Aspera hiems symfonia
Occupation
- Garm, song
- August Guitar
- Skoll, bass
- Sverd, Keyboard
- Hellhammer, drums
Aspera hiems symfonia (about: rough winter symphony ') is the debut album of Norwegian metal band Arcturus. It was published in 1996 about Ancient Lore Creations.
Creation and publication
Arcturus had already published with changing line-ups in 1991 and 1994 respectively, the two EPs and Constellation My Angel. The latter was intended as a promo recorded music for an upcoming album. Because of the activities Garms at Ulver and Borknagar and Hellhammer with Mayhem, the band came in the summer of 1995, more studio recordings together. In addition, Samoth had - still involved in Constellation, but since 1994 was in prison - to be replaced by August.
Aspera hiems was recorded in Oslo symfonia Panser Studio. The second, fourth, sixth and eighth song had already been included in other versions of Constellation. Skoll Ulver played as a guest musician on the bass. Kristian Romsoe mixed from the album Endless Lydstudio, and mastered it was by Craig Morris at Strype Audio, both also in Oslo.
In 2002, Candlelight Records released a remastered version of the album with the EPs My Angel and Constellation, as well as two previously unreleased songs as a double CD.
Title List and Music
Music and lyrics were written by Arcturus. Three of the songs (" Raudt og Svart ", "You Nordavind " and " Naar Kulda Tar " ) were written in Norwegian, the other in English. " Naar Kulda Tar " was not listed in the track list of the first edition erroneously.
Arcturus join in on the debut album, the double bass playing and the screeching vocals of black metal with orchestral or spherical keyboards and choral singing. There will be lots of tempo and meter changes as well as piano and harpsichord solos. There are passages of text that are whisper told or played backwards.
Reception
Finds Gunnar Claussen of the Baby Blue Pages that Aspera hiems symfonia " wintry, hard [ ... ] and of course symphonic " sounds. He criticized the fact that it sometimes lacked the songs structure and dramaturgy. Wolf -Rüdiger Mühlmann from Rock Hard certified the album elegance. The magazine is one of the " 250 Black Metal albums you should know ." Bryan Reesman of Allmusic praised the majestic and aggressive mixture and the threatening atmosphere; he called Aspera hiems symfonia as one of the best metal albums of all time.