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Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)

Posted By: gribovar

Date: 23 Jul 2023 19:14:28

Over its first three albums (if you include the "remix" disc Disguised Masters), Arcturus established a pattern of radically changing its sound each time, a trend that continues with The Sham Mirrors, the band's third "official" studio album. The constant thread throughout all the group's work, and again here, comes from keyboardist/songwriter Steiner "Sverd" Johnsen, whose sinister, often carnival-esque harmonies and dramatic synth arrangements have a pretty clear stamp by now. Beyond that, though, comparisons to other Arcturus albums are difficult. For one thing, the drums and guitars are heavier and more forceful than ever before, and there is more of a traditional metal foundation on this album than on its predecessor, the bizarre, operatic La Masquerade Infernale. This much is clear from the first shuffling, triplet-based beats of the album opener, "Kinetic." But that same song also shows the band's experimental tendencies in full force, as it quickly derails into a computer-altered, blipping and bleeping interlude before settling into a soaring, smoothly sung vocal refrain reminiscent of Angel Dust-era Faith No More. The second song, "Nightmare Heaven," throws another curve, as it moves abruptly into a distorted trip-hop breakdown (with Sverd's trademark keyboard harmonies providing the dark ambience) before moving back into dramatic metal territory. The surprises continue throughout, including a guest lead vocal appearance on "Radical Cut" by Ihsahn of Emperor, whose more traditional black metal screams contrast with all the other vocals on this album. (Lead throat Garm does everything here from deep-voiced pontificating to falsettos, from spoken whispering to Mike Patton-evoking effects trickery, but he doesn't scream.) A couple of spots on this album feel overly ambitious or perhaps willfully difficult - "Collapse Generation" feels inconclusive, especially following the disconnected, two-part "Ad Absurdum" - but the band mostly does a fine job balancing all the unexpected twists and convoluted song structures with memorable, moving melodies (see "Kinetic" and "Star-Crossed" for prime examples). The Sham Mirrors, even more than La Masquerade Infernale, may end up going down asArcturus' "difficult" album, but it is worth the effort, as this music is unlike anything else being made in metal (or elsewhere) at the time.

Progarchives

Tracklist:
01. Kinetic
02. Nightmare Heaven
03. Ad Absurdum
04. Collapse Generation
05. Star-Crossed
06. Radical Cut
07. For To End Yet Again

Total time: 43:18

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 7. December 2010, 18:58

Arcturus / The Sham Mirrors

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S223F Adapter: 4 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:25.74 | 0 | 24448
2 | 5:25.74 | 6:05.64 | 24449 | 51887
3 | 11:31.63 | 6:48.50 | 51888 | 82537
4 | 18:20.38 | 4:13.28 | 82538 | 101540
5 | 22:33.66 | 5:01.66 | 101541 | 124181
6 | 27:35.57 | 5:08.33 | 124182 | 147314
7 | 32:44.15 | 10:33.66 | 147315 | 194855

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\CD\Rips\Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)\Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC A344B852
Copy CRC A344B852
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [A9CFD00C]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [B878FA1C]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [FAF09FB6]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [ADDE374C]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [C814AFCC]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [6BF7D453]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [53546306]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

CUETools log

[CUETools log; Date: 23.07.2023 20:52:52; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: mwQMzj5XHPFySv.rn11boqcaqvI-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (184/233) Accurately ripped
2 | (183/233) Accurately ripped
3 | (183/233) Accurately ripped
4 | (184/233) Accurately ripped
5 | (184/233) Accurately ripped
6 | (183/233) Accurately ripped
7 | (181/233) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 000b16f1-0042cbdd-5b0a2607] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [a9cfd00c|4573b7a3] (003+005/147) Accurately ripped
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Offsetted by -664:
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Offsetted by -92:
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03 [a76e19d1] (000/148) No match (V2 was not tested)
04 [3f1f31a6] (000/148) No match (V2 was not tested)
05 [711911e5] (000/148) No match (V2 was not tested)
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Offsetted by 640:
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05 [af502a51] (000/148) No match (V2 was not tested)
06 [99a84ec6] (000/147) No match (V2 was not tested)
07 [7ea13541] (000/149) No match (V2 was not tested)

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 99,9 [A344B852] [F7FDC6C4] CRC32
01 99,9 [6F51AFB2] [A142B1BA]
02 99,9 [44F4477F] [79F2A21C]
03 99,9 [6716D376] [AE1A69A2]
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06 99,9 [036FF024] [FC3FC41A]
07 99,9 [C38029B2] [35A5348B]

Thanks to Vlad62

See also:
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale (1997)
Arcturus - Sideshow Symphonies (2005)

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