Melek-tha - Dolorism - The Call Of Cthulhu
Melek-tha is one of those industrial/dark-ambient acts which have been around for a pretty long time, and on top of that have continued releasing new material since 1996. All made by Lord Evil... guaranteed satanic, occult, and apocalyptic themed stuff in abundance. This time he has teamed up with a newer dark-ambient act called Dolorism, which has had 3 releases out since 2011. Their new baby has been called The Call Of Cthulhu, a prober introduction to who Cthulhu is?... ( do a Wikipedia search... sinner!). Nevertheless, a double-CD thing/tribute to the almighty master of cosmic horror H.P Lovecraft himself! Beautiful looking double-CD digipack with nice looking graphics inside (and cool graphics on the CD´s also!). So, let us head dive into the maddening world of great Cthulhu and his terrible slimy tentacled-minions!. I will not review every track here but will take out and describe some of them.
The first track (by Melek-tha) sits the mood just right. Evil sounding distant horns, sinister reversed sound-effects, horrifying human-screams, ritualistic whispering, and some cool synths here and there. Very neat and very... nostalgic?. Sort of like a harsher and more ambient-driven In Slaughter Natives with some Endvra on top! The third track by Dolorism called Through the Hands of Ulthar adds Mideastern mysticism to the mix. Percussive ritual tam-tam drums and evocative strings of Mideastern origin, love the great diversity from the beginning and then to this. The fourth track Mutants Laments Voices continues the erotic satanic-murder undercurrents. A very mesmerizing piece that swirls around the listener like a sound-vortex, love the reverbed effects here and the sound of the ritualistic drums here. Last track also worth the attention on the first disc would be Dolorism´s Dark Corner of Arkham. A creepy 1920s detective-novel meets a horror-flick sort of mood here, the perfect background for a game of that classic roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. Filmic trumpets, atmospheric strings, creepy piano... the lot.
Second disc starts of with Melek-tha with the track called The Spells of Might Lord of the Abyss. Sounds just like a dimension being opened, or something BIG being summoned to a great circle of esoteric power. Again, Melek-Tha takes great use in getting the listener into a sort of dark vortex of sound. The second track here by Dolorism, we get around that serpent-like god named Yig. Called Yig´s Spell of Metamorphosis. That is, the curse of Yig (according to the novel) is that you´ll turn into a serpent servant of Yig if you fxxx with him. Eerie and unraveling quiet piece, a strange sort of... discomfort slides over the listener while the drums and ambient moods hypnotize the listener. Might just be the darkest track on the album so far. Cthulhu Hidden Cult (track seven) by Melek-Tha begins with a marching thumping with some excellent echo effects added as well (this gets turned down) and then the track continues in a rather space-ambient´ ish sort of sound. A rather cosmic piece with extra scariness on top. Lovely distorted synth-work here. The last track on the second disc Requiem For Mankind by Dolorism, has minor elements of dungeon synth here. Not a horrific piece, but an epic and beautiful simple martial track of an outro. A good and decent way to end the journey!. There are times on this track where the drums don't follow the rhythms.
The Call of Cthulhu by these two lovely gents is by no means a serious approach to occult industrial-based music, but closer to a truly great Halloween treat going on in the background... or as I mentioned earlier, perfect background stuff for horror-themed Roleplaying Games. I like the rather childish and campy old-school approach, and I love the sort of Cold Meat Industry´ish sort of vibe going on. Not an album which is good to listen to if you just sat down and concentrated on it, but really excellent as background stuff (which is by no means a way to criticize it!). Tons of charms and it delivers a Lovecraftian horror on 2 Compact Discs from the start and to the end. Hasn´t been added to either a Bandcamp yet or on Discogs yet. But do seek it out and buy it, it+s soon Halloweek kids!
Bandcamp (Dolorism): https://dolorism.bandcamp.com/
Bandcamp (Melek-tha): https://melek-tha.bandcamp.com/