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Popularity Not Enough Data Arcturus
Biography [show full bio] Arcturus grew from the roots of the death metal trio Mortem, consisting of Marius Vold as vocalist, Steinar "Sverd" Johansen on guitar, and Jan Axel von "Hellhammer" Blomberg on drums. They recorded a 6 track demo EP called Slow Death which they released on tape in 1989 and was later issued on 7" vinyl by Putrefaction Records in 1990. The members of Mortem eventually formed Arcturus in 1990 taking the name from the brightest visible star in the ...>>
Arcturus grew from the roots of the death metal trio Mortem, consisting of Marius Vold as vocalist, Steinar "Sverd" Johansen on guitar, and Jan Axel von "Hellhammer" Blomberg on drums. They recorded a 6 track demo EP called Slow Death which they released on tape in 1989 and was later issued on 7" vinyl by Putrefaction Records in 1990. The members of Mortem eventually formed Arcturus in 1990 taking the name from the brightest visible star in the northern hemisphere. They released a few more demo tapes and Putrefaction Records released another 7" entitled My Angel in 1991. The cover featured a drawing by Snorre of Thorns which was used on a demo by Stigma Diabolicum (pre-Thorns) which Marius played on. The two track EP featured very simple black/death metal tunes similar to what Mayhem did around the Deathcrush era which Marius also compared the band to. Sverd who had a piano background wanted to focus on keyboards instead of guitar and so Samoth from Emperor was recruited on guitar while Marius left the band and was replaced by the infamous vocalist Kristoffer Rygg of Ulver.
They then recorded Constellation which was meant as a promo for their first full-length and was released on Samoths own label Nocturnal Art Productions in 1994. This release was more symphonic with the help of Sverds synth and was the start of the ever morphing sound of Arcturus. Samoth left to focus more on Emperor and Carl August Tidemann joined the band on guitar as well as Skoll on bass and Aspera Hiems Symfonia meaning Harsh Winter Symphony in Latin was released in 1996 on Ancient Lore Creations. The band then took a turn in the sound on their next album which was tentatively titled The Satanist but ended up as La masquerade infernale in 1997 on Misanthropy Records. It featured a very theatrical sound and theme as you would expect from the title. The music was more progressive and was claimed to be before it's time, avant garde. It had some lineup changes, Tideman was replaced with Knut Valle but did guest on one track and also Simen Hestnæs who would later be their vocalist did some vocals. Then in 1999 they proved there where no boundaries for this band by releasing a remix cd called Disguised Masters which featured variable material including hip hop and techno remixes of old songs. It was released on Kristoffer Rygg own label Jester Records. A few years later in 2002 they released their third full-length entitled The Sham Mirrors on their own little label Ad Astra Enterprises, soon after this Kristoffer Rygg quit the band because he was not willing to play live and the rest claimed he was holding them back. The band then got Øyvind Hægeland from Spiral Architect and went on tour until Øyvind also left the group but was then replaced by Simen who had worked with them before on La masquerade infernale. A forth full-length entitled Sideshow Symphonies was released as well as a live DVD from their performance at the Norwegian Inferno Festival in 2005 called Shipwrecked in Oslo which was released in August 2006, both on Season of Mist. On the 31st of March in 2007 at their gig in Melbourne Australia Simen opened the show saying this was their last gig ever and a few days later an official statement was posted on their webpage stating that the band had split up. discography
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