THE SHAM MIRRORS

By far, this has to be one of the more mind expanding records in my vast collection. Arcturus' foray into space tinged orchestrated metal is a refreshing breath of air to stale genre. As more mediocre death and black metal bands spew forth album after album of blasphemous sludge, it's nice to see a band that came from those beginnings and create an album that takes you through multiple soundscapes and moods. Hellhammer continues to do a great job around his kit, he truly shoes his chops throughout the album. The keyboards are a very prominent piece of the puzzle; many "metalheads" think that keyboards are unmetal and refuse to listen to anything with them in it. Sadly for them, they miss out on masterpieces such as this with their close-minded gut renching screams going on for four minutes at a time as bandmates dressed in sweatpants simultaneously headbang to a riff that just doesn't want to die. Death metal is overdone, it's time for others to look for another extreme and its sound doesn't need to be deafening to have the same effect. Welcome Arcturus