Arcturus (band)
Arcturus is an avant-garde metal band formed in Norway in 1991. They named it Arcturus (meaning Bear Guardian), after the Behenian fixed star Arcturus.
Biography
The band has released five official full-length albums. Arcturus has experimented throughout their career, extracting influences and incorporating elements from all over the musical spectrum including black metal and classical music, but the band was rooted as a metal outfit.
Early days
The original line-up was changed when bassist/vocalist Marius Vold (ex-Thorns) was taken out of the band. The band soon became labeled a black metal supergroup, consisting of Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg on vocals, Carl August Tidemann on guitar, Skoll on bass and the two other original members, Hellhammer on drums and Steinar Sverd Johnsen as main composer/keyboard player. In 1994, Samoth played guitars on the EP Constellation and released it on his record label, Nocturnal Art.
Post-Garm era
After three full-length albums, Rygg left the band. He was replaced by Øyvind Hægeland from the band Spiral Architect. Øyvind performed live with the band, but did not appear on any recordings. On January 5, 2005, the band announced that Øyvind had moved too far away for his continued involvement to be practical and they had parted ways. He was replaced by Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs, who had previously performed vocals on three Arcturus tracks ("Master of Disguise", "The Chaos Path" and "Painting My Horror") on La Masquerade Infernale. Upon Carl August Tidemann's leaving the band, Knut Magne Valle joined. In 2003, Tore Moren joined on second guitar for live performances and eventually found himself accepted as an official member of the band. Knut and Tore then shared lead duties on guitar, with Knut on 7-string guitar and Tore using a standard 6-string guitar.
