Sunday, January 19, 2025

Arcturus - Shipwrecked in Oslo (2014)

Arcturus was one of the bands that put on a pretty sweet live-set stream during the COVID 2020 period, something I really appreciated in those times as an example of bands thinking of their fans and trying to keep that interchange and communication together in the face of the uncertain. I'd not gotten to see them in concert before (still haven't), so it was at that point I decided to check out their earlier live album, at least the audio component taken from the Season of Mist DVD back in 2006. It turns out that Shipwrecked in Oslo is quite a substantial tour through the band's catalogue with around 80-90 minutes of material captured on a single CD (or the two-LP variant). This was the Sideshow Symphonies lineup for the band, with ICS Vortex instead of Rygg, and it holds pretty too with the overall atmosphere and tone on that studio record.

But yeah, they bust out a lot of material off most of their records to that point, with only Aspera Hiems Symfonia underrepresented via "Raudt og svart" at the tail end of the track list. It's great to hear favorites like "Ad Absurdum", "Nightmare Heaven" and "Painting My Horror" represented, and all of them sound as bright and detailed as they do in their studio incarnations. Sometimes frightfully so, played so cleanly that it occasionally feels like someone might be blasting the studio album over the loudspeaker without the vocal track and then having Simen go wild over it. His take on most of the earlier tracks is pretty close to his predecessor, but his voice definitely waves a lot here, as he's getting more emotional or aggressive on a lot of the lines. It does sound somewhat corny in spots, but then again, so did Garm on a lot of the studio originals, and I don't think the vocals ever become a detraction, he's just having a lot of fun with a band that has such a wild mesh of styles to begin with. Something else unique here are the solos, Steinar doing a sweeping classical piano piece, Tore an atmospheric guitar bit that sounds like Eric Johnson, and Knut deciding to go for a more brooding ambient interlude, which might seem pretty bland and minimalist next to Tore's, but I actually appreciate they tried to make these all sound so different.

Of course, these are just distractions against what everyone really came to hear, the album originals, which are all delivered with the grandeur and weird cosmic circus pomp that you'd expect. The electronics and symphonics both blend in seamlessly with the more acoustic impact of the drums and guitars, Simen sitting just perfectly in the mix, loud and distinct but even at his most spontaneous he's never drowning out the rest. I'd have probably preferred 1-2 more early tunes than some of the stuff off Sideshow Symphonies, but it's still a strong enough, professional set that makes me want to check them out if they're ever passing through New England in the future. Not the most exciting or explosive live you'll encounter, but a strong representation.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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