Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Arckanum - Fran Marder (1995)

Arckanum frequent the “also ran” section of my Black Metal library.  They always had the authenticity and air of dark menacing mystery surrounding them but never quite had the consistency to make them worthy of regular plays.  Most of their records feel like collections of songs just put together with little thought given to arrangement or overall composition. Fran Marder suffers from this perhaps the most of all the discography.

There is a real sense of constant turmoil throughout the record, but it isn’t well translated turmoil that gives the listener a sense of some emotional connection with the writer’s pain.  Instead it just feels like many people turned up to the writing table with lots of ideas and the editing process lacked any real structure and more or less everything went into the record.

Don’t get me wrong, when they are on point then it is some of the finest BM you’ll hear for the era.  But the work you have to put in to get to the reward doesn’t always feel like it is paying off.  Some filter on the idea flow was needed here to give the more creative and earthy elements of the record space to breathe and make the more aggressive parts feel less forced and showy.