"The Sham Mirrors" is my first meeting with this interesting band, and this is one of those records that might take a while to fully appreciate. But what
Arcturus offer the listener with this release is an amazing journey into melodic complex soundscapes, mixing old and new sorts of music.
The album's strong force is to provide a mixture that gives a feeling of harmony, yet with a complex and progressive edge, but most important, almost impossible to predict.
The album starts off with
"Kinetic", a song that relies much on a strong melody and vocal line. Electronic sounds are incorporated into the music, which has many layers and is very complex. A very important instrument on "The Sham Mirrors" is the keyboard, providing the melody. The drums are also very important, as they give the album the heavy edge that is needed, not to make it sound too soft. Hellhammer's work on the drums is of very high class! The use of blastbeats to provide a solid fundament for the music gives the album an aggressive undertone. These soundwalls are crowned with natural clean vocals and ghost like choirs.
"Nightmare Heaven" continues the album with its heavy, generic drums and bass rythm, and builds the melody upon this riffbase. The song breaks into a long electronic part, interrupted only by some impressive guitarwork, but otherwise continuing for about 2 minutes. A little too long and I think the song would have been more intense without such a long generic part.
In
"Ad Absurdum" the vocals sound almost "disharmonic" in the sense that the notes come where you don't expect them to, and I mean that in a good way. Same goes for the song as a whole to a certain extend. This song also offers some interesting temposhifts and breaks, which is another strong point in this album; just as you think you know how the song will continue, it changes completely! Again we have a long part with a choir of ghostvoices humming and again I feel this song could have been a little shorter.
A soft beautiful keyboard melody and sounds of blowing wind are the only two elements used in the beginning of
"Star-Crossed" and the sound is almost minimalistic. Sound effects such as an exploding star as well as various vocal styles give the last touch to make this song magic!
Next is
"Radical Cut", the heaviest tune on the album and for the first time the band's background as a Black Metal act shows. The vocals -provided by Ihnsahn from Emperor are distorted and the sound is raw, blasting and almost chaotic! It sounds like a thunderstorm raging! Layer upon layer of different instruments and effects are woven together. The blasting drums, the industrial sounds, the complex keyboard lines and the melodic guitar all unite for a unique sound!
"For To End Yet Again" ends the album. It starts off with a circus-music like intro and blasts off with some raw vocals! The sound is very rythmic with a memorable chorus. Then it breaks into almost silence, with a nice keyboard part and the sound of wind blowing. It is slowly built up again to an almost majestic feel with trumpet-like sounds. The keyboard work once again is very technical and indeed impressive. With its 10: 33 minutes, this song does seem a little too long but still a very good end to a magic album!
The strong forces on this album is the high technical abilities of the band members as well as the use of so many different elements and sounds woven together like a mosaic of sound, yet still sounding complete instead of confusing. Few can do that.
If you take your time to get into this, "The Sham Mirrors" will provide a long time of listening enjoyment without ever getting boring.
I also like the production, which is very clear and transparent, making every instrument stand out very clear, though some might consider it too polished.
If I have to be critical I'd say that some keyboard parts are just a little too long and each song doesn't have to have them. Some songs could be just a little shorter, and I believe that would have given the record a more intense feeling.
Arcturus have the ability of creating huge walls of sound almost like landscapes and to mix very different sounds without confusing the listener. Something that keeps growing the more you listen. Complex yet catchy. Harmonic, yet with a chaotic side. Melodic yet unpredictable.
Written by
Nina Sunday, July 27, 2003
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