ARCKANUM

• Genre(s): Black Metal
• Formed: 1993
• Representative Albums: "Antikosmos," "Trulen," "Kostogher"



Few bands are as committed to their subject matter as Sweden's Arckanum, whose interest in the pagan ‘old ways' of their Viking ancestors and open worship of the God Pan transcend mere curiosity towards sheer obsession. Going so far as to compose his dark musical invocations in ancient Swedish, Arckanum's founder (and usually lone charter member), Shamaatae first broke bread with elves and trolls in 1992, but only obtained a record deal with Necropolis Records two years later on the strength of the 15-song "Trulen" demo. A proper debut, 1995's Fran Marder (meaning "From the Forest") followed, and its primitive black metal orchestrations provided a fitting background to Arckanum's eccentric lyrical musings -- as did conceptually continual follow-up efforts, 1997's Kostogher and 2000's epic double disc Kampen.

History

After been the drummer of the great black metal band CONQUEST/GROTESQUE (which now is widely known) I got into magic and Satanism. Satan was an interesting philosophy for me a while, but didn't bring all the aspects that I was looking for at the time. From the old fashion "Necronomicon" book to witchcraft to Chaos-theory, I ended up entangled in nature mysticism and old folklore. Myself and my brothers (whom participates on songs like "Bærghet" and "Gangar for Raþan Vinder") have strolled in deep forests, stood on mountains under the nights northern lights, sacrificed et cetera, in search for our true nature, realities and deities. And we found Pan - great god of nature. After years, I and my brother Sataros started a death metal band called ABSORPTION. We went on for a while but never found the real sound (probably because we sucked.) We renamed the band to DISENTERMENT and found a new guitarist named Basse. The trio recorded a demo, which is unreleased to this day. We had around twenty gigs, with Unleashed and Unanimated to name a few. DISENTERMENT died in 1993. During the ending process of DISENTERMENT I got deep into black metal (again), and started a one-man project, ARCKANUM. 1992 I was on my way to the climax of magical worlds and I had a new vision about which path I was born under, and I was very displeased with the world that I was living in. I wanted to found new thoughts for lost soldiers, to point out the direction to a world of Chaos where Pan sits upon the throne and spread Chaotic freedom to the free-thinking soldiers who do not accept to be controlled and enslaved by others, and not be able to rule over their own lives. So I started the band ARCKANUM to spread the message of Chaos. First I lone Sataros from Sartaros Grief and Loke Svarteld to join the band because I didn't think I could pull it through myself. But after the first demo "Demo-93", I continued by my own. And the only reason for why I continued by myself, was that, after a while practicing all instruments, I found out to be able to perform all, including vocals, by myself. And I recorded the second demo "Trulen" in 1994, which sold pretty good and it got some good words too. Later on the black magical path of Pan led me deeper into Satanism and eventually to gnosis of Chaos-Gnosticism. This made a huge new path for ARCKANUM and me, and the new anti-cosmic and satanic creations of ARCKANUM were made, for example "Boka Vm Kaos" and "Kaos Svarta Mar". I like it simple, fast and esoteric, and I think it fits better with the ancient tongue, therefore I chose to write all lyrics in ancient Swedish. The music itself is some kind of Black/Death Metal with lots of influences from the 80..s when music was good! I do not try to perform as complex and adept as possible; because I think that my music style shall be dirty & thrashing!

Discography



Albums

• Fran Marder (1995) Necropolis
• Kostogher (1997) Necropolis
• Kampen (1998) Necropolis
• The 11 Year Anniversary Album (2004) Carnal (compilation album)
• Antikosmos (2008) Debemur Morti/Moribund
• ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ (2009) Debemur Morti

Demos

• Demo '93 (1993)
• Trulen (1994)

EPs

• Boka Vm Kaos (2002)
• Kosmos Wardhin Dræpas Om Sin (2003) (split release with Contamino)
• Kaos Svarta Mar (2004) Carnal (split release with Svartsyn)
• Grimalkinz Skaldi (2008)
• Antikosmos (2008)
• Hadelik (2008) (split release with Sataros Grief)

Official website: http://www.arckanum.se/