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Arckanum – Trulen [Demo / Re-Release]

arckanum – trulen [demo / re-release]

Info

After the recent release of Arckanum’s “The 11 Year Anniversary Album” it is time for more retro-releasing for one of Sweden’s best kept black secrets. This time it is Arckanum’s 1994 demo “Trulen”-demo tape put on a silver disc. Slightly revamped cover art and some extra tracks makes this CD pretty much worth the buy.

After a short pan-flute intro the demo bursts out in the chaotic kind of black metal Arckanum is know for, it might be clear that the age of the recording adds something to that chaos-aspect. Especially if you are into old, rather primitive, black metal from Scandinavia this must be one of your top-buys for this month. My love for the obscure makes this one of my favorite albums in this genre for the last few months. Take a song like “Bærghet” for instance, these howling screams makes this CD almost gold worth, too bad that this kind of black metal is getting more rare with each year, only a few elitists are keeping this alive – dig the underground and you’ll find. Also a song like “Svinna” gives a good example of what Arckanum would later become. Just like I mentioned before, one of Sweden’s best kept secrets when it comes to black metal. Besides the full 1994 “Trulen” demo there are three bonus tracks that are totally unknown to me, I have no idea where they come from or when they were recorded. These three tracks are even more primitive and have a rawer sound, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are even older. These songs have something of a very ancient Darkthrone vibe to them with a low rumbling bassguitar. A song like “Gava fran trulen” is easily one of the best tracks of the whole CD and has got that “In The Shadow Of The Horns” kind of feeling to it, great. Of course, like we’re used to, Arckanum is full with ancient beliefs and all that, on the cover we find Pan (the God of wrath), that is probably the reason to have a pan-flute in the intro, and the whole concept for “Trulen” is based around this Pan and Shamaatae (Arckanum’s sole member) vision on all of this.

This CD release is limited to 1500 copies only, I am not sure about sales figures, but this might be sold-out rather soon. A double vinyl version is also in the pipe-line and there is also a 7” coming from Carnal Records soon, so purists, keep your eyes open!