Arckanum | |
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Origin | Dalarna, Sweden |
Genres | Black metal |
Years active | 1993–present |
Associated acts | Grotesque |
Members | Johan "Shamaatae" Lahger |
Past members | Sataros Loke Svarteld |
Arckanum is a Swedish black metal project formed in 1993 by Johan "Shamaatae" Lahger, who is the only constant member. Shamaatae is also an author of occult literature and writes under the names Vexior/Ekortu. His first published work, titled PANPARADOX, was released the 13th of July 2009 by Ixaxaar. His second book, GULLVEIGARBÓK, was released on December 2010 by Fall of Man. His latest book will be released by Ixaxaar on December, 21st 2014 called Þursakyngi, it is said to be a "book series" with each book dedicated to the Thursatru tradition.
Shamaatae joined his first band, Conquest, aged eleven, the band later evolving into Grotesque. On leaving Grotesque, Shamaatae formed a technical death metal band called Disinterment, who recorded one demo and played a few gigs before splitting up. At the end of 1992, Shamaatae decided to return to black metal and Arckanum was started. Initially a full band, it became a solo project after six months. After several releases, by 1998 Shamaatae had discontinued working with Necropolis Records because they went under, and turned his attention to writing books on the subjects of Pan, Old Norse traditions, runic witchcraft and anti-cosmic Satanism/chaos-gnosticism. He was still involved in music during this time still working with Arckanum and playing drums with The Hearsemen. Arckanum’s album ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ was released on 1 June 2009.Antikosmos and ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ featured the guest appearance of Set Teitan of the bands Dissection and Watain. Arckanum’s most recent album is Fenris Kindir , which was released on May 10, 2013.
Arckanum’s lyrics deal mainly with the worship of Chaos, as well as anti-cosmic Satanism. He is noted for writing lyrics resembling Old Swedish, and he has stated that he tries to write his lyrics as grammatically correct as he can. In his latest three albums however, the language is clearly meant to resemble Old East Norse.