Antikosmos

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.