This is a great surprise! Norwegian avant-garde metal masters Arcturus are back from their decade-long slumber with new material! With the man with the heavenly voice, ICS Vortex (of Dimmu Borgir and Borknagar fame and with his own solo project) on vocals, Hellhammer (literally every black metal band) on drums and main songwriter Steinar Sverd Johnsen at the helm, the band is hitting full force with their new album Arcturian, which they claim will be their magnum opus. Well, they’ve released a new song titled “The Arcturian Sign”, so let’s see if that’s true.
Wow, this song is something. Vortex’s ethereal vocals, the dense electronic elements, the sinister feel of the whole thing, it’s all very Arcturus and very impressive. It almost feels like a movie score with vocals. Some might take issue with the rather basic drum sound, but it doesn’t really matter as the rest of the mix is so packed that it doesn’t really matter when the song goes into gear.
Every single Arcturus album was a masterpiece in itself so far, so Arcturian has big shoes to fill, but I’m confident that the band will deliver. The album will release on the 8th of May on Prophecy Productions and is available for pre-order in several editions here.
-NT