Arcana

Cantar De Procella

Cold Meat Industry, 1997

Review by Richard Stuart

Arcana, by far the best Cold Meat Industry outfit I've heard, have come up with another album consisting of more orchestral synth work and sublime choir arrangements. The atmosphere is intense, comparable to Orff's 'Carmina Burana' in terms of it's dark majesty yet sombre tones ('Chant Of The Awakening,' for instance, would be a perfect soundtrack to a Black Mass). Repetitive yet gradually building, these 12 tracks make very effective use of dynamics, and for 47 minutes the listener cannot help but to become completely involved. More emphasis seems to have been placed on the vocals here than Arcana's debut album, 'Dark Age Of Reason,' and there are no instrumental tracks this time.

The packaging, however, is something I'm not quite so fond of. The CD doesn't come in a proper case or even a conventional digipak - it looks like a normal digipak to begin with, but in order to open it you have to pull out about 86 flaps and then slide the CD out. But perhaps I've just got a limited edition version.

There's just one more negative thing I want to say about the album - the fact that 'Cantar De Procella' and 'The Dreams Made Of Sand' are included. It's a bit of a swizz, because these were 2 of the 3 tracks on0 the 'Lizabeth' MCD.

In any case, enough complaining. This is a great album, and basically anyone who liked Arcana before will, I'm sure, be very impressed by their progression.