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Rating:
The orgasm set to music. The apotheosis. The most sincere representation of Beauty. This album is nothing but these things. There are no words, however fitting and expertly written (and mine certainly are not), that can describe what one feels when listening to this gem. If we were to step away for a moment from the purely musical conception of the album, what we would encounter would only be a clear and deep sea of emotions (of course, this applies to all the works of this magnificent group). Emotions in the albums of Arcturus have always been a primary component, but they have been, album after album, subject to destruction, recreation, and reshaping.
Let me explain: “La Masquerade Infernale” was an album dense with theatricality, hallucinogenic and slightly sulfurous atmospheres, and a mood that was almost desperate and sickly; in this “The Sham Mirrors” one breathes a completely different air. The first impression, then, that leaps out after a first listen, is the atmosphere, which is different from usual, primarily due to the evident linearization of the structures, which are anything but banal, and the contrasts of arrangements that have been added to the sound; I refer to the guitar sound, which seems a little rough and heavy over which the new and terribly exciting vocal approach of Garm moves, treading much clearer and more evocative territories, and the magical synths of Sverd (I challenge anyone to find a musician who writes such beautiful music), which create those cosmic and eternity-laden atmospheres that make this album immortal; Hellhammer, as always, dispenses the usual lesson of power, technical elegance, and sonic cleanliness.
The main characteristic of the album is, therefore, this cosmic, ethereal, and eternal attitude. So, we find ourselves imprisoned in “Kinetic,” with its hypnotic and astral refrain, in “Radical Cut,” a rough and fierce almost Black Metal song (screamed, moreover, by Ihsanh of Emperor) that ends with a clean and clear keyboard solo, like drops of stars falling on jagged rocks. There’s “Nightmare Heaven” and its acidic and subterranean trip-hop intermezzo, which then explodes and takes us at crazy speeds into the deepest cosmos with Sverd's brilliant piano scales and Garm's agitated voice. Exceptional. But in my opinion, the highest point of the album is the enormous “For To End Yet Again,” which seals an already perfect work and gives me the reason to assert that Arcturus is one of the greatest bands ever to appear on the metal scene. A frantic incipit, an orgasmic interlude with Sverd's sweet, dreamy, and dreamlike notes, and an absolutely chilling finale on an epic musical fabric.
But all these words of mine are not enough to convey what one faces when listening to a masterpiece of such craftsmanship, it must be listened to, in silence and with bowed head… “nevermind take this lamp we are beyond light…”
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Kinetic (05:25)
Welcome
this transmission
from a fallen star
Light has departed
from this black sun
But please put us on
to bring darkness down
from your head and home
Our enterprise a success
as return is no option
our eyes were removed
for our own safety
The distance too great
for you to hear our cries
nevermind take this lamp
we are beyond light
We learned so little
of inhuman culture
before disappearance
went right through us
The mothership
boarded by fools
we escape space
in order to reach
our destination
And if you are listening
please tell us about the time
where and when we exist
no more
For when you go
we go with you
via wormholes
02 Nightmare Heaven (06:05)
The subjects of sleep
Their faces once awake
on sodomy and death
and smoke and laughter
their feet no longer
underground
The snow hides the traces
never set in a first place
This negative kingdom
hey horrible and white
the angels all stone
passing their years
hoping to be saved
from oblivion
...by oblivion
And the miracle is that
nothing has happened
nothing has a history
or a name
Only the voice
of falling snow
03 Ad Absurdum (06:48)
This dead orchestra
play on instruments
strung with the fibres
of my mind
And skeletons dance
they have no voice
and no complaint
But I am still flesh
and will not serve
you vampire fools
bringing you life
by invoking dead
I'm tired of telling stories
with this ghostvoice of mine
so you can say you don't
believe in ghosts
You drink me animal
wasted on my madness
leaving me blank and empty
But tonight
I'm Houdini
Gonna kill my shadow
penetrate your sanctum
See your loss
through your eyes
and laugh as two
you not knowing why
and wanting to die
04 Collapse Generation (04:13)
Time is on trial
Generation and collapse
inside the space of things
Series of inertia
A trial and a time
06 Radical Cut (05:08)
Spit white speech
the voice is mine
the skin of the slit
cut cigarette size
The butt size head
voluptuous white
cum cigarette slit
the spitting line
The cigarette skin
white head in line
the voice is white
erasing mine
Skin the white
the radical line
the cigarette butt
head radical skin
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