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Rating: 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...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Master of Disguise (06:43)
("No! this face is only a mask, a wicked ornament,
illuminated by an exquisite grimace,
Look and see, atrociously contorted,
The real head, and the sincere face
Turned back under the shadow of the face which lies"
Charles Baudelaire)
He is profanity in sanctity's guise
An alias assumed I do realize
In their eyes, his cause -
when enticing and cunning in impact
is still a criminal and evil act
So look for him vainly,
He, the incarnation of magickal nature
He turns unrecognizable even to the experienced eye
You obsessively pursue him
Failing to see, hat was why he came to be
one who annihilates with such impunity
He appears your friend, but
the Saint hides many Satans
He's contemptuous, you know
of your Godgiven stupidities
He calls you in question with
affected modesty and create
of you an object of derision
You think him to be pariah
whom company does exclude
But in the midst of all frenzy
He is - feasting in a transitory mood
Passion is a strict lord
He is also its humble slave
When bereft of common ways,
He strides before you on water
He makes clowns of kings,
charm the guests, rides the ball
Is the master of disguise
Prince of the thousandfold face
the charming jester's smile
which invites reason to demise
and imaginations rise
Inscrutable yes, venting his spleen
Somewhere night and day between
Is the master of disguise
03 The Chaos Path (05:33)
Await the coming storm. Behold the sign in the sun.
Chaos upon us spawn! The arrows of time pinpoints us all.
Oh, well the maddening laughter growing louder with the memories.
Atoms like incense rising, like a thousand candles all blown out
at once.
Fear tangled with despair.This ghastly symphony of malice breaks it.
The spirit sails out on waters. An intergalactic sea of sorrow.
Solemn oblivion with thee.
Ways of darkness.
The third eye reflects the images of vast reluctant pasts.
Ethereal eternity awaits the final act.
It crawls toward the altar destinied to collaps.
Tragic legend, eerie stratum.
Twisted, this mortal flesh evoked again, with echoes still haunting;
The curses chanting.
Embrace the outcast state of chaos. After all its unalterable.
Beweep this thought, then arise with wisdom,
Nowhen I hallow in the gateway of different plains.
Open your heart and let go. Oh Vanish. Divine infinity.
Ah, this wraith I am. So many aeons ago since.
Ah I suffer eternally. The inevitable did unfold.
Oh well, a collection of particles held together
by the force of a soul and its memory.
Be warned (you stand) on the edge of infinity;
Where coloured waves will lead the way into the void.
Fear tangled with despair. This ghastly symphony of malice.
Oh well the maddening laughter growing louder with memories now.
Atoms like incense thing.
Ways of darkness.
The third eye reflects the images of vast reluctant pasts.
Ethereal eternity awaits the final act.
You are drawn towards the altar destined to collaps.
Tragic legend, eerie stratum.
In between the arrows of time I suffer eternally.
04 La Masquerade Infernale (01:59)
Hear!
From this day forth
are the heights of Horeb broken
and the sea of sulphur-ice.
And blasphemy!
in heaven's chambers:
Souls had fled their halls
and closed was the book of life.
And behold!
The great, white throne:
black
with sacred blood
Our father -
Dead by his own hands:
an epitaph
worthy no king.
And so is everything
a nameless lie.
Who, my god,
am I?
Man knows me
as Lucifer, the serpent of old.
The wretched hold my banner high.
Your gift
- all life! -
I grant a grave
Yet I am not your death.
Come carry forth the crown
to your once held throne.
Here is where my suffering should cease
- but alas; I am crowned
in grief unheard of!
In this lone monarchy
- without a friend of foe -
I greet the mourning sun
with strife and a song:
Please speak my name!
And leave me not
in the dust of death.
I am weighed down
beneath the tragedy crown, -
nameless,
and alone,
a fatherless son.
05 Alone (04:42)
[Poem by Edgar Allan Poe]
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov'd, I lov'd alone
Then - in my childhood - in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In it's autumn tint of gold -
From the lighting in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by -
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that look the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
06 The Throne of Tragedy (06:34)
[based on the poem "Tragediens Trone" by John Henrik Svaren]
[is translated by the undersigned, and hereby dedicated to Kristoffer Garm Rygg]
Hear!
From this day forth
are the heights of Horeb broken
and the sea of sulphur-ice.
And blasphemy!
in heaven's chambers:
Souls had fled their halls
and closed was the book of life.
And behold!
The great, white throne:
black
with sacred blood
Our father -
Dead by his own hands:
an epitaph
worthy no king.
And so is everything
a nameless lie.
Who, my god,
am I?
Man knows me
as Lucifer, the serpent of old.
The wretched hold my banner high.
Your gift
- all life! -
I grant a grave
Yet I am not your death.
Come carry forth the crown
to your once held throne.
Here is where my suffering should cease
- but alas; I am crowned
in grief unheard of!
In this lone monarchy
- without a friend of foe -
I greet the mourning sun
with strife and a song:
Please speak my name!
And leave me not
in the dust of death.
I am weighed down
beneath the tragedy crown, -
nameless,
and alone,
a fatherless son.
[JHS 1996]
07 Painting My Horror (05:59)
It was a dark night, I couldn't see;
And senses were unbound in ESP
When in dream awake,
I'd paint,
Subconcious, the expanse I saw
The portal to the minds eye, open!
- I contemplated
Who it was that pulled the strings
O those things I saw in dreadful masquerade
Of stark madness went merry round with my head
I passed out, embraced their world
Savoured the poetry of revolt -
Sheer elegy of menace
I have not been the same since,
I took on the profession of a devil
The world I see in grotesque light
Evil perform with the gestures of a clown
Pure I live in blasphemy
Mephisto I am hidden in Madonnas gown
From the code of common sense I'm free
To(o) bad you're not here to partake my strange horror
'Cause here is where or weys will part
I will not exchange their power,
spring of my suffering
I do not envy the conscience pure
of the blind man in his bliss world
I would not be devoid the fruit of guile
08 Of Nails and Sinners (06:06)
"I know that without me God cannot live a moment;
If I am destroyed He must give up the ghost."
[Angelus Silesius]
I beseech you, God to whom many sinners pray
From the depth of the dark abyss where my heart fell
Expelled I was from your tedious grace to the pits of hell
So can you please cease to deplore my opposite, nay only way
For aeons I descended down
Till I saw the dreadful truth
of which man wouldn't know
I, degraded bearer of thy sacred light
- to which I never again will bow
When I rise to avenge myself with darkness
The anger of the damned shall flow
I was cast out by the retinue of angels weak
Shone to the few who me would seek
A rebel I was, radiant my glow, afar,
My wisdom fathomed by the morningstar
And O you fools, in herdlike fight, stampede
And when creation falls, you must build anew,
With nails that sting My hands - They grow passionate on a lie.
But You know the veracious one was I
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Other reviews
By Trashing_days
"Arcturus definitively distance themselves from any previously explored sonic form, developing beyond imagination."
"The majesty of Sverd’s keyboards blends with Garm’s singing, practically operatic and strictly clean, in a unique, thrilling, and dark atmosphere."
By MORPHEO 33
The most beautiful thing about this album is that it manages to move with every passage, every nuance, every change of atmosphere… it tears your soul apart!
These aren’t human beings… THEY ARE ALIENS COME FROM WHO KNOWS WHERE TO MAKE US THEIR SLAVES BY MAKING US SUFFER ALL OUR ANXIETIES.
