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Arckanum > Antikosmos > Reviews
Arckanum - Antikosmos

Rebirth of Arckanum, stronger than ever before - 88%

hakarl, February 19th, 2013

Although Arckanum started as a folk-oriented, fairly atmosphere-centered black metal band with such absurd promotional pictures and confusing vocals that it was frankly difficult to take seriously, the project transformed into something quite different after Shamaatae, the sole musician, reanimated Arckanum after it had been mothballed for a lenghty period of time. Those assuming “Antikosmos” to be anything like the 90s material will make a grave mistake should they write off the projects current form. The misty atmosphere and the vaguely comical folk frolicing is largely gone, replaced with focus on intense, melodic black metal riffing in the best tradition of Gorgoroth and some of Dawn's Slaughtersun – it's more Bergtrollets Hevn than Gava Fran Trulen now.

“Antikosmos” is imbued with lenghty atmospheric passages featuring background noises and Shamaatae’s emanations, apparently regarding the destruction of the universe and cosmos. Regardless of how ridiculous these chaos-gnostic beliefs may come off as to the layman, the atmosphere of the album is enriched by these themes in that the beautifully melodic, immensely catchy riffs are given a further notch of weight and severity from imagining where Shamaatae’s inspiration came from. The glorious harmonised black metal riffs are like odes in celebration of the apocalypse, or sonnets written in awe of the beauty of the world’s complete destruction. There is little mystical in “Antikosmos”, however (which might’ve been perceived by some to be a redeeming value of Shaamatae’s older work). The music is extremely straightforward, even simplistic. The rhythms are based on linear patterns of four, and the melodies and riffs generally conform to these rhythmic blocks. The sometimes delightfully melodic guitar riffing is augmented from its multilayered sound, and yet the mix brings the guitars close to the foreground, making the sound both imminent and densely layered – Arckanum’s atmospheric aspects are still intact, if considerably diminished. Instead, “Antikosmos” is entirely driven by riffs (apart from the ambient passages) – some of them beautiful and extremely memorable, some of them inhospitable and grim. Shamaatae’s drumming is mostly based on the blast beat with slight variations in its patterns, and his vocals are a hoarse, high-pitched growl or gravelly yell. Although his voice utterly lacks depth and menace, there is considerable passion and anger in his voice – even if the vocals aren’t particularly skillful, his delivery leaves little to be desired. The production is clear, and especially the drums sound excellently recorded, with a punchy, high-pitched snare tone that befits the blast beats excellently.

The weakest point of “Antikosmos” is that it mostly lacks the most powerful emotional states. There is aggression, but it’s never quite palpable. Many of the songs are melancholic and beautiful, but they’re often stuck between an aggressive, determined atmosphere evoked by the pummeling rhythms and Shamaatae’s vicious snarls, and the wistful moroseness of the Gorgoroth-styled riffs. One of the virtues of having other musicians to work with, even if they aren’t actively and prominently involved in the lowest level songwriting, is that the different personalities in the band bring out aspects of the music that a sole musician may not be able to convey to the greatest possible effect.

The one-sidedness of “Antikosmos” does not directly affect its enjoyability, however. The reanimated form of Arckanum is immensely fun and rewarding to listen to. Even though Shamaatae didn’t even come close to creating an outright masterpiece, the new nature of his project is far more interesting and enjoyable than the style of old. The sound is definitely more serious, although there’s definitely a pinch of fun it the music – the riffs in “Svarti”, for example, are immensely inspirative and uplifting. Another high point of the album, “Sú Vitran” is a fairly typical classic black metal anthem with its darkly spirited guitar riffs, great-sounding blast beats. Some of the strange atmospheric passages could’ve been cut – “Blóta Loka” is a five minutes long piece of menacing background noises and speech resembling some kind of a liturgy or a ritual. Obviously it should’ve been shorter. “Sú Vitran” has a lenghty outro of lone, melancholy guitar leads and spoken vocals, which is somewhat excessive coming just after “Eksortna”, a minute and half of lone guitar leads. “Formála”, the last song, ends with, again, menacing background noises and Shaamatae’s emanations. There is noticeable shortage of content, in other words – despite all these interludes “Antikosmos” is only 37 in length.

Even so, the music is excellent at best. Arckanum can be considered a worthy continuation to Gorgoroth’s style of black metal from the early and mid 90s, with Shamaatae’s unique and personal style that emphasises grandiosity and an energetic, spirited mood over the desolation and melancholy of Gorgoroth. With less ambient or atmospheric passages to interrupt the experience and perhaps one more instant classic like "Svarti", this album would've deserved a rating of 95% or so. The rating of 88% comes in part from the greatness of “Antikosmos” success at its best, ignoring somewhat the inconsistency of the album.

A break from the past - 85%

VRR, June 19th, 2010

Here's a strange thing: Shamaatae, the lone troll mastermind behind the ultra-cult Arckanum, has just released one of the most accessible black metal albums of 2008. For years, the original Arckanum albums (Fran Marder, Kostogher and Kampen - reviewed elsewhere in this issue) have changed hands for sums rivalling just about any other underground release, such was their scarcity. Compounded by label troubles, an insistence on recording progressively rawer and more abrasive material, and a ten year hiatus between albums, you can see why "Antikosmos" is such an unexpected beast.

The first striking feature of Antikosmos is the massive production overhaul that has been performed on this album, thanks in no small part to the recording venue, Sunlight studios. The sound is much stronger and far more expansive than any of the previous releases. In fact, it is probably one of the cleanest black metal production jobs from any underground band; clearer than “De Mysteriis...”, to put it into perspective.

Beginning with a ritualistic noisy swell of chanting, white noise and glitched electronics, you can tell that Antikosmos is one Arckanum album that is most definitely NOT set in a forest. Some 90 seconds in and track one proper ("Svarti") begins. It's a bold move for the first track as this is far and away the highlight of the whole album. A genius choice of paired riffs form a binary structure of verse-bridge-verse riffing that provides more richness of melody than most bands could muster in a decade. Like Transilvanian Hunger, Svarti contains a melody line in the verse so infectious that it doesn't really need a chorus at all. Yet for all the major key tunefulness, the riffs still have the crushing heaviness of a Volvo to the nut sack.

Track two (“Dauðmellin”) wades in with barely a moment's respite. A frantic deathrash driven by non-stop blast beats, it is here where you are reminded that Shamaatae started out as a drummer and learnt the guitar only as he recorded the first studio albums. Dauðmellin is a welcome kick up the tempo for anyone (prematurely) thinking Arckanum had gone soft.

Going on, the individual tracks become less well-defined, although none lack individual character or direction. Folkish riffs (“Nákjeptir”), mournful, Burzumic guitar interludes (“Eksortna”) and a puzzling futuristic-sounding noise track offer an array of approaches that makes the already minimalist 37 minute album appear somehow even shorter.

Standing apart from the traditions of Swedish metal bands who were seduced by the magic of the producer's mixing booth (Therion, Opeth, Entombed) was one of the reasons why Arckanum was thought of with such affection by black metallers. It will be interesting to see how Antikosmos is received then. This change of tact will no doubt rile some of those more hard-line 'heads, but you can't say the results weren't worth it...

(Originally written for BLAST! zine #1)

Introspective and excellent - 90%

benwest, November 8th, 2008

A well-respected if little-heard entity, Arckanum made a name for themselves in the 1990's, their notoriety due in part to the bizarre masked appearance of singer and sole member Shamaatae. Known for shambling, lo-fidelity demos, Antikosmos presents a departure from their crackly, historic sound. Although fully-realized, Antikosmos doesn't reveal its superb nature on first listen. Several sessions are required before its poison truly adheres to your skin. For the patient listener, Arckanum presents a finely-constructed slab of Black Metal performed in the traditional Northern style. Untouched by current trends, Antikosmos swarms with ragged, trebly guitar, supported by the Shamaatae's hoarse croaking. This is an album devoid of gimmicks. Even the headscratching ambient track "Blota Loka" doesn't shake the solid architecture that surrounds it. In a marketplace flooded with third-rate Darkthrone clones, Arckanum presents an introspective, memorable album directly linked to the principles that spawned the genre.

(originally written for Salt Lake Under Ground, slugmag.com)

Relentless - 83%

WinterBliss, July 8th, 2008

My knowledge of Arckanum is quite limited, I downloaded Kostogher awhile back under the guise that it was one of the best black metal albums in awhile. I was not very impressed with it, which is largely due to the weak and quiet production. To say the least, that problem is not present at all on Antikosmos, in fact the production is very strong and gives the album a very powerful feeling to it.

Arckanum plays a very sturdy brand of black metal that, to me, seems to lack many of today's modern trends in regards to black metal. I really appreciate Arckanum for this reason, while the band is not breaking any new ground, it is completely all its own. Strong production well composed songs, above average musicianship (especially for a one man black metal band) and an overall genuineness that seems to be so hard to find in the midst of all these "super kvlt" or "suicidal" black metal bands sells this album for me.

Shamaatae does an excellent job of creating strong riffs, some of which are catchy and melodic, while others are perfect for heading banging. Songs are composed in a manner where the riffs and the vocals are the focus, but the drums do a great job in following in sync with the riffs and are played quite well. Song structured is varied enough to contain plenty of fast tremolo and blast beats, to slower build-ups, and to even some midpaced and heavy tracks that showcase an extremely crunchy guitar and some nice guitar work. Songs like Nákjeptir and Formála are able to slow things down and where speed is scarified heaviness is enforced. The buildups in opening track are phenomenal.

Overall this album seems to be much in the vein of Kostogher, simply more mature and better produced. It is nice to listen to a band that, on pen and paper sounds pretty generic, but is an entity all of its own when finally heard. This is a powerful and well rounded album and inspires me to check out more of Shamaatae's work.

The album also happens to start off (and end) with a really cool, dark, and ominous chant/ambient clip that sounds like the words Fenris, and Ragnarok are mentioned behind some foreboding sounds.

This is a great album and surprisingly heavy for a black metal band that has no touches of death metal. The vocals in Swedish are a big plus for me too, sounds really viscous. Defiantly buy this if you can.