal ethic. Sounds like a fun ride. But like too many vampire stories, the affectations overcome the story and the camp becomes cartoonish. It seems like the band is trying too hard to be wierd and not concentrating enough on the fundamentals of the songs.

All the trappings are here, with Garm attempting Boris Karloff in the opera but instead singing out of tune much of the time. The organs are heavily reverbed and spooky, and various effects drench virtually every instrument. The guest vocals on the opening track and "The Chaos Path" are the best on the album. But the actual riffs are uninspired, the melodies monotonous, and songwriting virtually nonexistent. In fact, I don't think there's a single line I could sing back to you off this album and only a few instrumental parts that stick with me.

Despite all of the vocals being sung cleanly, I really don't have any idea what these guys are singing about. Supposedly it's sorta kinda Satanic (the idea of which turns me off) but there's nothing that feels truly dangerous to me. Contrast this to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's "Of Natural History" which I think has some very similar intentions at its core, but is more intelligent, more musically daring, enjoys better songwriting, and at places really scares the crap out of me.

I actually like Ulver quite a bit in all of its different sounds. Garm's ear is never perfect, but it's never as bad as it is here. I've tried so many times to get into this. But it just isn't that good.

Now, this is much more like it! Arcturus back off from the baroque music embellishments of La Masquerade Infernale and come up with an intoxicating brand of mildly blackened progressive space metal on The Sham Mirrors, on which Trickster G. Rex delivers strange, semi-chanted vocals over a thick layer of tasty guitar riffs and keyboard lines. Despite presenting this bizarre, electronic fusion of extreme metal and trip-hop, the album is also incredibly accessible, grabbing the listener's attention from the opening bars of the fantastic lead track Kinetic. On top of that, the band refuse to fall into the progressive metal trap of thinking an album has to have 70 minutes of material at least; this is a lean, mean 43 minute album which delivers top quality for every second of the experience.

Black metal supergroup Arcturus took a decidedly avant-garde turn with this release, which features long stretches of material which aren't reminiscent of extreme metal at all if you ignore the standard black metal lyrical obsession with Satan. Shrieked vocals and blast beats make only brief, momentary appearances on this album and semi-spoken clean vocals and cello passages reminiscent of some sort of baroque-era reimagining of rock opera. To be honest, it's the sort of material which isn't for everyone - I personally don't really feel it - but if it does click with you you'd probably enjoy it a lot. Adventurous metal fans should probably give it a try at some point but shouldn't feel too bad if it goes over their head.

'The Sham Mirrors' - Arcturus (8/10)

With another album, there are new developments for the avant-garde metal act known as Arcturus. This now-legendary band is something of a Norwegian black metal supergroup, with members collaborating here from, among others; Ulver, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, and Emperor. What comes as a surprise is that despite these musicians' background, the music here is not black metal, but rather a highly theatrical brand of progressive metal. 'La Masquerade Infernale' first planted Arcturus' flag in the sand, taking the dreary atmosphere of black metal and channeling it through what may have been described as astral circus metal. 'The Sham Mirrors' sees this project continue own the avant-garde path, but this time around, things are a little lighter, melodic, and- dare I say- <.I accessible. No matter, in many ways, Arcturus have improved this time around, creating yet another excellent and memorable landmark of avant-metal.

My memories of 'La Masquerade Infernale' focus largely on the diabolical atmosphere that the music created. While it was far from being black metal in nature, the vibe that came across was not unlike something a frostbitten black metal band would convey. Garm's brooding voice was subtle and disturbing, and there were plenty of tritones for the devil worshipers to dive into. As is even evident from the album artwork, 'The Sham Mirrors' is a departure from the darkness, in favour of something a little more melodic. The riffs are faster and more harmonious, and Garm's vocal performance has been swept up from the gloomy basso into a higher-register, theatrical wail that I.C.S Vortex first introduced to the band with his memorable vocal performance on 'The Chaos Path'. All of these changes are best represented on the album's opener, 'Kinetic', which is incidentally the greatest thing that the album offers. 'Kinetic' opens up with fast paced chords and a steady build, with ambient vocalizations, programmed drum beats, and an array of 'sci fi' electronic noises. While Garm did not impress me a great deal on 'La Masquerade Infernale', his voice blows me away this time around. It is as if his voice has been let off its chain, and is now allowed to traverse the depths of his range, which is quite impressive. It is a disappointment that there is nothing else quite as astonishing as 'Kinetic' on the rest of the album, because it is one of the greatest progressive metal songs I have ever heard.

Arcturus may have made their sound more melodic, but it is still very forward thinking and weird. There is a symphonic element brought in via the keyboards, making Arcturus sound like an avant-garde incarnation of Dimmu Borgir, at times. The songwriting has plenty of hooks, but it rarely relies on a chrous structure. However, most of the experimentalism is brought on through the way the music is performed and executed. Garm's vocals are intense and dramatic, as if he was performing in an opera. The dense electronic ambiance also gives the music a coat of production that makes it sound weirder than it would otherwise. The production can get ambitious past its means at times, although the amount of work that's been put into fleshing out the sound is acknowledged and evident in the music. The one musician here who doesn't seem to get a chance to exploit his full talent is drummer Hellhammer, whose normally inhuman grasp of the double-kick and blast beat is muffled and drowned by the dense production, not to mention the thick presence of programmed beats in the album.

'The Sham Mirrors' is another challenging album from Arcturus, although it is nowhere near as shocking as 'La Masquerade Infernale' was for me. This is arguably the best thing that Arcturus has released in any case, and it is a shame they stopped making music together at the peak of their work. As it is with many avant albums I come across, there are aspects of this album that don't sit totally right with me, but these are easy to overlook in the face of the resounding strengths the album boasts. An excellent, inventive album.

6/10

"Sideshow Symphonies" is a mysterious, but more mellowed-out piece of work.

Legendary Avant-Garde Metal band Arcturus arrive at their final chapter with "Sideshow Symphonies", the fourth and last album of the band. Their previous album, "The Sham Mirrors", was the last one that included Garm on vocals, and now ICS Vortex is doing the job. This turned fans off because it was preposterous that after a masterpiece such as Sham Mirrors they replaced the man who was such a big part of this band.

Stylistically, the music isn't much diverse from the previous album, but it does incorporate somewhat less guitars, but it feels like it has less of everything for some reason. As a consequence, the vocals stand out the most from the mix, which is a sort of mockery in my opinion, since fans wanted Garm and not really ICS Vortex from the start. But the production and the overall sound here is best one Arcturus has ever achieved, however the mixing, like I said, can be a little unfair. The Black Metal moments are pretty much gone, and the Avant- Garde feel and craziness is not really felt on this one: "Sideshow Symphonies" is a much more straight-forward album that is very much based on melody. Symphonic Metal seems to prevail, as well as some Progressive Metal.

"Sideshow Symphonies" is a mellowed out album, for sure, but it has a sense of mystery that the other albums, while being a lot better than this one, don't have. The vocals of Vortex maybe are the ones that make the music this way, I don't know. But one thing is for sure, this vocalist can sing, even though it might seem off key at times. I find him a very unique sounding vocalist that should have more credit for the work he does.

Everyone seems to agree that the key song of the album is the eight minute "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer", which also has the best melody and vocal performance. It also has a great structure that keeps me interested for the whole thing. Unfortunately it isn't so for all of the tracks: some manage to be very flat and a little boring too, bringing down my interest. Also, since it is a more melodic experimental album, the melody is important, and I'm not that into it in some spots here. However songs like the opener "Hibernation Sickness Complete" manage to be otherwise, having enjoyable moments.

A decent album to listen to, if you like experimental/avant-garde you might like this, but it's not guaranteed Arcturus fans will, since it would be a pretty big disappointment after the masterpiece "The Sham Mirrors", but it is nevertheless one of the most interesting ways to end a musical career, as it's still a mysterious and calm piece of work.

9/10

"The Sham Mirrors" brings you to the strangest heaven, a paradise covered in eternal iciness and dark night.

When a band assumes that their next release will be their masterpiece, there can be a lot going on. There can be endless fights between the band components, some uncomfortable decisions can be made. For a strange band like Arcturus, surprisingly, they decided to go on a more straight-forward direction, but the result for this decision is 'The Sham Mirrors', the third studio album, and the ultimate masterpiece.

It is very different from the previous album, 'La Masquerade Infernale': the production is a little clearer, but still a little muddy, creating this very sharp sound. The instrumentation is so much more highlighted: I feel like I'm hearing more guitars, but there's also a ton of keyboards. Both these are well balanced, without one overturning the other. But the music, because of the inevitable massive keyboard presence, is much more symphonic (some feel that this album has some symphonic metal to it). The piano is a standout instrument too, as it is much more frequent than it ever was for Arcturus previously, it to the point where it can even be the bulk of a song. The vocals are generally normal sounding, since Garm once again returns facing the microphone, giving some of his best performances. There are some shrieking growls in only one song, but they are pretty good, like you would expect from this man. There's also a lot more heavy electronics and eerie beats, some of the elements that really make this album Avant-garde. Like I said, this album is much more straight forward, the melodies are memorable, and some times even pretty catchy, an extreme rarity for this kind of music.

'Kinetic', the brilliant opening track, is the song that could have become in my opinion a single, the most memorable and accessible; great hooks, and very good experimentation as well. But 'Nightmare Heaven' is amazing to me; pretty melodic in the first part, but the heavy electronics come in as a bridge at a certain point, and last for a few minutes, until another hook blasts. 'Ad Absurdum' has pretty much the same structure, and even though being a really good song and having a great riff, it isn't my favorite. 'Collapse Generation' is another breathtaking piece, only four minutes long, but it manages to have a great structure and a very urgent feel. 'Star Crossed' is the mostly piano driven song, while 'Radical Cut' is the most aggressive one (the one that features growls). But the grand finale is very much worth waiting for; 'For To End Yet Again' is, maybe arguably, the best Arcturus song yet. Great hook in the beginning, amazing experimentation, a big range of influences can be heard in the very long bridge, from ambient to oriental music. The greatest piece of music, in my opinion, of the band, the widest and most adventurous one as well.

If the beloved 'La Masquerade Infernale' was a more infernal like trip, 'The Sham Mirrors' brings you to the strangest heaven, a paradise covered in eternal iciness and dark night. I've found myself loving this album immediately, and I'm sure I'll remember it for my entire life. If your Avant-Garde metal fan or you're interested in it, this album is an absolute must. One of the great masterpieces of the genre.

7/10

"La Masquerade Infernale" is a deadly, but extremely bizarre trip to the museum of horrors.

Arcturus, like only a few bands, during their career managed to change their sound on every album. The famous debut album is a classic Symphonic Black Metal release, but 1997's "La Masquerade Infernale" is everything but Black Metal. Garm's shrieking is put aside, ( Garm himself actually is) letting G.Wolf do the job, with the occasional help of ICS Vortex on a few tracks. This album is in a way an improvement to the debut, but mostly, I consider them at pretty much the same level.

Black Metal being gone, Arcturus create a strange, unique sound that is surely metal sounding, but it doesn't have its attitude, not one bit. For starters the music is very theatrical, especially in the weird vocals, high pitched and sort of operatic. These are definitely an acquired taste in my opinion, they just sound so out of place during your first listen. The music is very orchestrated, meaning that all the instruments, keyboards, strings, guitars, vocals, have all a very classical attitude when playing, keyboards being the main attraction. The combination of instruments, or more accurately the music itself, is changing pretty frequently, a characteristic that can be found in a lot of Avant-Garde Metal. There's also some heavy electronics and strange beats, as well as a few samples, and all these always steal the scene when used.

"La Masquerade Infernale" is an intriguing and dramatic album, though many times it feels like listening to this album is like finding yourself in a museum of horrors, where you see the strangest and darkest things. But also, this album has a very distorted, unclear, sense of romanticism, probably because of the dominant operatic theme. The album has a kind of muddy production, and many of the instruments and vocals sometimes can be lost in the mix.

"Master Of Disguise", the opener of the album, is a good example of unclear production. It's a weird piece, with a weird structure, full of stop and goes. "Ad Astra" has a strange kind of wonderful feel to it: many times during the song, beauty is unleashed, and is probably the best song of the album to me. "The Chaos Path" has plenty of influences, from cabaret and oriental music, to of course metal. "Alone" and "The Throne Of tragedy" have a wonderful emotional impact on the listener, the vocals on both of them are quite haunting, and have a good wall of sound too. I can't imagine a better ending then "Of Nails And Sinners" for this album, it has that epic tone that makes you realize this infernal trip is over.

"La Masquerade Infernale" is a cult album, like the band's debut for Black Metal, for Avant- Garde Metal. Great moments, great performances by the musicians overall, this is recommendable to any Metal-head, and essential for an Avant-Garde fan.