''Sideshow Symphonies'' is the fourth studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

avant-garde metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, and experimental) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde elements, including non-standard and unconventional soun ...

band

Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of th ...

. It was released on 19 September 2005. It is the first to feature Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs as the principal vocalist and

Tore Moren Tore is a Scandinavian masculine name. It is derived from the Old Norse name ''Thórir'', which is composed of ''thorr'' which means thunder, and ''arr'' which means warrior. So Thunder Warrior or Thor's Warrior. The most famous person by this nam ...

as second guitarist, as well as the first Arcturus album released by

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pag ...

. It marks yet another change in Arcturus' sound, with a cold, dreamy aesthetic featuring relatively quiet guitars, more prominent vocals, and a slightly reduced use of synthesizers. A problem during the mastering process caused some audio quality issues, most notably a substantial decrease in volume on "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer". The label was rumored to be working on fixing these issues for future pressings of the CD, but this seems to have never been addressed as the audio glitches are still present. "Hufsa" is the

name for

The Groke The Groke (Swedish name , Finnish name ) is a fictional character in the Moomin stories created by Tove Jansson. She appears as a ghost-like, hill-shaped body with two cold staring eyes and a wide row of white shiny teeth. In the book '' Who Will ...

, a fictional character of

Tove Jansson Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from ...

's children's book series ''

Moomin The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finns, Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish language, Swedish by Schildts in Finland. The ...

''.

Track listing

Artwork

The album artwork features a modification of the

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

found on the Pioneer 10 deep space probe, possibly a reference to the album's second song "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer". The original picture of the naked man is mirrored so that he appears to have three legs and a mask is added, while the image of the naked woman does not appear at all. Also shown is the symbolic representation of the probe's trajectory and a schematic representation of the

hyperfine transition In atomic physics, hyperfine structure is defined by small shifts in otherwise degenerate energy levels and the resulting splittings in those energy levels of atoms, molecules, and ions, due to electromagnetic multipole interaction between the nucl ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

Personnel

;Arcturus *

Simen Hestnæs Simen Hestnæs (born 4 March 1974), better known by his stage name ICS Vortex or simply Vortex, is a Norwegian musician. He is the vocalist of the similarly named band ICS Vortex, the avant-garde metal band Arcturus and the doom metal band Lamen ...

(credited as "ICS Vortex") - vocals *

Knut Magne Valle Knut Magne Valle (born 5 August 1974 in Gjerstad) is a Norwegian heavy metal guitarist, songwriter, composer, recording studio owner, record producer and music arranger. Valle is best known as an Arcturus and Ulver (1998) band member. Musical ...

(credited as "Knut Valle") - guitars * Tore Moren - guitars, engineering, mastering *

Hugh Mingay Hugh Steven James Mingay (born 12 December 1974), also known by his stage name Skoll, is a heavy metal musician. Musical career He became a member of the Norwegian band Arcturus from 1995 to 2000 for the recording of the album '' Aspera Hiem ...

- bass *

Steinar Sverd Johnsen Steinar Sverd Johnsen is a Norwegian keyboardist and composer, born 1972. Sverd plays keyboards and synthesizers in Arcturus and was also the main composer for the band. He formed the band with Jan Axel Blomberg (also known as Hellhammer) of Ma ...

(credited as "Steinar Sverd") - keyboards *

Jan Axel Blomberg Jan Axel Blomberg (born 2 August 1969) is a Norwegian heavy metal drummer known professionally as Hellhammer. He is best known as the drummer of Mayhem, which he joined in 1988. In 1987 Blomberg formed the avant-garde black metal band Arcturu ...

(credited as "Von Blomberg) - drums ;Additional personnel and staff *

Silje Wergeland Silje Wergeland (born 9 November 1974) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and pianist. She is best known as the current lead vocalist of the Dutch progressive/alternative rock band The Gathering (since 2009). She was also the frontwoman of Norwe ...

- vocals on "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer" and "Evacuation Code Deciphered" * Kim Sølve - design, photography * Trine Paulsen - design, photography * Morten Lund - mastering * Børge Finstad - mixing

References

{{Authority control Arcturus (band) albums 2005 albums Season of Mist albums