Arcturus (band)

Arcturus

Arcturus is an avant garde metal band formed in Norway in 1987 under the name Mortem. In 1990, the band changed their name to Arcturus (meaning Bear Guardian), likely after the Behenian fixed star Arcturus.

The band has released four official full-length albums thus far, all based in the avant garde genre of music and very theatrical in their essence. Arcturus has experimented with music, extracting influences and incorporating elements from all over the spectrum of music (black metal, classical music, pop, electronica, metal, trip-hop), but the band is rooted as a metal outfit.

Arcturus is best known for their 1997 album La Masquerade Infernale.

Discography

As Mortem

• Slow Death (Demo) - Self-Released (1987)
• Slow Death EP - Putrefaction Records (1989)

As Arcturus

• Promo 90 (Demo) - Self-Released (1990)
• My Angel - Putrefaction Records (1991)
• Constellation MCD/MLP - Nocturnal Art (1994)
• Aspera Hiems Symfonia - Ancient Lore/Misanthropy/Century Black (1995)
• Constellation LP - Nocturnal Art (1997)
• La Masquerade Infernale - Misanthropy/Music For Nations (1997)
• Disguised Masters - Jester Records (1999)
• Reconstellation - Bootleg recording (1999)
• Aspera Hiems Symfonia/Constellation/My Angel re-release - Candlelight Records (2002)
• The Sham Mirrors - Ad Astra Enterprises/The End Records (2002)
• Sideshow Symphonies - Season of Mist (2005)
• Shipwrecked In Oslo DVD - Season of Mist (2006)

Members

The original line-up was changed when Marius Vold (ex-Thorns), who sang and played bass, was taken out of the band. The band soon became labeled a black metal super-group, consisting of Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg (Ulver, Head Control System, ex-Borknagar) on vocals, Carl August Tidemann (Winds, Tritonus) on guitar, Skoll (Ulver, ex-Ved Buens Ende) on bass, and the two other original members, Hellhammer (Mayhem, ex-The Kovenant, Winds, Age Of Silence, Thorns) on drums, and Steinar Sverd Johnsen (ex-Covenant, ex-Satyricon, ex-Ulver) as main composer/keyboard player. In 1994 Samoth (Emperor, Zyklon) played guitars on the EP, Constellation, and released it on his record label, Nocturnal Art.

On January 5th 2005 it was announced that Øyvind had left the band due to his moving too far away to be involved in the band. He was replaced by Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs, who had previously performed vocals on three Arcturus tracks ("Master of Disguise", "The Chaos Path", and "Painting My Horror") on La Masquerade Infernale. Upon Carl August Tidemann's leaving the band, Knut Magne Valle joined, bringing a fresh new style to the band with his psychedelic, heavy guitar style and his eclectic use of effects. In 2003 Tore Moren joined on second guitar for live performances and eventually found himself accepted as an official member of the band. Knut and Tore now share lead duties on guitar, each having their own styles and identities, particularly Knut's use of a 7 string guitar while Tore uses a standard 6 string guitar.

Current

ICS Vortex

As of 2006

• Steinar Sverd Johnsen, keyboard, synthesizer (also played guitars when they were called Mortem) (1990 - Present)
• Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, drums (1990 - Present)
• Knut Magne Valle, guitar (1995 - Present)
• Hugh "Skoll" Mingay, bass (1995 - 2000, 2002 - Present)
• Tore Moren, guitar (2003 - Present)
• ICS Vortex (Simen Hestnæs), vocals (1997 'session', 2005 - Present)

Former

• Kristoffer Rygg (Garm, Trickster G., Garm Wolf, Fiery G. Maelstrom) - Vocals (All official Arcturus releases before "Sideshow Symphonies" except My Angel)
• Carl August Tidemann - Guitars (Aspera Hiems Symfonia/La Masquerade Infernale (guest))
• Thomas Thormodsæter Haugen (Samoth) - Guitars (Constellation MCD/MLP)
• Marius Vold - Bass and Vocals (My Angel LP, All Mortem releases)
• Dag F. Gravem - Bass (On The Sham Mirrors on all tracks except track 6)
• Øyvind Hægeland - Vocals (live 2003-2005)

Related bands

• Ulver - Main band of Kristoffer Rygg, Skoll played bass in the band until 1998, Knut also played some of the guitars on the album, Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998), and Hellhammer even played drums on one song the band recorded.
• Ved Buens Ende - Short lived avantgarde black metal band that Skoll played bass in, Simen also sang live for the band. Reformed in 2006 without Skoll.
• Winds - Contains Hellhammer and Carl August Tidemann of Arcturus, also very avantgarde and classically influenced.
• Age Of Silence - A progressive/avantgarde metal band that Hellhammer drums for and also includes members of Winds.
• Mayhem - Hellhammer's first band, one of the first black metal bands.
• Spiral Architect - Øyvind Hægeland sings in this technical metal band.
• Dimmu Borgir - Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs plays bass and does back-up vocals for this symphonic black metal band
• The Kovenant - Sverd and Hellhammer both played in this avantgarde band that use to play Black Metal before they decided to pursue a new musical direction. Sverd was on keyboards but left in 1998 while Hellhammer stayed until 2003
• Borknagar - Garm used to sing in this folk/progressive/black metal band from 1995-1997, when he left the band due to musical differences, he introduced the band to Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs, who sang in the band from 1997-2000, until he left due to his engagement with Dimmu Borgir.
• Lamented Souls - Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs sings and writes all the music for this doom/stoner metal/rock band.
• Rain - pop-rock band featuring Tore Moren on lead guitar.
• Heatseekers - metal band that Tore played guitar in.
• Jørn Lande - Another project involving Tore on guitar. Hellhammer was also involved as drummer on the 2001 album, Worldchanger.
• Carnivora - Tore and Hellhammer play in this heavy metal band as well.
• Ozzmosis - Ozzy Osbourne cover band that Tore plays guitar in.

External links

• Official site
• Official forum
• Older Official Site
• Arcturus Fan-made Profile at MySpace (now official)
• Arcturus at Encyclopaedia Metallum