As usual it’s not the easiest task to find the right words for a release which is without exaggeration part of half my Metal life. The third and final ARCKANUM release “Kampen” – final due to the fact that ARCKANUM never properly returned to their roots and these days Shamaatae is far more interested in Chaos than Pan – has been official released in 1998 by Necropolis Records and taking the enormous ebay prices into account it seems that I’m not the only one which “fall in love” with this release. The album marked the climax of the band / project ARCKANUM and it summarized everything this band stands for. Very nature bounded Black Metal without any sunshine and not the lightest flicker of light can be found on “Kampen” – so the dark forces are ruling here. The missing balance between the 2 sides of this band – see the “Fran Marder” and “Kostogher” reviews – finds its perfection here. If the terminus Pagan would not have such a lovely and happy understanding in 2009 it would perfectly capture the essence on “Kampen”. The album is offering one hymn after another but if you missed this essential release you should start the voyage with ‘Kamps Tekn’ or ‘Minir Natz Fughlir’ – great hymns to the former and true ARCKANUM god Pan. The re-release is offering nothing new on the musical side – besides the slightly improved sound by Andy Classen – so don’t expect any kind of bonus track etc. The album reached perfection and even if their current label is still pointing out the enormous quality of their new releases – new means in this case their 2008 / 2009 releases “Antikosmos”/ “ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ” – is “Kampen” also in some way their tombstone because whatever they released since then is not in the position to reach the intensity of this masterpiece. For more info check out: www.debemur-morti.com, www.arckanum.se, www.myspace.com/officialarckanummyspace