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“Arckanum - The 11 Anniversary Album” is an untypical compilation. One expects sort of a selection of favourite songs or something similar when stumbling upon this kind of titles. Nevertheless, here we can find mostly rare songs and recordings from one of the most peculiar and excellent black metal bands ever arisen from Swedish ground. Arckanum is based on a strong lyrical and philosophical concept around the god Pan, misanthropy, Kaos and black magic. A humble try to describe Arckanum´s sound –sometimes labelled as “trollish”- should not forget their harsh guitars, taste for fast parts, characteristic, trademark shrieky vocals and wide variety of parts in each song. Darkthrone sound is carried further into an intense forest feeling and the wilderness is unleashed with no remorse. In this release we can perfectly behold the evolution of the band. The two first tracks are certainly weak and unprofessional, demo sounding (something natural since they´re domestic recordings) and far from the style Arckanum developed in the subsequent years. Anyway it´s always interesting to snatch a glimpse on that prior stuff. Later on, one can admire and savour the essence of Arckanum in songs that despite not belonging to any album (here we have discarded versions of old stuff, EP songs, demos...), are a good token of the band´s will to reflect the visions of mastermind Shamaatae.
As bonus we find the song contained in the split-LP with Contamino, and the two awesome tracks which formed the “Boka Vm Kaos” EP. These ones are simply excellent, the best material ever recorded from the band in my opinion. The songs have now a more solid and pounding structure, and the fierce metal and evil presence is always there, and of course the old school feeling, stronger than ever, with a subtle, into hiding, speed-thrash edge in some lines really fantastic. I don´t want to forget about one of the rarest items included in “Arckanum”: the “Gava Fran Trulen” video, a production never released commercially which only a few people had seen. In the clip we can see Arckanum´s only member Shamaatae wearing a mask in a Swedish forest, in VHS quality (of course...), all clad in mystery and a dark veil which does nothing but strengthen the ancient underground feeling of this band. The booklet also offers interesting pictures taken from previous photo sessions, some of them are quite unique and reflect quite convincingly the Arckanum vibe. “Arckanum” could be a great reference to neophytes so they can start enjoying this band, because after hearing this album, the ones willing to penetrate the world of Arckanum will dive into the albums, and surely they´ll be caught by the black spell...
| Tracklist |
| 1. Ty Mörkeret |
| 2. Martyrium Af Ondo |
| 3. Ængin Oforhærra |
| 4. Svinna |
| 5. Kolin Væruld |
| 6. Et Sorghetog |
| 7. Træet |
| 8. Þæn Vredhgadi Svarti Loghin |
| Bonus tracks: |
| 9. Kosmos Wardhin Dræpas Om Sin |
| 10. Vm Kaos Gatvm Ok Kosmos |
| 11. Bafomet |
: 50.55
| Buy other Arckanum albums |
