What band other than Arcturus could release an album like the Sham Mirrors? This is the musical equivalent of being the first beings to travel at the speed of light. What will happen? No one knows, no one has been here before... yet somehow it's all entirely sane and entirely possible.
After the previous album's insanity, The Sham Mirrors feels entirely sane and cohesive by comparison. That by no means indicates that this is a normal album... it's just a few standard deviations closer to the mean than La Masquerade or Disguised Masters were.
The album is decidedly heavier and less black metal based than any of their previous works. If anything this would fall into the progressive metal territory with crazy rhythms, great interplay between the keyboards and guitars, and Garm's newfound love of the falsetto vocal style.
There are moments on the album that are nearly brutal in their execution. Both Radical Cut and Collapse Generation are high speed scorchers that surprised the hell out of me the first time I heard them. On the flip side there are songs like Star-Crossed and For to End Yet Again that feature extended piano solos and whisk me away to a place of peace and comfort.
Yet a third side of this same coin contains the absurd. Kinetic and Ad Absurdum are borderline madness put to musical form, yet even then they are so much easier to take in than the bands previous work. Needless to say the band has a lot going on in these 40 minutes, all of it good - none of it wasted.
Wither its the harsh vocals on Radical Cut or the trumpet leading the album to its conclusion on the final track this album is so packed full of ideas that there isn't a boring moment. I haven't listened to it in years and I'm so glad I revisited it, this album is borderline genius... it has to be heard to be fully comprehended.
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