(Avant-Garde Black Metal) Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale (2003 Re-released) - 1997, APE (image+.cue) lossless

Звания «шедевр» так просто не даются. Но этот альбом его заслужил. Гениальная задумка, получившая блестящее и сверхоригинальное воплощение. Тут налицо и талант, и что самое главное, актерское мастерство, театрализация. Музыку можно представить в виде алмаза с множеством граней, который сияет ими, тем самым визуально передавая множество музыкальных тональностей. Ясно, что добавить что-то существенное к вышесказанному (не мной) – просто непосильная задача, а охарактеризовать атмосферу диска лучше, чем это сделал предыдущий рецензент, попросту невозможно. Ближайшие литературные ассоциации – Гофман и Лермонтов (куда же без его теории масок?).
Начинает альбом пугающая и одновременно чарующая “Master of Disguise”, освещающая художественные горизонты темного представления и в то же время окутывающая все тайной. Все здесь обладает (и будет обладать в течение всего альбома) особой притягательностью: меланхоличное фортепьяно, то призрачная, то ярко различимая гитара, артистичный вокал Гарма и, наконец, целостно оформленное художественное построение. Вторым номером идет потрясающая по создаваемой атмосфере и опять же безупречно эстетическая в композиционном отношении “Ad Astra”. Это поэтичное ожидание чего-то, завершающееся динамичным путешествием «к звездам». “The Chaos Path” – возвращение на землю и первое, так сказать, реальное соприкосновение с миром маскарада. Конечно же, в освещении Arcturus этот акт приобретает гофмановский, ирреальный оттенок и фантасмагоричность, а особая театральность композиции напоминает пинкфлойдовский “The Trial”. Больше всего мрака и таинственности, бесспорно, нагоняет зацикленная заглавная вещь. После нее хоть потоп… Он и наступает. Симфонический. Начинается, пожалуй, со вступления к “Alone” (классно звучат филигранный симфонический фон и выведенный на первый план довольно сырой бласт-бит). В последующих композициях заметно меньше уникальности, но больше стабильности и плавности. Хотя по названиям этого не скажешь...
Ну ладно, хватит. Шедевр. Комментарии излишни. Окиньте взглядом оценки из предыдущих рецензий - я что, сумасшедший?
Blackknot 10/10
Нет никакой возможности описать, отрецензировать это творение. Это – идол! Есть только желание высказать, что чувствую. Эта музыка слишком высоко парит над всем остальным искусством, или, по крайней мере, над всем тем, что так называется, и прочей музыкой в частности. Сложнейшая музыкальная структура, которая является таковой совсем не потому, что здесь, как говорят, намешано много стилей, ведь сбалансировано все до мелочи (факт этого баланса просто пугает; ну не могут люди создавать такое!!!), но главное, что повергает слушателя в коллапс, - это, конечно же, эмоциональная составляющая. Этот альбом – клубок, нить которого не имеет ни начала, ни конца, ни цвета, ни вообще каких-либо параметров. Музыкантам словно открылась некая мистическая истина, которая окутывает тебя гипнотическим саваном: никаких мыслей, никаких движений, пока не закончится последняя песня. Мне не то что ясно как день, что это самый великий альбом на планете Земля, но и просто обидно, почему люди пишут какие-то рецензии на другие пластинки. Неподражаемая работа! Непревзойденное бархатное полотно черного цвета с драпировкой, которую не выполнил бы и сам Да Винчи. Уникальная атмосфера, масштабы и монументальность, заставляющие просто дрожать от каждой ноты. В музыкальном смысле здесь отсутствует какая-либо рациональность, никаких шаблонов, никаких стилей доселе известных, на которые могли бы ориентироваться музыканты. Если то, что состоит из звуков и есть музыка, то это явно не музыка, это не звуки – это голоса живых, мертвых, тех, которые еще не родились, и непременно только гениев, стало быть, сумасшедших, - воистину «Маскарад…» Кому этот альбом и посвящается, если внимательно посозерцать на диск и его коробку. Захватывает дыхание, нахожусь в ужасном трепете, в комнате жара, на сердце и в голове - лед. Это музыкальное оружие, которое способно на нечто, пожалуй, даже нечто ужасное, в момент его прослушивания… Будьте осторожны!
Scoria 10/10
Гениальный альбом. Гениальный и совершенный. Вот это настоящее Искусство! Странное дело – все, к чему приложил руку (т.е. рот :-)) наиболее уважаемый мною норвежец – Гарм, получается таким... неординарным, что ли.. Хотя в данном случае не хотелось бы говорить ни о какой неординарности или оригинальности. Здесь мы имеем Музыку с большой буквы. На буклетике к CD написано: “Music for crazed”. Я бы еще добавил: “By crazed”. Вы только послушайте “Ad Astra”!!! Разве может нормальный человек создать что-нибудь подобное?! Эти мелодии просто наизнанку выворачивают! Блин, это как наркотик. Когда слушаю, я натурально впадаю в транс. А почитайте лирику (именно лирику, стихи, а не тупой текст)! Ничего сильнее я еще не встречал, ни в металле, ни где-нибудь еще. Уже три года прошло с выхода этого Творения, а каждый раз я слушаю его с трепетом, все время находя что-то новое, ранее не услышанное. Приобщайтесь (если еще не посчастливилось), не пожалеете.
Warlock 10/10
So Unique! - 100%
Written by Jiri777
“La Masquerade Infernale” by Arcturus is an extremely innovative and progressive album for it’s time and even for the present. They were one of the first black metal bands to abandon the cliché black metal sound. And I am so glad they did!
Arcturus traded in the black metal sound for something very unusual and unique. It is almost classical music using metal instruments.
Hellhammer provides the drum work here. However, he does not play with the same extremeness that he does for Mayhem. He just kind of keeps the beat. On the other hand, his unique drumming does provide that insane sound the band was going for with this album. Hellhammer gets a chance to blast beat at the beginning of “Alone,” and he does a superb job with it.
The guitars are used for the atmosphere as well. Knut M. Valle shows off his skill in select parts of “Master Of Disguise” and “Of Nails And Sinners.” Again, he is just keeping the crazy sound alive and not stealing the show.
Speaking of stealing the show, Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg does just that. He is the major focus of this album. He exchanged his high-pitched black metal rasps from the last album, for very deep, theatrical, almost operatic singing. He is clearly a bass/baritone, and he knows how to use it. His vocals on this album are not for everybody though. If you do not like the vocals, chances are you will not like the album. This is how special they are. “Master Of Disguise” shows how well Rygg can sing. He sings at his lowest here, and does a beautiful job. Garm also performs samples for this album. They are used frequently and sometimes can get annoying. This is only because they are lines that Garm could have sung instead.
There is also a guest vocalist here in the name of Simen “Votex” Hestnaes. His voice is very good on this release as well, but nearly as good as Garm. Vortex does lead vocals on “The Chaos Path.” He is obviously a tenor and can hit high notes really well. He is almost operatic with his delivery like Garm. He also does backing vocals on “Master Of Disguise” and “Painting My Horror.” He really adds to the insanity of the album.
Every song here is great. My favorite is “Master Of Disguise.” “Ad Astra” is a unique song as well. It is almost an instrumental, with some samples towards the end. It gives off an exotic seductive sound for some reason. Guitars and drums really shine here. “The Chaos Path” has a cool circus sound to it. It really reminds me of clowns, jesters and such. “Alone” kicks ass too. It is a poem put to song, and Arcturus really captures the madness Edgar Allen Poe was inducing with his poem. Garm is powerful on this song, and the violins at the end are nerve racking insanity. “The Throne Of Tragedy” is the weakest song here. It has a jazz-like introduction and kind of stays the same throughout the whole song. “Painting My Horror” is another masterpiece. It has some awesome Garm singing, and takes an eerie carnival-like vibe towards the end. “Of Nails And Sinners” is another killer. Garm is extremely low and operatic in the beginning and the song has a nice chorus in it.
This pretty much sums up the album. It has brought me so many wonderful listening hours, and it is my favorite album of all time. So, if you are looking for a great, unique album, then go pick up “La Masquerade Infernale” now!
Avant-garde Brilliance! - 99%
Written by Erin_Fox
An exceedingly moving album, instrumentally “La Masquerade Infernale” established Arcturus as an ensemble that are curiously innovative as well as progressively ambient. No further substantiation is required than what may be the group’s most dauntingly epic composition, the enigmatically appealing “Ad Astra”, a track that reaches soaring sonic platitudes and equally dismal depths with passion, power and grace.
The group’s performance here takes on a majestic authority and is further enhanced by strict attention to dynamic. A strong sense of dramatics in arrangement is also apparent, with the strings carrying adept keyboard work in a highly proficient and ear-pleasing manner.
“The Throne Of Tragedy” bristles with a blissfully dim ambience before catapulting into a vast feel that is both cavernous and highly melodic, the group’s metal influences permeate this track much more so than on “Ad Astra”, with the song’s fantastic combination of intensive rhythm and percussion standing out as a high point.
Meanwhile, the title track entertains a macabre, mysterious feel with manipulated sounds placed in tempo as a percussive element and a somber yet rollicking piano melody ringing in the background of the track.
Overt black metal influences are scattered throughout the record, such as during the introduction of “The Chaos Path”, a cut that morphs into a confused, yet entertaining mixture of carnival music, opera and meta’ that only furthers the notion that Arcturus are one of the most highly original acts in the scene in terms of sheer songwriting ability.
Their compelling sound is center stage on this excellent release, with “La Masquerade Infernale” providing listeners with nothing but the most intriguing of wicked sonority, underlining the fact that Arcturus are most assuredly one of the most critically appealing acts to experiment with a hybrid of dark textures and masterfully ambient musical stylization.
Beautiful... - 99%
Written by Marte666
It’s common knowledge that I like a lot of music and lots of styles outside the metal spectrum, as long as it’s well performed, coherent music. Many “avant garde” bands manage to get on my nerves and give me the wrong kind of goosebumps somehow tho. Not Arcturus, as the title of this review reveals already: I really love this album. It has shit to do with black metal anymore in my opinion but it’s great. On to the songs:
Master of Disguise – this song starts with the opera vocals already, giving away what you can expect for the rest of this album. You hear high and low vocals together, very good. The music has lotsa unique keyboard riffs even, good start.
Ad Astra – probably my favorite song on this cd. It is almost a neoclassical song, great musician skills, the strings are really beautiful in this song. I feel that describing in detail what happens in this song musically is kinda like giving a secret away, so all I’ll tell other than that it’s a great piece of music is that only in the last minutes there are some vocals. They are barely missed. Really great.
The Chaos Path – Vortex does the vocals at this track and while his voice is a matter of to like or not to like this is a good ong too (it gets boring, I know) some reviewer mentioned that Vortex sounds like the vocals on Pink Floyd’s The Trial and I think that’s correct. Also notice the “break beats” at the end of the song, lol.
La Masquerade Infernale – Title song, instrumental and odd piece of keyboard music.
Alone – A poem from Edgar Allan Poe put on music. What I really like with this song is how the music is almost at black metal speed at times (Hellhammer shows his skills in the intro) but the singing is rather slow and almost “against” the melody lines in the music but it all fits together. My dad said the singer reminded him of Metallica’s Hetfield (well old school Metallica, heh) and I actually kinda agree with him. Other than that I’m personally touched by the Poe’s poem.
The Throne of Tragedy – my least favorite, the jazzy parts in it just don’t do it for me but due to the great musicianship it’s still a very good song. The lyrics are a translated poem from Jørn Henrik Sværen
Painting My Horror – Vortex again, this song really has a surprising turn in the middle and it’s like an evil kind of circusmusic you hear at the end.
Of Nails and Sinners – this is a more “standard” Arcturus new style song but I really liked it, also the keyboards in this song did work out really well.
Conclusion: this is a great piece of art. I just don’t give 100 points, never, because in my opinion a perfect work of art doesn’t excist, there’ll always be something better somewhere. This reaches perfectness tho. If you like more experimental music, neoclassical rock and you got no problem with a good old touch of evilness and satanism, you should get this album, NOW! Hehe.
Greeeat. - 99%
Written by Drain o
This is a quality post-black/avant-grade metal album. Upon first listen, this CD may sound a little weird for those not familiar with the style. But once you get into it, it is extremely rewarding. This album is completely overwhelming in its dark yet beautiful atmosphere. The solos are excellent, the drumming is performed very well, and of course: Garm's vocals. His operatic and clean vocals in this album is exceptional as you would expect. Vortex's vocals are also done well, although not up to par with Garm's. I could go on and on...so lets get into the songs.
Pretty much every track on this album is great. Each of them have a unique sound to it to keep you interested throughout the whole album. 'Master of Disguise' shows how Garm is really capable of performing operatic vocals, and also provides as a nice introduction to the whole album. 'Ad Astra' is probably my favorite track off of this album. Its beautiful, dark, melodic, and everything you want from an atmospheric album. 'The Chaos Path' has Vortex doing the vocals too, and is another excellent song that sounds slightly weird at first listen. Another favorite of mine is 'Of Nails and Sinners'.
If you like post-black, avant-garde, or any of Garm's work, get this now. I found it at my local Tower Records, so it should not be so hard to find.

Re-released in 2003 by Candlelight Records. This release is remixed and does not contain the hidden track.

G. Wolf (Kristoffer Rygg) - Vocals, Samples
Knut M. Valle - Guitars
Steiner Sverd Johnsen - Keyboards
Skoll (Hugh Steven James Mingay) - Bass
Hellhammer (Jan Axel von Bloomberg) - Drums
Guest musicians:
Simen Hestnæs - Vocals (on track 3), Backing Vocals (on tracks 1 and 7)
Carl August Tidemann - Lead Guitars (on tracks 2 and 8)
Idun Felberg - Cornet (on track 2)
Erik Olivier Lancelot (AiwarikiaR) - Flute (on track 2)
Svein Haugen - Double Bass
Vegard Johnsen - Violin
Dorthe Dreier - Viola
Hans Josef Groh - Cello