History Music / Arcturus

* SopranoAndGravel: After the band's first album, clean vocals are the rule rather than the exception, but on ''Sideshow Symphonies'' and ''Arcturian'' they are mixed with harsh vocals on occasion. ''The Sham Mirrors'' uses them only on "Radical Cut" (provided by SpecialGuest Music/{{Ihsahn}}) and ''La Masquerade infernale'' doesn't use them at all, though ICS Vortex' higher-pitched vocals are mixed with Garm's BadassBaritone on a few songs (most notably "Master of Disguise" and "Painting My Horror"; Vortex takes lead vocals on "The Chaos Path"). Meanwhile, ''Aspera hiems symfonia'' and ''Constellation'' have occasional clean vocals mixed in with the traditional black metal rasp.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: After they abandoned black metal, they stayed mostly in the 6-9 range, with ''La Masquerade'' and ''The Sham Mirrors'' probably being generally the lightest of their releases due to the general absence of harsh vocals. ''Constellation'' and ''Aspera'' probably climb up to 10 at times, and "Radical Cut" may also hit 10.

* GratuitousFrench: ''La Masquerade infernale'' means "[[CaptainObvious The Infernal Masquerade]]".

* AudioAdaptation: "Alone" takes its lyrics from the poem of the same name by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe. (Incidentally, fellow Norwegians Music/GreenCarnation used the same poem for an entirely different adaptation.) "The Throne of Tragedy" is an adaptation of a Norwegian poem by Jørn Henrik Sværen ("Tragediens trone"), albeit translated into English.

Arcturus is an AvantGardeMetal band from Norway. The band is something of a {{Supergroup}} amongst Norway's BlackMetal scene, having contained current or former members of bands such as Music/{{Mayhem}}, Music/{{Emperor}}, Music/TheKovenant, Music/{{Ulver}}, and Music/DimmuBorgir at various points of its existence. They started out as Symphonic BlackMetal, but after their first album the band abandoned that territory for much more unpredictable and experimental grounds. The first album, ''Aspera hiems symfonia'' ([[AltumVidetur Latin]] for ''Harsh Winter Symphony''), contains the expected {{Metal Scream}}s of black metal, but after that point, harsh vocals are rare or nonexistent on some of their releases and alternate with clean vocals on others.

* AltumVidetur: As mentioned above, ''Aspera hiems symfonia'' means "Harsh Winter Symphony". Additionally, "Ad astra" means "To the stars" and "Ad absurdum" means "To the point of absurdity" (though the latter is sometimes used in English anyway).

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's "Raudt og svart" on ''Constellation'' and "Rødt og svart" on later releases. (The title translates to "Red and Black"; "Raudt" is typically used in Nynorsk while "Rødt" is typically used in Bokmål.) Similarly, "Når kulda tar (frostnettenes prolog)" on ''Constellation'' became "Naar kulda tar (frostnettenes prolog)" on later releases. (This translates roughly as "When the Cold Takes (Frost's Prologue)".)

* BilingualBonus: A few of their songs are in Norwegian. It's mostly the early material, although ''Sideshow Symphonies'' does have "Hufsa".

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Averted, for the most part; they use Middle English dialect on some of their lyrics, but it's pretty much grammatically correct.

:: If this has an intended meaning, it's oblique, and yet it feels quite profound within the context of the song.

* Constellation (EP, 1994)

* Aspera hiems symfonia (full-length, 1996)

* Sebastian Grouchot - violin (live)

The band's sound varies significantly from album to album, but throughout their existence, the band has been centred around keyboardist Steinar Sverd Johnsen, which makes them somewhat unusual among metal bands. Johnsen has been, alongside drummer Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer), the only constant member of the band. They have released five albums, a fair number of demos and singles, and a remix album to date, with their third album, ''The Sham Mirrors'', attracting considerable praise among the ProgressiveMetal community. While they broke up in 2007, they reconvened in 2011 and continue to tour and release new material. Their latest album is 2015's ''Arcturian'', which is something of a career summary for the band, as it incorporates aspects of the band's sound on all their previous releases.