Line #20 Music/Arcturus


1	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'' ([[GratuitousLatin 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.
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3	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, an EP, a single, a remix album, and a live 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.
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5	!! Current members
6	* Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) - drums (see also Music/{{Mayhem}})
7	* Steinar Sverd Johnsen - keyboards (see also Music/TheKovenant)
8	* Hugh Mingay (Skoll) - bass (see also Music/{{Ulver}})
9	* Knut Magne Valle - guitars (see also Music/{{Mayhem}} and Music/{{Ulver}})
10	* Simen Hestnæs (ICS Vortex) - vocals (see also Music/DimmuBorgir)
11	* Sebastian Grouchot - violin (live/session)
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13	!! Notable past members
14	* Kristoffer Rygg (Garm) - vocals, 1993-2003 (see also Music/{{Ulver}})
15	* Samoth - guitars and bass, 1993-1995 (see also Music/{{Emperor}})
16	* Carl August Tidemann - guitars, 1996-1997
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18	!! Major releases
19	* My Angel (single, 1991)
20	* Constellation (EP, 1994; has been reissued several times with varying configurations of bonus tracks, including once as a bootleg entitled ''Reconstellation'')
21	* Aspera hiems symfonia (full-length, 1996; reissued with ''Constellation'', "My Angel", and two bonus tracks in 2002)
22	* La Masquerade infernale (full-length, 1997)
23	* Disguised Masters (remix album, 1999)
24	* The Sham Mirrors (full-length, 2002)
25	* Sideshow Symphonies (full-length, 2005)
26	* Shipwrecked in Oslo (live album, 2006 on DVD, 2014 on CD/vinyl)
27	* Arcturian (full-length, 2015)
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29	!! Tropes
30	* 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... as did another Norwegian, Music/{{Ihsahn}}.) "The Throne of Tragedy" is an adaptation of a Norwegian poem by Jørn Henrik Sværen ("Tragediens trone"), albeit translated into English.
31	* BilingualBonus: A few of their songs are in Norwegian. Most of the examples are on ''Constellation'' and ''Aspera hiems symfonia''; later examples are "Hufsa" on ''Sideshow Symphonies'' and "Angst" and "Bane" on ''Arcturian''.
32	* Literature/BookOfRevelation: The first pressing of ''La Masquerade infernale'' has a hidden track in the pregap before the first track which contains a reading from this.
33	* BreatherEpisode: "Star-Crossed" on ''The Sham Mirrors''; "La Masquerade infernale" on the album of the same name; "Fall of Man" (for a certain definition of "breather") on ''Aspera hiems symfonia''.
34	* CallBack: "Reflections", from ''Sideshow Symphonies'', shares some melodic elements with "Ad astra", from ''La Masquerade infernale''. "Ad astra" itself could also count, as it shares lyrical themes with "The Bodkin & the Quietus (...to Reach the Stars)".
35	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: "My Angel" is more typical of death/doom than it is of black metal. Then again, it's not as if Arcturus has ever stuck with the same style for long.
36	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: If there are lyrics, they don't always even enter until a few minutes into a song. "Ad astra" is probably the best example, as there are only two stanzas of lyrics and they appear about five minutes into the song.
37	* EpicRocking: The band's average song is probably around six minutes long, with their longest, "For to End Yet Again", running for 10:34.
38	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Star-Crossed" into "Radical Cut", as well as very nearly every transition on ''Disguised Masters'' (the first two tracks and the last one have gaps separating them from the rest of the album).
39	* GratuitousFrench: ''La Masquerade infernale'' means "The Infernal Masquerade".
40	* GratuitousLatin: ''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).
41	* GrimUpNorth: A lyrical theme on ''Aspera hiems symfonia'', which probably won't come as a surprise given the title of the album.
42	* HeavyMithril: A variant in that quite a lot of their lyrics, particularly from ''The Sham Mirrors'' onward, have a science fiction theme. Given that they are named after a star, this is not exactly a surprise. Also falls somewhat into CyberPunkIsTechno, since the band began incorporating more ElectronicMusic influence when they began using science fiction themes.
43	* HiddenTrack: As mentioned above, the first pressing of ''La Masquerade infernale'' contains one in the pre-gap before the album. It's pretty bizarre and arguably qualifies as a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, being somewhat closer to TripHop than the band's usual fare. The hidden track is absent from the remaster.
44	* {{Instrumentals}}: They have a few. "La Masquerade infernale" has a few spoken word vocals low in the mix but is otherwise instrumental. ''Disguised Masters'' features a string quartet-only mix of "Ad astra". "Reflections" is also instrumental.
45	* LimitedLyricsSong: They have several. "Ad astra" particularly stands out, as it runs for nearly eight minutes and contains only ten lines (and two stanzas) of lyrics.
46	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Hufsa" is named after a character in Tove Jansson's children's book series ''Moomin'' (the character is known in English as the Groke).
47	* LiveAlbum: ''Shipwrecked in Oslo''
48	* LoudnessWar: Averted on the original releases of ''Aspera'' and ''La Masquerade''. Unsurprisingly, when they were remastered, they were somewhat louder. ''The Sham Mirrors'' clips constantly in its louder parts (basically, whenever there are drums) but is dynamic in its quieter passages. ''Sideshow Symphonies'' and the main disc of ''Arcturian'' aren't too bad about this, but the bonus disc of ''Arcturian'' does fall into this quite a bit.
49	* MetalScream: ''Aspera hiems symfonia'' uses a type 3 as the main vocal style. Vortex deploys a type 4 on several songs on ''La Masquerade infernale'', but the album's vocals are all clean. The albums after that point mix and match vocal styles.
50	* MoodWhiplash: The BreatherEpisode "Star-Crossed" on ''The Sham Mirrors'' fades directly into "Radical Cut", the heaviest song on the album.
51	* NewSoundAlbum: Basically, all of them, although ''Arcturian'' does incorporate elements of the band's sound on earlier albums. The only arguable exception is ''Aspera hiems symfonia'', which continues the sound of ''Constellation'' (unsurprisingly, since the songs from the EP were re-recorded for the album, although "Icebound Streams and Vapours Grey" was retitled to "Wintry Grey" on the album).
52	* Myth/NorseMythology: Some of their early lyrics (e.g., "Raudt og svart") are based around this.
53	* RockMeAsmodeus: To a certain extent, this is a theme of ''La Masquerade infernale''. They would drop this after that point.
54	* SanitySlippage: Many of their songs contain this as a theme, particularly on ''La Masquerade infernale''.
55	* SongStyleShift: It is not at all uncommon for a song to start in one genre and shift to an entirely different one midway through. "Nightmare Heaven" is a great example, as it starts out as a progressive metal song and turns into weird psychedelic electronica.
56	* 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 baritone 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.
57	* SpecialGuest: Music/{{Ihsahn}} of Music/{{Emperor}} on "Radical Cut" (the song was specifically written for his vocals). ICS Vortex on several songs on ''La Masquerade infernale'' (he wasn't an official member of the band yet).
58	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's "Rødt og svart" on ''Constellation'' and "Raudt 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)".)
59	* SubduedSection: These are plentiful in their music. "For to End Yet Again" contains a particularly effective example.
60	* SubliminalSeduction: "Whence & Whither Goest the Wind" has backmasked vocals.
61	* WordSaladLyrics: They are masterful at these. For instance, "For to End Yet Again" mixes this trope with WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical:
62	--> Police, police, police
63	--> please stop the Euro
64	--> from binar bin Laden
65	--> Io paramount Pan
66	--> Io Paradox Pan
67	:: If this has an intended meaning, it's oblique, and yet it feels quite profound within the context of the song.

Context Music / Arcturus