With this offering, Arcturus have cooked up a smoldering cauldron of cosmic weirdness and ethereal aura. SIDESHOW SYMPHONIES strengths lie in the fact that Arcturus make their differences known in big ways throughout, most notably in album highlight "Reflections". I think the aim for the band with this record was to create something that flowed seamlessly within a concept of interstellar travel. By that I mean the arrangements all border on progressive and aren't going to be easily digested by the typical black metal dunderhead. For an example, one needn't look any further than "Nocturnal Visions Revisted" and the disc's closer "Hufsa". These wacky Norwegian pirates can go from lush atmospheres that recall My Bloody Valentine to ear splitting black/death that segues into prog-rock ala King Crimson and Camel at the drop of a hat, but it never comes off as disjointed or jumbled. If you are looking for typical corpse painted gauntlet wearing blast beat mania fair here, you need to look elsewhere sucker.

Sometimes being weird is the ultimate cool, and sometimes even the freaks need a place to call home. SIDESHOW SYMPHONIES may just be the rallying cry that all of those who've got no use for the complacency and normalcy in modern society. If I am being perfectly honest here, I've never been that big of an Arcturus fan and I've never quite understood what they were trying to pull off each time they release something new. Dear reader, that hasn't changed with this record, but damned if I will not enjoy trying to pinpoint what the hell is going on each and everytime I play this thing. As Deep Purple said a long time ago, let's go space truckin'!