ARCTURUS — La Masquerade Infernale (review)

ARCTURUS — La Masquerade Infernale album cover Album · 1997 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
metalmillennium
The second album from the Norweigan supergroup, but with a completely different approach from their last album "Aspera Hiems Symphonia". First of all, they went through some line-up changes. They brought in a new guitarist, Simen Hestneas (Borknagar) for extra vocals (he even does lead on a song) and about a page of extra musicians. I knew at this point that I would be in for a ride. So with my ticket in hand, I borded the train entitled "La Masquerade Infernale".

I cannot even begin to tell you the mind blowing experience I have had with this album. Garm has one to clean vocals, that are very low (almost talking) and bring a whole new aspect to Arcturus's music. Hellhammer is perfect as usual, and the guitars stand out a lot more with nice technical riffing that seems to cut through the songs. Sverd is still strong on keyboards and is one of the reasons this album is such a strong one, but you can't forget the other guest musicians on this page playing violins and trumpets among other insturments. Simen Hesatnaes has incredible vocal ability, which shines on this album, doing backup on "Master of Disguise", "Painting My Horror" and even singing an incredible lead on "The Chaos Path". Easily my favorite song on the album. It also sounds almost carnival like with the keyboards playing around with different passages and Hestnaes fluctuating his voice in amazing ways. Not to mention, the end of the song shows a techno beat to mix things up a little. The rest of the album shows many different changes style, with Sverd playing some swing like keyboard parts and one of my favorite intros to a song on "Of Nails And Sinners" with a stylish keyboard chime, rimshot intro.

This is one of the most elaborate and incredible albums I have ever heard. Arcturus has followed up their debut with a masterpeice that ranks at the top. If you don't have this album, you should be dead.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed