La Masquerade Infernale
Occupation
- G. Wolf, vocals and samples
- Knut M. Valle, guitar
- Hugh Steven James Mingay, bass
- Steinar Johnsen Sverd, Keyboard
- January Axel Von Blomberg, drums
La Masquerade Infernal is the second studio album by the Norwegian metal band Arcturus and a concept album about the Faust material. It was released in 1997 on Misanthropy Records and Music for Nations.
Creation and publication
The guitarist Carl August Tidemann had by Aspera hiems the band symfonia leave and was replaced by Knut M. Valle, but worked as a guest musician on La Masquerade Infernal with. Other guest musicians on the recordings were Simen Hestnæs (vocals), Idun Felberg (cornet ), Erik Olivier Lancelot (flute), Vegard Johnsen (violin), Dorthe Dreier ( viola), Hans Josef Groh (cello) and Svein Haugen (double bass).
The recordings lasted several months and took place mainly in Jester Center. The string quartet was recorded under the direction of Pål Klåstad Endless Lydstudio. Børge Finstad mixed from the album in the major studio, Gandalf Stryke and G. Wolf it -mastered at Strype Audio.
La Masquerade Infernal was released on CD and LP, in Poland also on cassette. In 2003, Candlelight Records put the album without hidden track on new. Six of the pieces were published in 1999 reshuffled on Disguised Masters.
Title list
Music and lyrics
Arcturus leave earlier Death and Black Metal influences now almost completely behind. The album is eclectic and combines metal and rock with experimental, electronic and chamber music for a theatrical and symphonic whole. The compositions are varied; it can be found in a quiet, hymn-like and brutal passages with jazz, trip-hop or metal - typical rhythms, rapid or elegiac guitar and keyboard solos. G. Wolf and Simen Hestnæs often sing pathetic and plaintive, but there are also chanting and choirs.
First time, all lyrics of Arcturus album exclusively in English. The text of Alone is the eponymous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, the text of The Throne of Tragedy is based on the poem carrying diene Trone by Jørn Henrik Sværen. La Masquerade Infernal is an instrumental piece.
Reception
Marc van der Pol of Allmusic judges that the album grab the listener immediately, I will leave much to be desired due to little more exciting riffs and song structures yet. Gunnar Claussen of the Baby Blue Pages holds La Masquerade Infernal for " a gutklassiges second album with some really good, innovative ideas, a touch of Progklischees and a few minor quirks ". For the author, Jeff Wagner, the album is the epitome of the Norwegian Post-Black Metal.