ARCKANUM – Första Trulen
- Posted on 21-07-2019
"Första Trulen" is basically the very first and previously unreleased version of the infamous "Trulen" demo tape by the Swedish one-man band that was Arckanum, which was recorded in a rather lo-fi manner using a Fostex 4-track cassette tape recorder. What is not to love about a primitive set-up like that?
"Första Trulen" differs slightly from what eventually turned into the "Trulen" demo in that the ambient tunes and passages feature other arrangements not to mention that the piece entitled "Ængin Oforhærra" (which is included on this 2019 release) never made it onto the 1994 offering. The core of the material is as raw as a fresh and bleeding wound, and in terms of its production values and underground aesthetics, you can tell that this murky recording is ancient and dates back to the first half of the 90s. That is not a bad thing as such as "Första Trulen" is soaked in fuzzy atmospheres and contains a fair share of semi-epic riffs, decent song arrangements, and interesting ideas. Clearly, there was a lot of potential to Arckanum from the very beginning. "Bærghet" is a bleak gem while the cold and windswept "Hvila pa tronan min" and the demonic "Ener stilla sior af droten min" also stand out. Again, this is some pretty harsh and unrefined stuff, but if you are a huge admirer of the intriguing entity or a fan of old Scandinavian black metal demos in general, this is definitely worth checking out. It is not that far removed from what Forgotten Woods were doing around the time of their magical "Sjel av Natten" opus. In other words, one does not have to be a fanatic devotee of Arckanum in order to appreciate this particular slab of occult metal from a bygone age.