Gangleri – musicreviews

I was just wondering if Arcana would finally have found a way up or kept doing the same thing. They kept doing the same thing… “Raspail” is another soft orchestral release and Peter seems to keep trying to sound like Brendan Perry (and the music reminds of Dead Can Dance too too often). The first tracks are the most interesting, but after a while Arcana starts sounding like themselves again too much. “Raspail” is not a bad album, but it simply does not work for me anymore.
Links: Arcana, Kalinkaland Records

However I like Arcana, my reviews of the previous albums are not that positive. The music is beautiful but more of the same on newer albums. I actually wasn’t planning on getting this album, but mr Pettersson wanted me to review it anyhow, so a copy fell into my mailbox.
“Inner Pale Sun” has quite an ‘Arcana-length’: 38 min. It opens with quite an Arcana-track: bombastic, orchestral music with drumming and singing without lyrics. The second track is promising though, very tranquil and with very nice male vocals. This actually goes for more tracks as well. mr Pettersson has a very nice voice when he really sings and the music is still Arcana, but not so typical. I even seem to hear some real instruments (cello) in track 6, which track is a beauty in general. The last two tracks are nice but nothing special.
Indeed better than the last albums in different views.

Here we have the new cd of Arcana and …well… it’s just a new cd of Arcana.
In 1996 this Swedish act debuted on the CMI label with a stunning debut. This was after highly acclaimed contributions to the CMI-sampler “…And Even The Wolves” from 95 and the 2×7″ compilation “The Heart Of Shadow Gods” on the same label. The “Dark Age Of Reason” cd contains totally awsome orchestral music, with marchdrums, bells and chanting. Soon Arcana was one of the most popular bands on the CMI-label. After the debut came two mcds and a fulllength that sounded exactly the same. Also contributions to new compilations didn’t bring anything new and now there is “…The Last Embrace”. Again orchestral music, marchdrums, bells and chanting totally bombastic and beautiful music, but exactly the same as before. When you never heard Arcana you will be amazed by their music, but if you followed them for the past four years, you can say nothing more than “it is a new Arcana”. No points for originality. Arcana became of copy of themselves…

Just like the previous album-taster “Lisabeth” this mcd is limited to 3000 copies. There is a good part and a bad part about “Isabel”. The bad part is that it is pretty expensive. There are three songs and this mcd lasts as long as 8 minutes. The good part is that the songs are much better than those on the last album “Cantar De Procella” from 1997. The music did not change that much, but there are texts again instead of just chanting. One track is instrumental, another has male vocals and the last song female vocals. The first song is exclusive, the other two will also appear on the forthcoming album. This actually makes “Isabel” even more expensive. Only the the real fans then?