Arckanum is a Swedish black metal band formed in 1992 by Johan Lahger, who was the only constant member. Arckanum is influential and popular in the Swedish black metal scene.
Lahger writes occult literature as Vexior/Ekortu. His first published work, Panparadox, was released 13 July 2009 by Ixaxaar. His second book, Gullveigarbók, was released in December 2010 by Fall of Man. His third book, Þursakyngi, was published on 21 December 2014. It is said to be a "book series", with each book dedicated to the Thursatru tradition. As of 2018, he has published multiple books with more to come. He put the band on hold to write. He reformed the band in 2026.
History
Lahger's his first band, Conquest, evolved into Grotesque. After leaving Grotesque, Lahger formed technical death metal band Disinterment, which recorded one demo and played a few shows before splitting up. At the end of 1992, Lahger returned to black metal and started Arckanum. Initially a full band, it became a solo project after six months. After several releases, by 1998 Lahger had discontinued working with Necropolis Records and turned to writing books about Pan, Old Norse traditions, runic witchcraft and anti-cosmicSatanism/chaos-gnosticism.
He remained involved in music, working with Arckanum and playing drums with The Hearsemen. Arckanum's album ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ was released on 1 June 2009. Antikosmos and ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ featured the guest appearance by Set Teitan of Dissection and Watain. Lahger released three more full lengths and several EPs and splits before recording Arckanum's final album, Den förstfödde, released on 29 September 2017 through Folter Records, who re-released the band's entire catalogue.
Arckanum split up in 2018. Lahger focused on writing.
On 26 April 2019, Folter Records released Första trulen, an EP containing the remixed and remastered recordings that were supposed to be the 1994 demo Trulen. Lahger was unhappy with the original recordings and kept the material unreleased until after he disbanded Arckanum.
Lyrics
Arckanum's lyrics deal with the worship of Chaos, as well as anti-cosmicSatanism. Lahger writes lyrics resembling Old Swedish, and has stated that he tries to write his lyrics as grammatically correct possible. In his latest three albums, the language is meant to resemble Old East Norse.
