Entry 045 - Arcuturus & The Deception Circus - Disguised Masters

 

Arcturus are one of the stranger bands within the metal. They have experimented with sounds, song structures, mixing genres, ridiculous vocals etc.

Disguised Masters may very well be the peak of that strangeness. This is not explicitly a metal album per see, it's more of a remix album with a couple of metal songs in it.

Consisting largely of reworked tracks from their previous album, Disguised Masters has a ton of genres that are not normally associated with metal (even more so when this was released around 20 years ago). There is jungle (aka drum n' bass), gangsta rap, a string quartet, noise, and drone on these tracks.

While all the songs here are strong, there are a few stand outs: Painting my Horror has hip hop vocals provided by S.C.N. and it completely changes the character of the song. Ad Astra's string quartet rendition is a beautiful way to fully embrace the classical leanings of the original song. Du Nordavind may be the last time that Garm ever used harsh vocals on a recording.

I've said before that I'm usually not a big fan of compilation albums and they have to be done exceedingly well for me to enjoy them. This album is one such example of a compilation done to the highest quality.