Arcturus are an avant-garde metal band from Norway featuring many prominent members of the Norwegian black metal scene from bands such as Ulver, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, Borknagar, The Kovenant, Emperor, and Winds. Arcturus have experimented throughout their career, extracting influences and incorporating elements from all over the musical spectrum including black metal and classical music, but the core of their sound has always been metal. Arcturus was formed in 1987 as death metal act Mortem. They released an EP and a demo under this name. ...show more

Arcturus are an avant-garde metal band from Norway featuring many prominent members of the Norwegian black metal scene from bands such as Ulver, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, Borknagar, The Kovenant, Emperor, and Winds. Arcturus have experimented throughout their career, extracting influences and incorporating elements from all over the musical spectrum including black metal and classical music, but the core of their sound has always been metal. Arcturus was formed in 1987 as death metal act Mortem. They released an EP and a demo under this name.

In 1990, they changed their name to Arcturus, which is the name of a star and means "Guardian of Bears". In 1995, Arcturus released "Aspera Hiems Symfonia" (latin form of Harsh Winter Symphony), acclaimed to be one of the most innovative black metal album ever. That line-up consisted of: Garm (Kristoffer Rygg) - Vocals Hellhammer (Jan Axel von Blomberg) - Drums Sverd (Steinar Sverd Johnsen) - Synths August (Carl August Tidemann) - Guitar Skoll (Hugh Stephen James Mingay) - Bass (not assigned on album credits) Aspera Hiems Symfonia is a mix of early 90s norwegian black metal, classical melodies, waltz and refined touch of nordic coldness. The lyrics concentrate on the themes of winter and the darkness of night.

"All music & words on Aspera Hiems Symfonia emanated from our souls profoundly". This phrase represents it perfectly. In 1997 Arcturus released the much acclaimed "La Masquerade Infernale" album. The theatrical, almost carnivalesque, style built around Sverd's keyboard was introduced by the large vocals range of Garm (and guest Simen Hestnæs) and this became their trademark. ...show less