ARCTURUS „Sideshow Symphonies”

Music: Avantagarde/Post Black
Country: Norway
Website:
Duration: 45


Cool Songs: Hibernation Sickness Complete, Deamonpainter, Moonshine Delirium, Evacuation Code Deciphered

When ‘Arcturus’ released ‘La Masquerade Infernale’ in 1997 the landscape of Norwegian Black Metal was changed forever. Here’s was band that had already delivered a masterpiece in ‘Aspera Hiems Symfonia’ – yet chose to walk a completely different path for their follow up album. And it fucked with a few heads! It turned much of the black metal world upside down. The fact that ‘La Masq’ dared to thumb its nose at the traditional black metal template was ballsy enough, but to turn itself into some sort of progressive, artsy, neo-Faustian circus sideshow cabaret act was completely unexpected. This was no ordinary album folks. This was no ordinary band. In 2005, Arcturus are possibly not the band Garm (now departed) intended them to be, but nevertheless, they are still very much one of the more expressive and sophisticated post-black metal acts in existence.

Of course, Arcturus continued their sophisticated meddling with the truly awesome ‘Sham Mirrors’ of 2000. Since then, Garm has departed only to be replaced by Oyvind Haeglund from Spiral Architect for some live gigs and then replaced again by ex-Borknagar vocalist (and current Dimmu Borgir bit part contributor) Simen Hestnćs. It stands to reason that Hestnaes was the only logical choice as vocalist for the current ‘Arcturus’ line-up having a history with the band going back to the vocal contributions he made on three tracks of the ‘La Masq’ album. On ‘Sideshow Symphonies’, he again demonstrates why he is considered to be one of the best in the game and while he is not as expressive as the legend of Garm, it is nice to finally hear Hestnaes given full licence on a whole new album after the less than effective use of his talents in Dimmu Borgir.

So after three previous highlights, how does ‘Sideshow Symphonies’ stack up? Well, if it were any other band that had conjured up this sort of album, we’d be lauding them with genius like hyperbole. However, because this is Arcturus, the expectations based on those three previous gems are incredibly high. There is no suggestion that ‘Arcturus’ fail in their quest – as this is a grandiose piece of dark, spacey, epic metal – but it doesn’t quite have the magic, nor the progressional leap that they captured between each of their three previous affairs. For me, there seems to be a real level of consistency in the song writing on ‘Sideshows..’ particularly with Sverd’s masterful ‘symphonic’ keyboard aesthetics coming to fore lending a overtly dramatic, yet decidedly ‘dreamy’ feel to infuse the whole album. The warmer, elegant production enhances this wistful and lucid atmosphere even further. Yet noting the consistency of the song writing, there are no real classic moments where Hestnaes takes things into the next stratosphere. Oh yes he does his utmost to take us there, but aside from Deamonpainter, Evacuation Code Deciphered and ‘Moonshine Delerium’ (which are truly magic moments), he just hasn’t been afforded to songs to quite reach his intended target.

Needless to say, the musicianship on ‘Sideshow..’ is simply first class. Always has been. Sverd is perhaps the lynch pin with layered keyboard elements and cosmic laden effects, but the guitars of Knut Magne Valle and Tore Moren also have a more permanent role in the mix (although I’d suggest that their riff ideas don’t push the boundaries too much). As for Jan Axel Von Blomberg (Hellhammer) on drums, what needs to be said really? The guy still plays like he’s detached from the whole process, lost in his own little world of double kick and lightning speed fills, yet somehow always in synch with the musical patterns involved.

I have listened to ‘Sideshow Symphonies’ at least a dozen times before writing this review. It is one of those albums. Arcturus have never been a universally loved band and ‘SS’ isn’t going to change that. They are still way too artsy, progressive and fucking ‘out there’ for most straight up metal heads. Fans of the band might be a little divided over this new one – the warmer, almost gentle dream like nature of it is its strength as far as I am concerned – but having said that, it may not provide enough ‘darkness’ for fans of the band earlier material. Clearly, ‘Sideshow Symphonies’ doesn’t touch the imaginative heights of all that has gone before them, but nevertheless, it is still a remarkably challenging listen and wipes the floor with most of its competition.

note: 8.3

Tracklist

Hibernation Sickness Complete
Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer
Deamonpainter
Nocturnal Vision Revisited
Evacuation Code Deciphered
Moonshine Delirium
White Noise Monster
Reflections
Hufsa

Line-up

Jan Axel Von Blomberg (Hellhammer) – Drums
Steinar Johnsen (Sverd) – Keyboards
Hugh Steven James Mingay (Skoll) – Bass
Knut Magne Valle – Guitar
Tore Moren – Guitar
Simen Hestnaes (Vortex) – Vocals