Arckanum – Antikosmos (2008)

This Swedish band unleashes upon us their 4th full length under the name of “Antikosmos”. This release presents almost no change since their great debut album “Fran Marder”. And this is not good in my opinion.

Antikosmos as all the other Arckanum’s releases, is mainly based on the atmosphere created by the band, and not the quality of the music. The album kicks off with a bang that is quickly dissipated by uninspired songs like: Røkulfargnýr. In this song the same simple guitar riff is played for over 4 minutes making it sound very dull.

Then the next track is some kind of chant or invocation, while this adds to the albums atmosphere, we don’t need to listen to this for 5 minutes. These 2 songs make up for almost one third of the album, and while the first 2 songs are great signature Arckanum music, they are not enough to carry the whole release.

Musically speaking Arckanum’s style, while not highly technical, is very effective for the genre they play. But after 16 years that the band formed you can’t see any progress in their playing and composition skills.

The one thing going for them is that if you liked the first album and you like all your bands to keep the same sound over the years, then this release will be perfect for you. Since Arckanum keeps playing their signature black metal that put them on the map back in 1994 (minus the keyboards in their demo).

Country: Finland