Arckanum Interview (Shamaatae)

After a nearly decade-long hiatus from recording—and a 2018 dissolution that appeared definitive, as he shifted focus toward his hidden literary work—this titan of Swedish black metal has reawakened. Shamaatae returns to the musical shadows with "Beswærilsin", the tenth full-length album in Arckanum’s impeccable discography. Released via the label Darkness Shall Rise Productions, this work is more than just music; it is a fierce, primitive, and unadorned manifesto that traverses the frozen storms of Niflheimr and the burning fury of Múspellsheimr. We delve into anti-cosmic Gnosticism and pure chaos in this exclusive interview with one of the most steadfast pillars of the Scandinavian underground.

Para leer la entrevista en español: Entrevista a Arckanum

Metallerium: Welcome to Metallerium, Shamaatae. It is an absolute honor to have you here. After a long period of silence since your last full-length and the dissolution announced years ago, what precise spark or shift within the Thursian Current demanded the transformation and definitive return of Arckanum with Beswærilsin?

Arckanum: There wasn’t one precise spark, and I wouldn’t say that something suddenly changed within the Thursian Current itself. What changed was where that Current was taking me. When I ended Arckanum after Den Förstfödde, I genuinely believed it was finished. But Arckanum stopped; my spiritual Work never did.

During those years I went much deeper into Thursatru through writing, study, Þursablót, runic work and communion with the Thurses. Music also never disappeared from my life, and eventually I began writing riffs again simply because I love creating music. During my workings I then started receiving increasingly clear signs that Arckanum still had a purpose, but that its next manifestation should go deeper than before. The music was to become more consciously integrated with invocation, oaths, spells, numerology and the greater spiritual workings behind it.

At the same time, the musical inspiration became incredibly strong. The riffs kept coming, the ideas accumulated, and eventually there was no point pretending that Arckanum was still dead. I had stopped the band, but I had never stopped the source from which it came.

So I don’t really regard Beswærilsin as a “return.” It is a transformation and continuation. The previous form of Arckanum ended in 2018, but the Current continued moving beneath the surface. Beswærilsin is simply where it emerged again, in another form and with a much clearer purpose.

Metallerium: You have stated that Beswærilsinmarks the beginning of Arckanum's "third phase". From our perspective at Metallerium, your music has always evolved without losing its primitive core. How does this new phase differ ideologically and musically from the iconic eras of Fran Marder or ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ?

Arckanum: The primitive core you mention is still there, because the source has never really changed. What has changed is my understanding of it. When I made Fran Marder, much of what became Arckanum was still very instinctive. I was young, searching, experimenting and expressing things that I felt very strongly without always possessing the knowledge or language to fully understand them. By the time of ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ, both the musical language and my spiritual understanding had developed considerably further.

The third phase comes after another long period of spiritual work, study, writing and practical Thursatru. After more than thirty years I understand the Current very differently than I did when I was twenty, but I don’t regard my younger self as having followed the wrong path. It is the same path seen from much further along it. What was once primarily just drive and feeling has gradually become knowledge, experience and conscious magical practice.

Musically, Beswærilsin actually draws from the entire history of Arckanum. There is the rawness and aggression of the early material, elements of the more developed songwriting of the later albums, and things I have never done before. I wasn’t interested in recreating Fran Marder, Kostogher, ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ, or Fenris Kindir. I wanted to take everything I had learned from those periods and see what Arckanum sounds like now.

Perhaps the greatest difference is that the spiritual and musical sides have become almost inseparable. On Beswærilsin, the invocations, oaths, numerology and magical structures are woven much more consciously into the music itself. The primitive fire is the same; I simply know much more about what I am doing with it now.

Metallerium: The title Beswærilsin carries a deep ritualistic weight. Could you explain the linguistic and magical meaning behind this title, and how the eleven compositions work together as a grand Invocation and Oath?

Arckanum: Beswærilsin is Old Swedish, and the closest English translation would be “The Conjuring.” But within the context of the album it carries a broader meaning than simply summoning something. It represents both invocation and oath: calling upon the Thursian powers while at the same time declaring dedication and allegiance to the Current they embody.

The title itself came to me during a Þursablót while I was working with the runes connected to the album. Gullveig drew my attention to the fact that Beswærilsin contains eleven letters, and eleven is a holy number within our tradition, connected with Ginnungagap and the primordial state beyond the ordered cosmos. It therefore became clear that the album should consist of eleven compositions as well.

Those eleven pieces can be understood as eleven stages of one greater Working. Throughout the album there are invocations, oaths, spells, offerings and formulas directed toward different Thursian powers, but they ultimately serve the same purpose. With each step, the Working opens further toward Útgarðr, allowing the Ginnic or Utgardian Current to enter and permeate this world.

But conjuration also works in the opposite direction. It is not only about calling the Outside into this world; it is also about the Thursatruar moving toward the Outside and Ginnungagap via Ragnarök. That is where the oath becomes important. You are not merely asking these powers to come to you, you are declaring your own commitment to follow them. So Beswærilsin is both an opening and a promise: eleven steps through the same doorway, with the Thurses moving inward as I move outward.

Metallerium: Analyzing the balance between raw production and artistic development. Beswærilsin is described as both harsher and more structurally developed. How did you achieve a sound that feels genuinely feral and primitive without falling into over-polished modern black metal standards?

Arckanum: I think it has much more to do with attitude than with production techniques. I never sit down and think about what would sound fashionable, what people expect from modern black metal, or what might make an album easier to sell. I try to create music that genuinely represents the aggression, hostility and deathly aspects of the Thursian Current as I experience them. If that spirit is already present in the riffs, the rhythms and the performance, you don’t need to manufacture rawness afterwards.

At the same time, I don’t believe that rawness means deliberately making something sound bad. I want the instruments to have clarity, weight and power. I have always liked the physical punch you can get from death metal combined with the atmosphere, aggression and Satanic attitude of black metal. Beswærilsin needed both.

The production therefore had to reveal the details of the more developed compositions without domesticating them. I wanted the drums to strike hard, the guitars to cut, and the whole recording to feel tight and powerful, but still dangerous and alive. Too much modern production can make extreme music incredibly precise while somehow removing everything extreme about it.

For me, the feral quality has to exist before anyone touches a mixing desk. It comes from what you are trying to manifest through the music. The production should sharpen those teeth, not pull them out.

Metallerium: Arckanum has operated essentially as a one-man project for decades. Did the solitary process of composing and recording Beswærilsin feel different this time after focusing so heavily on your literary works as Vexior and Ekortu?

Arckanum: Not really, because the solitary creative process has always been very natural to me. Whether I am writing an Arckanum album or a book, I enjoy disappearing into my own world and working obsessively on something until it becomes what I want it to be. I have never needed a group of people around me in order to create.

If anything, all those years of writing strengthened that side of me. My literary work forced me to go much deeper into mythology, language, magic, runes and the Thursian Current, and all of that knowledge eventually flowed back into Arckanum. So when I began seriously working on Beswærilsin, it didn’t feel like returning to something I had abandoned. It felt more like taking everything I had accumulated through those years and suddenly giving it a musical body again.

The practical process was also immediately familiar: me alone with the guitar, writing riffs, constructing songs, obsessing over details and following my own instincts. That is where I am most comfortable creatively. I have been in bands with four or five people all bringing their own ideas and opinions into the room, and to me that is a nightmare! I’m genuinely impressed that bands manage to accomplish anything that way.

I enjoy bringing in guest musicians because they can contribute a particular character or skill that enriches a song, but the direction itself has to remain mine. Arckanum works because it is one vision. The books, the spiritual Work and the music may use different languages, but they all come from the same person drinking from the same Hvergelmiric horn.

Metallerium: Earlier this year, you released the Motestandarin EP featuring "Skæpna Ær Krigh" and "Anskoti". Why did you choose these two specific anthems to introduce this new era to the underground?

Arckanum: I chose them because together they give a very good indication of what this new phase of Arckanum sounds like. They are not necessarily what I would call the two “best” songs on Beswærilsin, I don’t really think in those terms, but they represent different sides of the album very well.

Skæpna Ær Krigh and Anskoti contain much of what defines the new material: aggression, melody, atmosphere, developed songwriting and that raw, adversarial character that has always been fundamental to Arckanum. At the same time, they don’t reveal everything. I wanted the EP to open the door just enough for people to understand where Arckanum is heading without giving away the entire Working before Beswærilsin arrives.

And, quite simply, I love the old tradition of releasing an EP or single before an album. Denny of DSR and I are both enjoy vinyl, different formats and those strange little releases that become part of a band’s history. So making Motestandarin was also just something we thought would be fun.

Metallerium: Beswærilsin is being released via Darkness Shall Rise Productions, a label renowned for its focus on underground tape culture and high-quality old-school formats. How crucial was their philosophy in alignment with Arckanum’s return?

Arckanum: For me, the most important thing was finding people who genuinely understood and supported what I wanted to do with Arckanum. Darkness Shall Rise had already impressed me with the quality of their releases and the amount of care they put into the physical presentation of the music. They clearly take their work seriously, and that was very important to me.

They have also been extremely supportive of my ideas and of the direction I want to take Arckanum. I have a very clear vision of how the music, artwork and physical releases should be presented, and I need to work with people who respect that rather than trying to reshape it into something more commercially convenient.

Of course, their dedication to vinyl, tapes and physical formats fits me perfectly because I still love the physical object as part of the complete release. But ultimately I chose to work with them because they do great work, they care about what they release, and they have shown genuine enthusiasm and support for Arckanum.

Metallerium: Your lyrics have always been deeply rooted in Chaos Gnosticism, Thursatrú, and anti-cosmic philosophies. In a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic and spiritually hollow, does the Thursian Current find more fertile ground to manifest its adversarial force?

Arckanum: I think we first have to distinguish between worldly chaos and the Chaos I speak about spiritually. A society can become confused, violent, unstable or spiritually empty, but that is not necessarily the Ginnic Chaos of the Thursian Current. Much of what people call chaos is simply disorder occurring within the same cosmic structures.

The Thursian Current does not depend upon the condition of human society in order to exist. To me it is primordial, it precedes this world and its order. What can change is our receptiveness to it. When established structures begin to feel hollow or restrictive, perhaps more people start questioning what they have been told is permanent, sacred or necessary. In that sense, cracks can create openings.

But the adversarial path is not simply rebellion against whatever happens to be happening in society at the moment. It is a much deeper opposition to the spiritual laws and limitations of the cosmos itself. The real fertile ground for that Current is therefore the individual who begins to recognize those chains and develops the Will to break them.

Metallerium: Looking at tracks like the massive closer "Twæþursaspa", we notice an incredible sense of atmosphere mixed with primitive aggression. How do you handle songwriting to ensure that the music remains unpredictable yet intensely focused on its magical purpose?

Arckanum: I think the unpredictability comes naturally because I never plan a song from beginning to end. I usually write riffs instinctively, record everything, and later find something that excites me and begin building from there. One riff leads to another, the atmosphere changes, something unexpected appears, and I follow it. I don’t force a song into a conventional structure simply because that is what a metal song is supposed to do.

The magical purpose becomes more deliberate as the composition develops. Once I understand the character of a song and what it should carry, I can shape the lyrics, repetitions, rhythms, invocative formulas and other elements so that they correspond with the particular force or Working involved. So the music is allowed to grow freely, but eventually that wild growth is directed toward a very specific purpose.

Twæþursaspá is perhaps the most extreme example because I didn’t try to make it into a conventional song at all. The revelation given to me by Gullveig was the important thing, and the music had to serve it. That is really the principle throughout Beswærilsin: I never sacrifice the life of the music for a magical formula, and I never weaken the magical purpose just to make the music more conventional. The two have to become the same thing.

Metallerium: Rumors and reports mention that you have already written additional material alongside this album. Is Beswærilsin the standalone monument of your return, or is it part of a larger, multi-album conceptual plan that will unfold in the near future?

Arckanum: Beswærilsin stands completely on its own, but it is also the first part of a much larger conceptual Working. During 2025 and 2026 I wrote more than thirty new song foundations, so there is already enough material for two further albums, with additional material beyond that. But these are foundations, not finished albums. Every song still needs time to develop its own identity, atmosphere, lyrics and purpose.

The three albums I currently envision are connected, but I don’t really think of them as a conventional trilogy. I prefer the image of a trident: three individual prongs emerging from the same source and pointing toward the same greater purpose. Beswærilsin opens the Working, while the following albums will move deeper into it and explore other stages of the same spiritual process. They cannot simply become Beswærilsin parts two and three; each one needs its own character and function.

I know the general direction, but I deliberately don’t want to map every detail beforehand. Much of it will reveal itself through Þursablót, runic divination and my continued work with the Thurses. I can see the mountain in the distance, but I don’t need to know every path to the summit before I start walking.

And this time I intend to give the material more time. I already have the bones; now each one must spend its own time in the Jarnvidian soil before I call it back from Hel in its final form.

Metallerium: Arckanum has historically avoided the traditional touring circuit, treating the music as an intimate, solitary sorcery. Is there any chance, even minimal, that Beswærilsin will ever be channelled through a live ritual performance, or will it remain strictly confined to the shadows of the studio?

Arckanum: No. I’m not an entertainer, and I have no desire to perform Arckanum live. I love composing, playing instruments, writing lyrics and constructing the entire Utgardian world of an album in the studio, but standing on a stage in front of an audience has never interested me. Arckanum does not need a stage in order to exist.

The only imaginable exception would be something that was no longer really a concert at all, but an actual Þursablót in which the music became part of the ritual, a remote forest, a cave or mountain, fires, offerings and invocation, with everyone present participating in the Working rather than standing there as an audience waiting to be entertained.

That is a beautiful idea to imagine, but in reality Arckanum belongs in the shadows of the studio, and I am perfectly happy to keep it there.

Metallerium: You have consistently used Old Swedish and runic language variations in your lyrics. For Beswærilsin, how does the phonetic and magical resonance of these ancient dialects shape the music itself during the vocal tracking, compared to using modern languages?

Arckanum: Old Swedish has become almost a ritual language of its own within Arckanum. After using it for more than thirty years, certain words, names, kennings and formulations have accumulated associations through both my music and my spiritual Work that modern Swedish or English simply would not carry for me.

The sound itself is also extremely important. Old Swedish can be harsh, rhythmic and strangely beautiful, and when I write invocations or magical formulas I consider not only what the words mean, but how they feel in the mouth, how they strike when spoken, and how their sounds interact through rhythm and repetition. During vocal recording this becomes very physical; the breath, pronunciation, emphasis and repetition all become part of the expression.

Within my magical practice, I believe that sound can carry Will. A magical word is therefore not merely information describing something; when properly constructed and spoken with intention, the act of voicing it becomes part of the Working itself. This is closely related to older Scandinavian concepts of galdrar, where voice, sound, poetry and repetition are inseparable from magical action.

So I could certainly translate an Arckanum lyric into modern Swedish or English and preserve much of its literal meaning, but it would not be the same thing. Meaning tells the word where to go; the sound gives it a body with which to travel.

Metallerium: Aside from the traditional black metal instrumentation of guitars, bass, and drums, did you incorporate any specific ritual tools, acoustic artifacts, or non-conventional instruments to channel the specific Thursian energies present in this album?

Arckanum: Only on the second song, Utgarþzeþer. My friend Ljuder Stefan Westberg contributed a whole collection of acoustic and unusual sounds to that track: tagelharpa, spilåpipa, mandolin, violin, troll drum, and rattles made from bones, skulls, iron and sand.

I originally composed the passage and its melodies, and Stefan then interpreted and developed it through his own instruments and musical character. The intention was primarily to create an archaic, medieval atmosphere and give the song a completely different texture from the rest of the album. Because he understands this kind of old instrumentation and atmosphere extremely well, I gave him considerable freedom in how he brought the passage to life.

Metallerium: In the early days of Arckanum, the imagery of Pan and the satyr was central to your cosmic chaos philosophy. How has that specific archetype evolved or integrated into the deep Thursian mythology that dominates Beswærilsin today?

Arckanum: Pan was extremely important to me in the early years, but I would probably describe it somewhat differently today. When I was young, Pan was the name I gave to a spirit or force that I experienced as guiding me beyond the ordinary world and toward the Outside. At that time, I simply did not possess the knowledge, language or spiritual framework that I have today to understand those experiences more deeply.

Through many years of study and practical magical work, I gradually came to understand Pan as a Thursian spirit that had answered those early callings and was guiding me toward the path I was eventually meant to follow. So I don’t regard Pan and my later Thursian Work as two separate spiritual periods where one belief replaced another. It was more like a gradual unveiling of what had been there from the beginning.

That is actually true of much of early Arckanum. Trolls, giants, the wilderness, Pan, demonic and adversarial forces, all these things attracted me because they represented something outside the established divine and human order. Later I began to understand the deeper Current connecting many of these manifestations.

So Pan does not need to appear explicitly on Beswærilsin for that influence to remain. The young Shamaatae who called upon Pan and the person invoking the Thurses today are walking the same path. I have simply travelled much further along it and learned more about what was waiting in the forest.

Metallerium: Shamaatae, thank you very much for your time and for delivering another uncompromising piece of pure Thursian Black Metal. The final words are yours. What message do you leave for the loyal underground followers of Metallerium?

Arckanum: Heilt Þursamegin!