Arcturus
La Masquerade Infernale

THE REVIEW

I'm arriving late, two reviews have already been written about this album, but I couldn't resist giving my modest opinion on what is one of the best albums in the history of metal (if not in the entire history of music): La Masquerade Infernale by the masters of the bizarre Arcturus.

It's really difficult to talk about this album without being banal. The review could be ten lines long with just one word: "masterpiece". But I will try my best to describe the feelings that this jewel of inestimable value evokes in me, so the following will not be a "technical" review and may seem at times a bit too rhetorical, but this is my style.

From the very first seconds, La Masquerade Infernale throws you into the atmosphere common to all the tracks. Master of Disguise is a declaration of intent, it is the door to the Underworld, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here": anyone who starts listening to this album, if they have an open musical mind, embarks on a journey that marks them profoundly and has no hope of freeing themselves from it. The notes of the infernal yet theatrical music are like the seductive smile of the jester inviting reason to yield: there's nothing we can do, the Master of disguise has already possessed us, and we feel the need to drink again from this sulfurous spring. We are only at the beginning, but our soul is already corrupted by dark music and lyrics that reek of Satanism from every corner.

He is profanity in sancitity`s guise
An alias assumed I do recognize
In their eyes, his cause -
when enticing and cunning in impact
is still a criminal and evil act.

We move on to another track, even darker than the previous one: Ad Astra. The Latin term "astrum" means star but, in the plural, can mean "heaven". This is a perverse prayer to Heaven, an expression of pure aversion to God. The brief lyrics that accompany the claustrophobic music are an evident middle finger to the Lord and religion, an anthem to the death of God. The ideals of religion are now past, Gott ist tot.

I have everywhere sought

and nowhere found.

He has found God nowhere because He no longer belongs to the present.

In secret to my soul

They are Ideals of old.

And now it's time for my favorite song of this album (though I adore them all madly), The Chaos Path, the path of chaos, where our soul is now lost. Now, just like religion, even our soul is dead. The third eye reflects images of a vast reluctant past, as the chorus says: the third eye is an organ, according to some religions, capable of seeing extrasensory realities and is related to the spirit and a state of enlightenment. But in Hell, there is no space for spirit and enlightenment...

Title track very short, only a couple of minutes, filled with the repetitive notes of a piano accompanied by a strange sound and voices whose words are hard to comprehend: we feel lost, we have lost our way, and unlike Dante, we do not have a guide in this Hell. The song can make us lose our bearings, thanks to the extremely alienating effect of its notes.

The solitude of our journey into the underworld is made explicit by Alone, the musically most violent and tough song of the entire album, whose lyrics are composed of words by Edgar Allan Poe, the renowned writer, with which he expresses the solitude that has been like a constant thread throughout his life.

And all I lov'd, I lov'd alone.

And from Poe's words, we move to the words of a Norwegian poet, Jørn Henrik Sværen, translated for us by the singer Garm for the sixth chapter of this masterpiece, The Throne of Tragedy, a song of great existential bewilderment and suffering, a theme that underlies the whole album. The whispered words at the beginning tell us that by now the Tablets of the Law given by God to Moses have lost their importance, through a beautiful metonymy:

From this day forth

are the heights of Horeb broken

and the sea of sulfur

- ice

Mount Horeb has been identified as Mount Sinai where the delivery of the Decalogue took place: its peaks are broken, therefore, by extension, the same Covenant with God is, and the sulfur sea, Hell, is frozen. From this comes a feeling of disorientation and loss of meaning, the certainties of man, which have always largely founded on religion, are missing: there is an obvious reference to the nihilist philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. And it is at this moment that Lucifer speaks to us; he guarantees our death, even if the time has not yet come: our sufferings have not yet ceased.

Painting My Horror is the song where the demonic character of the band is most present, from the songwriting point of view: it is pure nihilism and Satanism. By now, we have become devils, our soul has turned black. The music, probably the most theatrical of the entire album along with that of The Chaos Path, almost seems to praise our devilish nature, it is an anthem to the Evil that we have become: we are now Satan and transcend common morals; blasphemy has become our essence.

Pure I live in blasphemy
Mephisto I am hidden in Madonnas gown
From the code of common sense I`m free

And once again, the great German genius Nietzsche returns, with a statement that would have earned his applause:

I do not envy the conscience pure
of the blind man in his bliss world
I would not be devoid the fruit of guile

Those still anchored to faith in God are only blind men who have built a world of bliss and order to escape the chaotic reality of the world, who do not embark on the path of chaos.

And so we reach the last, most sinister song of this masterpiece, Of Nails and Sinners. Our diabolical metamorphosis is completed and crowned with this latest hymn to the rejection of God.

This is La Masquerade Infernale, a black metal album in songwriting but which is light-years away from the genre that made Norway's metal great. In this journey to Hell, we are perverse Dante Alighieris: he crossed Lucifer's lands to reach Paradise, God, and Beatrice; we cross it to reach Lucifer and let ourselves be possessed by him. Anti-religious and nihilistic notes pervade our ears, brain, and soul, freeing us from the light of illusion; we will never bow to divine light again.

You obsessively pursue him
Falling to see, that was why he came to be
one who annihilates with such impunity

We will never make this mistake again...