Arcturus (And The Deception Circus)
Disguised Masters

In 1998, one year after the masterpiece 'La Masquerade Infernale', Arcturus released this strange album containing a series of remixes of the songs from the previous record.

'Disguised Masters' was received with some embarrassment by industry insiders, as a superfluous album, unsettling but ultimately the work of a band that in a few years had rewritten the history of extreme music. Therefore, the album was scrutinized in every facet, listened to dozens of times in search of the most hidden gem, studied like a philosophical text of uncertain value. As happens in such cases, to avoid offending the sensitivity of fans and that of the group, always very polite and kind, paths diverged: some pretended they had never heard it, turning a blind ear, procrastinating until the last moment of the fateful review: when that moment came, none of these people had words much different from "Brave experiment", "interesting test" and "Significant contaminations".... most genuinely wondered about the usefulness of an album like this, perhaps not even ugly, but ultimately indecipherable. The other half of the insiders, however, showed enthusiasm: how could one ignore such a masterpiece, the child of the encounter between ancient and modern, where the coldness of electronics married the warmth of black metal? It didn't take long for the same people to forget about the disc.

'Disguised Masters' is essentially Garm's whim, a lover of electronics, as he would widely experiment with his Ulver; the other members of Arcturus, particularly Hellhammer and Valle, were involved more forcibly... fate had it that their trials were the best!

In truth, there are commendable pieces in this release: the first three, for instance, are unreleased tracks: a short intro, ”White Tie Black Noise” paves the way for ”Deception Genesis,” a good track, stylistically halfway between the theatricality of Masquerade and the cosmic tones of Sham Mirrors. The quality cannot be compared to the songs that make up those records, but the piece maneuvers well between more ethereal moments and more spirited ones. Finally, it is followed by a new version of ”Du Nordavind,” one of the most famous Arcturus songs, belonging to the early period, and recently reissued on CD. This remake is certainly the best from the viewpoint of recording, clean and clear, highlighting all the background details, such as keyboards and transverse flutes. The vocal performance is also superb, a slightly distorted scream very effective.

But then the remixes of songs begin, ones that are difficult to remix: very long and complex songs that are inevitably disrupted and overhauled by Garm and his "assistants" (for some always the same Garm under pseudonyms). Thus, we move from a very ambient ">Painting My Horror,” retaining nothing of the original, not even the skeleton, to a ">Master Of Disguise” reinterpreted in an acid key with a gangster rap/hip hop style singing! The most successful examples are certainly the reinterpretation of ">La Masquerade Infernale," by Hellhammer and Valle, maintaining the original piano loop by enriching it with progressive rhythms and a remarkable dark aura, and the very expanded version of ">Ad Astra” with female vocals. A special mention to the last track, still ">Ad Astra” but played by strings as in a fragment of the original; the result is very similar to ">Opus A Satana” by Emperor, a classical rendition of ">Inno A Satana.”

All in all, "Disguised Masters" is not a "horrendous" album, and the operation ultimately doesn’t even seem to be aimed at commercial purposes; however, it doesn’t quite deserve a passing grade because for an album to be considered satisfactory it must have an average quality that motivates purchase: one unreleased track and a couple of nice renditions definitely aren't enough.