THE SHAM MIRRORS

With "The Sham Mirrors", Arcturus are experimenting new directions. The music is less dark, more keyboard oriented and overall much heavier and fast paced - some kind of progressive black metal without the insipid growls and blastbeats.

The opener "Kinetic" is a straightforward mid-paced metal song with high pitched vocals by Trickster G and a great piano outro. "Nightmare Heaven" is a darker and heavier song - with more progressive passages. The grungy "Ad Absurdum" follows - a first part that reminds me of Alice In Chains and a slower, more spacey second part. "Collapse Generation" is one of the two fast paced black metal songs on this album - awesome drumming, great keyboards, huge clean vocals - yes clean vocals... an example of what black metal should be like. "Star-Crossed" starts with an awesome piano intro that marks the return of the spacey music. "Radical Cut", with Emperor's singer Ihsahn doing the vocals, sounds really like... Emperor, with fast paced music and death growls - although this song is more progressive than the usual Emperor song with slower passages and more keyboards. The album ends with the epic "For To End Yet Again" - a strange intro in the vein of last album "La Masquerade Infernale", a first part melodically close to the first couple of songs on the album, a brilliant piano interlude, a spacey instrumental cental part and a grand finale mixing the best of all elements on this album.

Rating: 96/100 (brilliant)