''The Sham Mirrors'' is the third
studio album by
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 band
Arcturus
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, 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 the ...
. It was released on April 9, 2002.
''The Sham Mirrors'' is a departure from the band's previous albums, featuring a much more modern, space-influenced sound, as opposed to the layered, classical melodies of 1997's ''
La Masquerade Infernale''. The album contains elements of
trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with " downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tem ...
,
ambient music and
electronica in addition to the band's usual
progressive black metal sound. Lyrically, the album deals with abstract science fiction-themed subjects, a stark contrast to the theatrical and
Satanic lyrics of the band's earlier work. The album cover depicts a model drawing of the upper part of the
Apollo spaceship.
This is the last album to feature
Kristoffer Rygg on vocals.
Track listing
Personnel
;Arcturus
*
Kristoffer Rygg (credited as "Trickster G. Rex") -
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
, producer, engineer
*
Knut M. Valle -
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
, engineer
* Dag F. Gravem -
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
*
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 ...
-
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, engineer
*
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 Arcturus ...
(credited as "Hellhammer") -
drums,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
;Additional Musicians
*
Ihsahn
Vegard Sverre Tveitan (born 10 October 1975), better known by his stage name Ihsahn (), is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer, best known for his work with black metal band Emperor. Tveitan is also a founding member of Th ...
- vocals (on "Radical Cut")
*
Mathias Eick
Mathias Eick (born 26 June 1979) is a Norwegian jazz musician, and the brother of the jazz musicians Johannes Eick and Trude Eick. He is mainly known from his releases on the jazz label ECM Records. His main instrument is the trumpet, but he als ...
- trumpet (on "Ad Absurdum", "Collapse Generation" and "Radical Cut")
*
Hugh Steven James Mingay - low frequentation (on "Radical Cut")
;Production Staff
* Phantom FX - co-producer
* Tore Ylwizaker - mixing
* Tom La Bomba - mastering
Charts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sham Mirrors
Arcturus (band) albums
2002 albums
The End Records albums