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Arcana > Inner Pale Sun > Reviews
Arcana - Inner Pale Sun

Ecstatic and tranquil - 90%

Azargled, February 3rd, 2014

In "Inner Pale Sun" (fourth LP of the band, released in 2002), the Swedish neoclassical act Arcana continues evolving in their musical direction, heavily influenced by Dead Can Dance. There are some differences to DCD though so they do not come across as total copycats - plus that they are really good at their genre. One major difference is that there is less emphasis on the vocals, as there are a lot of instrumentals and we rarely have any exotic vocal tricks (think of Lisa Gerrard's operatic vocals and glosolalia), if any. The band also has influences from some goth rock bands with neoclassical touches (think of Swans "The Burning World" era - especially in the vocal style). But enough with the band comparison, let's see what this album offers.

Although all tracks share a similar style, there are differences among them - for example "Icons" has a more medieval, mantra-like feeling, while other tracks such as "Lovelorn" and "Innocent Child" focus on delivering poetic lyrics above a neoclassical/ethereal musical wallpaper. The strings are used in a clever way, and they are very pleasant, especially in the two vocal tracks mentioned above. The closing track "Closure" (one of my personal favourites here) is a heavenly piano-laden minimal track, which is really good for relaxation. Another favourite of mine is "We Rise Above" (also released in the "Body of Sin" 7"), where the combination of the vocals, the dulcimer and the percussion gives a really haunting feeling, taking you to other, ancient worlds!

In this album, the male vocals are done by Peter Petterson, while the female ones are done by Ann-Mari Thim (who replaced the old female vocalist, Ida Bengtsson). Half of the tracks are instrumental though. For me, the length of the album (clocking around 38 min) is an advantage, because although the music is very pleasant, it is not very diverse so if the album was much longer - assuming all the tracks were in the same style - it might be a little tiring to sit through.

If you ask me for any drawbacks here, I would say there are no significant ones - although subjectively we can say that the album could have been somewhat more diverse, or that the vocals could have a more dominant role. But personally, I think for this musical act, their overall sound is excellent, because they have proven - not only here but also in their other albums - that what they do, they do it really well. One last thing I want to mention is that, even if the music is not very "technical" in a theoretical sense, it doesn't really matter at all regarding that genre, as long as the atmosphere is inspiring and the melodies are used in a clever way.

"Inner Pale Sun" is sure among my favourite Arcana albums, although if you ask me, all of their releases are worth hearing if you are a fan of the neoclassical/ethereal genre. You simply cannot go wrong with this talented act.

Dark, haunting and atmospheric - 85%

username345, August 6th, 2008

Dead Can Dance is commonly considered to be the best band in whatever genre they are pigeonholed into with their unique atmospheric sound and influences from gothic rock, dark ambient, neoclassical music, medieval music and in their later albums, world music.

With ‘Inner Pale Sun’, Swedish band Arcana threaten to take Dead Can Dance’s throne. While they can easily be criticised for being a complete rip-off of Dead Can Dance, focusing on the neoclassical and dark ambient elements of Dead Can Dance’s earlier medieval influenced albums ‘Spleen & Ideal’ and ‘Within the Realm of a Dying Sun’, Arcana are so good at it that the lack of originality becomes very easy to ignore.

Like Dead Can Dance, the sound here mixes old with new using an assortment of modern and obscure instruments. Strings, occasionally supported by drums, provide the backing as chimes, bells, guitars, dulcimers and all sorts of obscure instruments play sparse and usually quite simple melodies. While this formula is simple, it always works very well. The melodies are always incredibly atmospheric and beautiful, bringing to mind thoughts of the medieval world the music is influenced by. With it’s hypnotic melodies, timpani echoing in the background, rolling drums and sweeping strings, Arcana manages here to create an impressively haunting and dark and sound with a genuine medieval atmosphere.

Where Arcana separates from Dead Can Dance is the vocals. While Dead Can Dance’s music is dominated by Lisa Gerrard’s unearthly, ethereal soaring vocals and Brendan Perry’s more grounded yet still powerful Jim Morrisonesque singing, most of the music on ‘Inner Pale Sun’ is instrumental.

Most of the time when vocals do come in they are chanted simply to enhance the albums. Vocalist Peter Petterson, who amazingly plays nearly all of the instruments actually sounds slightly like Brendan Perry, but slightly lower pitched. It’s not that noticeable though, especially as he only sings on a few tracks or just does chants. The singing is decent but not as strong as that on Dead Can Dance, which is probably one of the reasons it’s used only to enhance the atmosphere. Occasionally he is supported by female backing vocals provided by Ann-Mari Thim, though these vocals are only ever chanted. The lyrics aren’t as impressive as the music and are often quite simple, but fit the dark themes fine.

While ‘Inner Pale Sun’ is fantastic if you are in the right mood to lose yourself in it’s dark atmosphere, the slight lack of variety could get dull if you are not. Dead Can Dance manage to balance the atmosphere and ‘pop’ in their music well with short catchy songs by Brendan Perry and longer, more meandering Lisa Gerrard songs, while Arcana seem to focus much more on the atmosphere, so it becomes less gripping than much of Dead Can Dance’s work. While the melodies are all very strong they sometimes lack a certain catchiness that would help the album remain interesting for much longer. As the album is only 38 minutes long though, this doesn’t become much of a problem.

So has Arcana managed to snatch Dead Can Dance’s crown with ‘Inner Pale Sun’? Not quite, but they are certainly good enough for any Dead Can Dance fan, or any fan of atmospheric music, to enjoy.

Epic dark ambient - 90%

drengskap, April 30th, 2007

This is Arcana's fourth album, and the first since 2000's The Last Embrace - Peter Pettersson has evidently been concentrating on Sophia, his other project. Inner Pale Sun offers 8 tracks and 38 minutes of plangent and ethereal orchestral pieces. The album opens in epic, romantic style with 'My Cold Sea', all strings, wordless choral arrangements and martial percussion. 'Lovelorn' has a film soundtrack feel - I sort of made associations with the remake of Cape Fear, but not having a copy of the film, I couldn't check this. In fact, a lot of this album sounds like film music, prompting strong visual images. 'Icons' is a darker piece, with dulcimer, choral vocals and a funereal tubular bell. 'We Rise Above', previewed on last year's 'Body of Sin' single, features a driving dulcimer melody with timpani percussion, giving it an exotic Middle Eastern feel, as well as female vocals. 'Innocent Child' opens with a simple piano line before adding strings and mournful lyrics:


‘Why we destroy and torture out of greed
I wish I could give you something else’


All the lyrics on Inner Pale Sun, incidentally, are in English, although a lot of the vocals on the album are wordless. 'Season of Thought' features cellos, swelling keyboards and, I think, clarinet, and is probably the most upbeat song on this album, though it's not The Cheeky Girls by any means! 'Song Of The Dead Sun', as the title might suggest, returns to the prevalent elegiac mood, with some female background vocals. 'Closure' begins with a repeating piano figure, developing the theme into a soothing valediction with strings and crooning choirs.
I've not heard any Arcana before - I was strongly reminded of Swans in The Burning World/Love of Life period, by Pettersson's deep,deep vocals, by the sweeping orchestral arrangements, by song titles like 'We Rise Above' and 'Song Of The Dead Sun' and by the overall atmosphere of gentle melancholy with dark undertones. Some of the neo-classical work of Norway's Penitent is also comparable. In any case, I liked this a lot - the album manages to evoke feelings of bittersweet sadness, a nostalgia for lost things and bygone days, without falling into Gothic cliché.

Eh, it's not metal....but it's still fucking cool! - 80%

PowerMetalGuardian, May 14th, 2003

Is this even metal? I am gonna half to say no! At least on this album it doesn't sound metal, maybe on the other ones I've never heard, but definetly not on this one. There is no distorted guitars, no time for headbanging, no riffs or bass lines, no screaming high or low grunted vocals. This is very ambient music.

But since it is hear, I am goning to review it. Despite the fact that it's not even metal....I'll have to take off some points for that. But music wise, this album is a masterpiece! The description of the band, best places what this music is like. It's very atmospheric and ambient. Very touching and moving! I give loads of credit to this band for making such beautiful music. There is only two people in Arcana!!! The one guy does vocals, very low, sometimes chanting. He also does all the instruments! That's crazy there has to be at least twenty or more different instruments (such as violin, piano, drum, synths, and various sound effects, pipes and whistles, vocal, etc.). By the way, for only one person, the tracks are blended in awsome. In fact, I wouldn't have thought it was possible to record so many tracks and then blend them togther without screwing up royally! The second person is a girl who has a very pretty voice. She sort of sings like Tarja from Nightwish, with less opera style!

So what can we do with this music, it's not metal, we can't headbang!!! This is one of those albums I would subscribe to someone who needs to get a shit load of stress of their shoulders. It is very smooth and relaxing, which could either put you to sleep, or make you at rest and at peace with oneself. Another thing we could do is use this to expand our intellectual minds. Listen to the music and the name of the songs. For example the song We Rise Above, I sit here with my eyes close and think of a medevil army rising up against an army of evil warlords who have ravaged and destroyed the village. Yeah it's deep, but it is fucking cool! If you use your imagination you can imagine a whole story, just from this one album! Eh, it's not metal....but it's still fucking cool!