Review by Carl on July 23, 2022.

And now for something completely different! Neoclassical darkwave, yes indeed. In the early to mid 90's this style came to my attention through the Scandinavian black metal boom, and I could certainly appreciate a good part of it, especially many of the acts on the Swedish Cold Meat Industry label. And one of the better ones on said label is Arcana.

Let's make this clear right away: there are no guitars, grunts or thundering drums to be found anywhere on this album. What we do get are slow-moving soundscapes that go for a classical or medieval feel: you can hear lutes, tubular bells, percussion, keyboards, french horns and choirs, and more. These sounds create a haunting backdrop for the solemn male vocals and angelic female voices in the best Dead can Dance tradition, setting up a ceremonial, dramatic and sometimes even desperate atmosphere, that takes the listener to places long forgotten and times well passed. Take a track like "Love Eternal", where church bells, a choir and swathes of keyboard flourishes form the background against which the icy, haunting vocals of Ida Bengsston lead the listener into a realm of unsettling darkness. In "March of Loss" a tinkling harpsichord melody leads us into a funeral march of sorts, complete with grave percussion, a string section and a male choir, making it feel as if I got my ass dumped in the middle of a medieval monk funeral, and "The Ascending of a New Dawn" transports me back to Viking times. Each of the tracks has a feel of its own, providing the listener with a soundtrack to let his or her imagination run free. For me, who has a fascination for medieval and renaissance times, this is perfect mood music.

I do have to make a point of critique though, and that is that some of the sounds that form these soundscapes have not aged that flawlessly. From the sound of it, all the classical instrumentation was created with keyboards and samplers (because having real players would cost stupid amounts of money) and to be completely honest, some of it has a kind of 90's electronica feel to it that does sound somewhat dated. Also, I wouldn't have minded a bit more lengthy songs. These are just minor flaws that I can easily put aside though.

Of course you can approach this style in two ways: either you appreciate it to read your fantasy novels by, or you consider it to be pretentious artsy crap intended for young vampire goth girls and boys to prance around their bedrooms imagining they live in an Anne Rice novel. I agree that it's not all golden, but I do appreciate the acts who know how to conjure up the right atmosphere through their music. And one of the better ones in this style is Arcana.

Rating: 8 out of 10