CONSTELLATION

Arcturus

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

2.24 | 15 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Trickster F.
Prog Reviewer

Get the Aspera Heims Symfonia/Constellation/My Angel compilation, which has a much improved sound quality, all songs from the earliy three albums and, in addition, some of the parts of the songs sound different. Moreover, I don't suppose you'll find this rare EP anywhere for a normal price, so save your money and get the above-mentioned compilation instead.

The first song here is Raudt Og Svart and it should be familiar to many people who haven't heard Constellation, because it appeared on Aspera... as well, and has been their classic live set encore number since the group started performing. It's a great song, but I simply can not refuse to compare it to the Aspera... version. This early recording has no bass lines whatsoever(which made the song much more epic later on), Garm's vocals are more flat and week - instead of the great balance between extreme, powerful shrieking and great clean vocals we are awarded with the "grim" atmospheric Burzum-esque type of vocals that sounds out of place on the album. Some of the best parts of the song are inaudible, which is also not very good if you have got used to listening to the later version. Icebound Streams And Vapours Grey is what would later become Wintry Grey, and is also a weaker, horribly-produced early version of its worthy successor. Near Kulda Tar, on the other hand, doesn't sound too different from the old version and is a good number. Du Nordavind, an amazing underrated Arcturus, with its spacey keyboards and atmosphere, is the highlight of the album, but still worse than the later version.

Before judging this album, it also helps to remember its historical importance in the year 1994. Nobody except Arcturus played this incredibly progressive kind of Black Metal. They have already found their exclusive original style here, which couldn't be said about My Angel(perhaps the scariest EP ever). The group would eventually release Aspera... and become one of the essential projects in the world of Progressive Music. However, despite its importance, there is nothing exclusive to be found on this release - if you have Aspera... on your hands, you are already familiar with the four songs here.

Only for collectors.

Trickster F. | 2/5 | 2006-4-7

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this ARCTURUS review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to Trickster F.
Report this review (#74264)
Buy ARCTURUS music online with PA partners
Show all ARCTURUS MP3/Stream
Go to ARCTURUS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to Constellation page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for ARCTURUS related discussions