More info & purchase: en.prophecy.de/... en.prophecy.de/... Arcturus' new album "Arcturian" out on May 8th, 2015 (North-America: May 12th, 2015) on Prophecy Productions. / arcturusnorway / prophecyproductions
Over 25 years since Arcturus first appeared to wow us with their forward-thinking and ambitious experimental metal. They've returned once again after a decade break for their fifth full length track. Intricate songwriting blends with graceful transitions to create a majestically grand effort that's accentuated by flawless musicianship. Arcturian really is a must listen to album.
Metal Hammer Official Indeed, "sort-of" intricate songwriting, graceful transitions, flawless musicianship: I agree. But where is the "forward-thinking and ambitious experimental metal" that we love Arcturus for: no trace of that left.
paolomath yes. what's so strange about that? its a natural extension of saying how they are doing everything wrong. i'd like to hear what you think the RIGHT way would be. not just some nebulous "better, more experimental" or such. but some specific examples.
I am sorry, this doesn't make sense. I just said I loved the band its "forward-thinking and ambitious experimental metal", which I can't find anymore. It's not about doing things right or wrong, it's about making stuff that's interesting. You must have misinterpreted what's art and what is intellectual production and confrontation in general. If I am in the mood of reading an interesting book it's not like I know already what the book should contain, in order for it to be interesting to me.
Stefan Petterson, totally agree with you man, specially on drums (hellhammer is awesome, but the sound quality is so plastic in this one) lets hope this is not the final result ;)
Richard André Labbe Victoriano My friend, the drum sound is way plastic indeed, though i guess it's due to the futuristic kind of sound they want to have. If not, then the drums have no soul....
This is hell hammer, these drums need to hit me in the gut, not sound like someone tapping on red solo cups. Listen to Masquerades for more of what I am thinking! Vocals are a little buried in the mix, not in volume, but the synth, guitars are in the same frequency bands too much so it gets muddy quick. I still love it though.
knut magne valle Nope, I said exactly the opposite, it sounds like a synth (plastic) drum sometimes, specially at the beginning. I have been an Arcturus fan since the first albums and this is something I'm not used to, specially compared to the previous Arcturus albums (in relation to quality sound I mean, cause in terms of composition this is a really good song) Well, this is just my first personal appreciation, maybe I just need to dig a little bit more the new arcturus sound. (btw. are you the real knut?? or just some fan using knut's identity?)
This album is way better than Sideshow Symphonies. I've heard the entire thing. Don't worry about the production, there are tons of layers to this record, far more than 95% of metal albums released today. It sounds great on headphones. Don't sweat it guys, Arcturus are back, and you should be happy about it.
dios bananos Sideshow was great, I think. I had to get used to it but it really grew on me. And btw, I think ure trolling that u heard the entire thing. But ok, to each his own. Internet fame ftw! ;-)
P4nzerk93 I have contacts. I can't reveal who they are though unfortunately. You are just going to have to take my word for it. Once you hear the album, you'll know I'm right :-)
For all the people complaining about production: This is Arcturus, not some trendy band formed in 2010. This quality is far from bad, and it's part of their sound. I'm glad Arcturus never abandoned their roots like so many other bands, and in my humble opinion this wouldn't be the same if they changed their style and got anal about recording quality. Hail Arcturus, still producing epic music and not selling out after all these years \m/
Wormheart ur totally right sir! Although I love bands like Thy Art Is Murders production value (like most deathcore) I think it would murder Arctrus' sound
I'm sorry, but this is a really dumb argument. Arcturian sounds like shit simply because it was incompetently mixed and has poor brickwalled (which is, you know, pretty trendy) mastering, it has nothing to do with not selling out or not abandoning their roots. By your logic that means they were selling out or abandoning their roots during 'La Masquerade Infernale' or 'The Smam Mirrors' era, because both of these albums have a MULTITUDE better and cleaner production that Arcturian.
It's not bad; it's absolutely terrible. They should be ashamed of the mixing of this album. Producing something that is not dogshit is not "selling out", you fucking hipster.
One of the best things I have ever heard - IN GENERAL. Song writing, production, passionate and theatrical performance. Really blew me away when I first heard it and still does now.
Never thought I'd see the day when Arcturus release a new album. In The Woods... are also recording new stuff. Awesome. Great song. Altough I am wondering wether such a huge album should have such crappy drum sound... Still, it's not a major issue. Loving it.
I remember being younger and only caring about songs and compositions, not about "mix not polished enough". Shut the fuck up about the mix and enjoy the music! This song is fantastic.
Andras LOHF commenting on the "mix" is the current trendy thing to do it seems. Since everyone and their dog now seems to own an Axe FX II and Superior Drummer, EVERYONE is suddenly a recording expert. If things don't sound exactly like the current big time band, it's immediately a badmix hahahaha.
I Literally Just Pooped My Pants No mine doesn't matter either but I'll give it since you asked. The mix sounds like Arcturus. If this came on a mixed radio station and I didn't see the track name I'd recognize the sound. How they mix and record is part of their sound. Much like other artists like Devin Townsend, Ihsahn, etc.This band consentently puts out quality material and people are jumping all over the track as if the band screwed up and don't know what they're doing when that is far from true. To sum it up.... It sounds like Arcturus(or perhaps their label) wants it to sound. How something is mixed/mastered is just as a subjective opinion as how a song is written.
Andras LOHF Actually, I don't disagree with most of what you are saying. I also instantly recognized this as being Arcturus, via sound. And if this is how it sounds, then, more than likely, barring some miscommunication between the band and audio engineers, this is how they want it to sound. And that is okay. The thing that I don't think that we may see eye-to-eye on, though, is that, I believe, once a piece of art is displayed to the public, it then exists to be criticized; whether it be positively or negatively. You, in fact, have criticized it, in saying that it sounds good because that's how the band wants it to sound. And that's okay. But it's also okay to feel that it may not sound that great, due to decisions in the audio engineering. And that's okay, too. That is how art is viewed, or, in this case, listened to. Art will always be subject to criticism, because that is the only purpose for its existence, outside of the desire for the artists to create it for themselves. I'm actually glad that you posted how you felt about the music, rather than dismissively insulting those with differing opinions. It's silly to be irritated at those who think differently than yourself, because part of what makes art beautiful is that we all view it differently. But, then again, we may just simply have differing opinions. :)
Have to say "The Journey" is my favorite track....The cosmic swirl generated by the synth,accoustic guitar and chants is just out o this world....(55 year old longhaired space rocker and proud of it.... :-) )
Amethyst Leigh I want out of this plane Riding hard For one too many a day Elude at all cost All meaning is lost Hope dies last My escape I forecast Over the rainbow And into the vast Deep unknown Alienated so alien I go The plans came to me in a vision Behold my hands Guided by the supernatural And the spiral it spirals Plot the way trip away tip the scale The stars align the fuel is fine And we explode into oblivion The Arcturian sign
Listened to this song 11 times today. Absolutely Amazing! I take back what I said earlier about the quality of the production. It's just what it needs to be. Grateful as fuc* that they came out with another album after all these years!
Arcturus has given me an enormous inspiration for my paintings during all these years and has never disappointed me. This truly is art, taking me higher levels of knowledge every time. Music is the sound of our souls
I'm surprised no one is making a connection that this seems like a bridge between their old and new material. It has the avant-garde and progressive tendencies of their newer stuff with the black metal aesthetic of their debut's riffing and drumming. The band made a very drastic switch between Aspera and Masquerade, and this album seems like it would have been a nice bridge between the two to make the change feel more natural. Better now than never though. This is fantastic! Very dark in tone but still very Arcturus. The production is great too - nice balance between the bass and treble, a hefty amount of mids adding warmth, a kit that's well mixed and the vocals and guitar solos cut through very nicely without overpowering anything. Probably my favourite production I've heard from them. Also, Vortex has clearly been practicing his harsh screams. He doesn't do them a lot, but they're tastefully placed and this time around he doesn't sound like he's coughing up a fur ball (note: I'm comparing it to a live video I saw of him singing the old songs. Great singing but his screams were awful). VERY excited for this album!!!
Somnam I'd say between Masquerade & Sideshow :D It's a decent song. Not enough complex and avant-garde for Arcturus but I like the atmosphere, compositions and of course vocals :]
Silence The Earth I was on the fence for a very short amount of time. The second the vocals kicked in, the way they mesh with the instruments. Yup, this is arcturus!
Hoping this is just the standard-metal-soup dish served for the instant gratification crowd so the grand theatre of atmospheric Arcturus madhattery can follow...
So here I thought Arcturus is back....fuck...They're not back...they recreated themselves. Damn you...I've just barely survived their previous albums and here I am stuck with another mindblow
I want out of this plane Riding hard For one too many a day Elude at all cost All meaning is lost Hope dies last My escape I forecast Over the rainbow And into the vast Deep unknown Alienated so alien I go The plans came to me in a vision Behold my hands Guided by the supernatural And the spiral it spirals Plot the way trip away tip the scale The stars align the fuel is fine And we explode into oblivion The Arcturian sign
Shit!! They just blew my mind!! A whole different ballpark than Aspera, but still on the same evolution curve they were taking. Cant wait for the whole album.
Very promising. The intro reminds me a mix of Kinetic and Nightmare Heaven, but with a Sideshow sympnonies attitude (mainly due to Vortex). Bring it on!!
I remember this album came out the week my daughter was born, and i listened to it like crazy during those sleepness nights, now shes almost 3 and im wondering when im gonna get another arcturus album
What is there to complain about lol Jesus people are picky, it would be nice though if vortex harmonized his vocals sometimes like he did in borgir, that shit sounded whimsical as fuck haha
To be honest I just found these guys and checked out some of their earlier work and I gotta say this band is really amazing I have herd similar bands but this band is just amazing their new album (IMO get your head out of your Colan) is a masterpiece in metal sure the sound Is a little fuzzy buy I've listened to shit like black metal , hardcore punk and grindcore so this is nothing to complain about XD probably one of my favorite albums of all time :3
Sounds like Arcturus. The songs in terms of songwriting is pretty good!! The keyboard arrangements are what you can expect from Sverd (there's a synth that sounds pretty close to the one in The Chaos Path) and the guitars are great. HH's playing is also superb but his snare sounds weird (the electronic beat had a better snare sound than the real one). Vortex's grim vocals are awesome this time around; at first the cleans sounds a bit 'mono' but more listens made them fit somehow. Bass is not really clear in the mix which is sad since Skoll is an amazing bassist. What I think really brings this 'Arcturian' sound is that classical feeling that was a trademark of the band and was a bit lost with Sideshow.
it sounds real, I've seen a couple of live videos of this song and it's the same so doesn't care the quality, the music and what they tried to transmit, emotionally, they succeded. Great song!
9 лет назад
Sounds very good...some new approach to compositions and Vortex sounds more serious as a vocalist...like it. Only strange thing in this composition is the ultra fast double bass in the first half of the song.... btw beautiful artwork indeed.
Arcturus fan here form the wee early Demo days. SO GLAD the band is back!!!! And I am in love with this artwork. I also share the sentiments that I do not enjoy this mix/mastering either. I will love it either way of course. It sounds way too compressed? To many competing sounds for a narrow band of frequencies. Let it out! Give the drums the space it deserves, screw compression! I'm listening to this at 1080 on reference speakers. I'm sure its still a low quality MP3 however so I hope to be surprised when I have this in hand. And I will!!!
Tracklist: 1. The Arcturian Sign 2. Crashland 3. Angst 4. Warp 5. Game Over 6. Demon 7. Pale 8. The Journey 9. Archer 10. Bane Bonustracks (only available with the book edition and the box): 1. Angst (Industrial Club Remix by Pride And Fall) 2. Archer (Sun Of The Sleepless Geisterbahn Rmx) 3. Game Over (Germ Remix) 4. Warp (Wormhole Remix by Encephalon) 5. Angst (Nailbomb Remix by Fractured) 6. Arcturian Psychedelic Sign (by MøllarN) 7. Warp (Germ Remix) 8. Pale (Necro Deathmort Remix)
I'm really starting to like this whole experimental, progressive and avant garde black metal sound So different from regular black metal obviously but I fucking love it! Sigh, diabolical masquerade, vom fetische der unbeirrheit... All good shit, recommend me other bands like that if you know any
Wow... einfach wow. Also wenn alle Songs auf dem neuen Album SO genial sind, dann wird dieses Album wohl mein absoluter Favorit 2015 werden. Leider hört sich der Drumsound etwas verkorkst an. Keine Ahnung ob das an RU-vid liegt... mal abwarten. Dennoch freue ich mich wie ein Schnitzel, das sich Arcturus nach 15 Jahren überhaupt nochmal so gewaltig zurückmelden. Absolut göttlich. :-)
We must focus in what Arcturus bring to us, I also noticed a 'clear sound' but nowadays its not something new, we can handle this. About Garm, he left the band and now he is past, became history, we can not deny Vortex. They can not satisfy evereybody, thats it.
Just ordered 2 disc digi book version plus t-shirt. Might become my favorite arcturus cd besides masquerade and sideshow if the other songs hold up to this one
As in what other bands are ripping off Arcturus and doing a good job? - Orakle (France) - Quadrivium (Methoca album) - Vulture Industries There are more, but those are the main ones.
Loving it! Dunno about BETTER than Sideshow Symphonies,which I absolutely love,but it is indeed brilliant...Puts me more in mind of Hawkwind and Amon Duul than it does of most modern metal,great for shroominating..... :-D
Definitely seems a bit more straight forward than what was on Sideshow, but its very catchy. I personally think Vortex is on point here. The mix is a bit off, but its still enjoyable nonetheless. I definitely can't wait for the whole album!
