Through wooded glades he wanders with dancing nymphs who foot it on some sheer cliff's edge, calling upon Pan, the shepherd-god, long-haired, unkempt. He has every snowy crest and the mountain peaks and rocky crests for his domain; hither and thither he goes through the close thickets, now lured by soft streams, and now he presses on amongst towering crags and climbs up to the highest peak that overlooks the flocks...
Over a year after recording, Shamaatae released the second ARCKANUM album, Kostogher, on this day in 1997 through Necropolis Records.
...I performed a ritual in the studio during the recording of the intro, or the introduction of the track "Skoghens Minnen V Ekks". The ritual is performed by us: the forest and its creatures and me. I have only used it once and it seems to fulfill its purpose.
- Shamaatae / Arckanum interview, Chronicles of Chaos, 1997
Recording information
Recorded during the autumn 1995 in High Tech Trinity studio, Mora, Sweden. Mixed and produced by Niklas Bäckar and Shamaatae.
Guest Appearance: Lena Klarström, female vocals on "Skoghens Minnen Vækks", "Þæn Sum Fran Griften Gangar" and "Gamall Uvermark". Sataros from Sataros Grief, Second vers on "Gangar For Raþan Vinder". Mattias Pettersson, third vers on "Gangar For Raþan Vinder" and first satanic scream on "Kri Til Dødha daghi". Björn Pettersson, fourth vers on "Gangar For Raþan Vinder". Andreas Sten, violin on "Skoghens Minnen Vækks" and "Gamall Uvermark".
The low level on the album is ment to get listeners to max their volume and let the thunder in the end of "Skoghens Minnen Vækks" crack their speakers. "Et Sorghetog" was originally recorded with low pitched vocals. Photographies taken by Fredrik Bäckar, under Shamaatae´s direction. Logos, pencil drawings and hand writings by Shamaatae. The wooden staff is hand made by Shamaatae, it took him two weeks with a soldering iron to burn all the sigils, texts and pictures into the staff. During the time this album was recorded, LP III "Kampen" and LP IV "Faunaz Samgang" were completed. "Øþegarðr" and "Oþer Trulhøyghda" are the parts two (Del II) and three (Del III) in the manifesto of the secret village of Tribalerna.
Old official biography
After been the drummer of the great black metal band CONQUEST/GROTESQUE (which now is widely known) I got into magick 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 night's 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, 1992 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.