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Sorry Daniel, I liked your review but I don't share your enthusiasm on this one. It's still solid, but what's missing is a) Garm, and b) a stand out track like "For to End Yet Again" where Sverd could truly show off.

69/100 from me, still a respectable album but no where near the previous two.

90/100 ? c'mon. This in my humble opinion is a one realy bad album.

I haven't really been paying much attention to Arcturus after Aspera Heims Symfonia. But judging from this review I might have to look into their newer stuff.

Well, what can I say, I love Arcturus and I really like Simen's vocals. Matter of taste I guess. Glad you liked the review.

May I know why? Do you like new Arcturus?

Blah, this is terrible. The songwriting is not up to the par of La Masquerade Infernale, and the vocals... well, they're not nearly as good as Garm's. It's also got a rather silly feeling to it that I don't like at all.

Can't agree with you here Daniel. Oh well.

Yeah... it's not awesome. The kind of record you put on, think about something else but occasionally notice something cool is happening. But there are still no real obvious standout tracks for me.

Well, Arcturus got well known and liked by their first 2 albums which were great. This new one is imho quite impotent when it comes to music ideas, sound and the not-very-good vocals dont help it either. Now it's just a silly circus bunch. I haven't heard one good word on this album by anyone who like/liked this once a great band...

No, i don't like new Arcturus...how can i ?

I don't know about this one, I consider La Masquerade Infernale to be one of the best and most unique albums ever released. This one comes off to me as passable, like some run of the mill blackmetal band trying to imitate Arcturus and doing a decent job at it. But it's not Arcturus, though it may say so on the albumcover. The insanity and unpredictability of their two previous albums (aswell as their remix album) was there mostly thanks to one man, Garm.

Still, I'd give it a 70/100 as it does have highlights reminding me alot of Ulver and earlier Arcturus. I think the song "Nocturnal Vision Revisited" showcases this well.

My review is already in the metalreviews.com subforum. Opinions on this album are very divided, and so are ours, it seems.

By the way, you mixed two songs up: Path of Chaos and The Throne of Tragedy. Not The Throne of Chaos.

sounds pretentious

I hate writting standard format reviews so I try to write them a bit more... colourful I guess. Anything else sir?

For once we agree. Not to throw this at anyone here in specific, but it's funny how a lot of Garm fanboys decided they would hate the album long before it had come out, and never gave it much of a chance. Maybe people will like this more after their hard-on for Garm wears off.

"Trickster G." and all his shitty new projects can eat a bowl of AIDS, by the way. Neither he or Arcturus are making material to rival LMI, but at least Arcturus is still making great music.

I'm sure almost all fans of Arcturus were sad to see Garm's departure, but were nevertheless keen on hearing new material. At least I was. I gave this album a chance, and it just doesn't live up to their past works. I wouldn't call it 'great' music, rather along the lines of 'agreable'.

And I don't doubt that, but I've seen a lot of people who were bashing it long before they even heard it. Just not here.

For me "Sideshow Symphonies" is the highlight of the year. It's an album i had to listen to a few times before i realized how good it actually is. The best albums usually are like that. The ones i instantly like i usually get bored of quickly.

I just adore Simen's vocals and his performance on especially the two musical sounding tracks "Deamon Painter" and "Evacuation Code Deciphered" are amazing! Well, throughout the entire album.

Perfect sounding album in my ears and i easily give it 100/100

I picked up the first album from Arcturus after it was so highly recomended. I thought it was pretty cool. Alot of it sounded oddly "happy" to me. Like I dunno, it was like Danny Elfman meets black metal or something. I need to listen to it a few more times but I love the keyboards and the vocals on it. So what's this new stuff like??

I still have to give this one a good listen, but I heard Evacuation Code Deciphered, and it's fucking awesome. Although I'm a huge fan of Simen's voice, one of my favourite clean singers so I might be biased in my opinion.