Arckanum was a Swedish
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
solo band formed in 1993 by Johan "Shamaatae" Lahger, who was the only constant member. Arckanum ranks among the most influential and popular in the Swedish black metal scene.
Shamaatae is also an author of
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
literature and writes under the names Vexior/Ekortu. His first published work, titled ''Panparadox'', was released 13 July 2009 by Ixaxaar. His second book, , was released in December 2010 by Fall of Man. His third book was published on December, 21st 2014 called , it is said to be a "book series" with each book dedicated to the Thursatru tradition. As of 2018, he has published multiple books and has many more to come. He put the band to rest in favour of being a writer.
History
Shamaatae joined his first band, Conquest, aged eleven, the band later evolving into
Grotesque
Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...
.
On leaving Grotesque, Shamaatae formed a
technical death metal
Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting.
Techni ...
band called Disinterment, who recorded one demo and played a few gigs before splitting up.
At the end of 1992, Shamaatae decided to return to black metal and Arckanum was started. Initially a full band, it became a solo project after six months.
After several releases, by 1998 Shamaatae had discontinued working with
Necropolis Records
Necropolis Records (located in Fremont, California) was a record label founded by Paul Thind in 1993, mainly providing an American home for extreme black metal. because they went under, and turned his attention to writing books on the subjects of
Pan, Old Norse traditions,
runic witchcraft and anti-
cosmic Satanism
Satanism is a group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 1966, although a few hi ...
/
chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
-
gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...
.
He was still involved in music during this time still working with Arckanum and playing drums with The Hearsemen.
Arckanum's album ''ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ'' was released on 1 June 2009.
''Antikosmos'' and ''ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ'' featured the guest appearance of
Set Teitan
Davide Totaro (born 12 September 1978), known professionally as Set Teitan or Sethlans Teitan, is an Italian guitarist based in Sweden. He was the guitarist of industrial black metal band Aborym from 1997 to 2005, lead guitarist for Bloodline f ...
of the bands
Dissection
Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause o ...
and
Watain
Watain is a Swedish black metal band, formed in 1998.Eduardo Rivadavia: ''Watain Biography'' Allmusic, Macrovision Corporation. The band's name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von.Ronald Ziegler''Merchandise w ...
. Shamataae released 3 more full lengths and several EPs and splits before deciding to record Arckanum's final album which was released on 29 September 2017 through Folter Records, who are currently re-releasing the band's entire catalogue.
Arckanum was split up in 2018 in order for Shamaatae to focus solely on his authorship and spiritual ventures.
On 26 April 2019, Folter Records released , an EP which contains the remixed and remastered recordings that were supposed to be the 1994 demo ; Shamaatae was unhappy with the original recordings and kept the material unreleased until after he disbanded Arckanum.
Lyrics
Arckanum's lyrics deal mainly with the worship of
Chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
, as well as anti-
cosmic Satanism
Satanism is a group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 1966, although a few hi ...
.
He is noted for writing lyrics resembling
Old Swedish
Old Swedish (Swedish language, Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken fro ...
, and he has stated that he tries to write his lyrics as grammatically correct as he can. In his latest three albums however, the language is clearly meant to resemble
Old East Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
.
Discography
Albums
* ''Fran marder'' (15 May 1995) Necropolis
* ''Kostogher'' (20 February 1997) Necropolis
* ''Kampen'' (1998) Necropolis
* ''Antikosmos'' (21 June 2008) Debemur Morti/Moribund
* ''ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ'' (29 May 2009) Debemur Morti
* ''Sviga læ'' (18 October 2010) Regain Records
* ''Helvítismyrkr'' (16 September 2011) Season of Mist
* ''Fenris Kindir'' (10 May 2013) Season of Mist
* ''Den förstfödde'' (29 September 2017) Folter Records
Demos
* ''Demo '93'' (1993)
* ''Trulen'' (1994)
EPs
* ''Boka vm Kaos'' (Feb. 2002)
* ''Kosmos wardhin dræpas om sin / Emptiness Enthralls'' (Feb. 2003) (split release with Contamino)
* ''Kaos svarta mar / Skinning the Lambs'' (14 June 2004) Carnal (split release with
Svartsyn
Svartsyn is a black metal band from Sweden formed in 1991 by multi instrumentalist, singer and lyricist Ornias.
History
The band formed in 1991 as Chalice, but changed their name to Svartsyn in 1993 after the death of original drummer Torment ...
)
* ''Grimalkinz skaldi'' (13 June 2008)
* ''Antikosmos'' (11 April 2008)
* ''Hadelik'' (7 September 2008) (split release with Sataros Grief)
* ''Þyrmir'' (30 October 2009)
* ''Första trulen'' (26 April 2019)
Compilations
* ''Arckanum – The 11 Year Anniversary Album'' (2004)
References
External links
Official website (archive)*
{{Authority control
Swedish black metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 1993
1993 establishments in Sweden
One-man bands
Season of Mist artists