Finally got this double vinyl reissue of Arcturus's 1997 album in stock on vinyl, released as a hefty gatefold package by UK reissue label Back On Black. Still as weird as it was when we first picked it up, here's our old review of this Nordic avant-metal mindfuck from when we originally got the CD reissue version in stock:

      1997's La Masquerade Infernale is still one of the greatest codices of avant-garde, genre-blurring black metal that emerged from the wide ranging experimentation that swept through Norwegian black metal in the late '90's. It's still certainly thought of as Arcturus' masterwork by pretty much everybody in the metal community. Featuring Garm from Ulver and Hellhammer from Mayhem, Arcturus took a huge step away from the slow melodic doominess of Arcturus' Aspera Hiems Symfonia, and from the opening seconds of "Master Of Disguise", immediately plunges you into a nocturnal, dreamlike carnival atmosphere filled with crazy prog-rock synthesizer runs and dense electronic samples that are unified with Arcturus' melodic, somewhat baroque-sounding black metal. The grotesque dream-visions of the album artwork and the surreal Faustian lyrics reveal eerie Satanic visions colored by theatre, literature and French poetry, and the music is like black metal's answer to both Mr. Bungle and Faith No More, containing Kurt Weill-esque cabaret music, symphonic strings, pop melodies, industrial clang, drum n' bass/jungle beats, trip hop, and mind-tripping flights into the deep cosmic ether, the arrangements constantly shifting in and out of these stylistic boundaries without warning. The raw screams that normally characterized black metal are replaced with dramatic, semi-operatic vocals, gruff low crooning that reminds me of Mike Patton, and the bizarre high-pitched singing of guest singer Simen Hestn�s, who would later replace Garm as the band's frontman.

      Yep, this still sounds every bit as strange and alien as it did when it came out over 10 years ago. This is the re-mastered re-issued version of La Masquerade Infernale on Candlelight, and does not include the hidden trip-hop track that appeared on the original Misanthropy Records release.