Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft - Gate 1: Yogsothery - Chaosmogonic Rituals of Fear (2010)

As one of the most dense and intriguing releases we have received in the last few months, today we have a tribute album to H.P. Lovecraft titled “Gate 1: Yogsothery - Chaosmogonic Rituals of Fear”. In this release we have over 77 minutes of music divided into 4 crushing tracks performed by Jaaportit (Finland), Umbra Nihil (Finland), Aarni (Finland) and Caput LVIIIm (Italy).

With a very tense atmosphere that is composed by the Experimental Doom, Ambient, Drone and overall progressive thinking, this release takes the listener into a very trippy voyage through Lovecrat’s inspired atmospheric pieces that will haunt your dreams. With such a rich backdrop of works to focus their tracks on, the four bands that participate in this release do an excellent job in creating truly disturbing and dissonant tracks that nicely represent the Lovecraftian feeling.

Opening this release we have Jaaportit’s “Kuihtuman Henkivi”. Hailing from Finland, this duo has crafted a 25 minute monstrous atmospheric piece that will elevate your state of consciousness immediately. In such a long song the band goes from atmospheric to futuristic synth elements and the back to pure atmospheric madness. For such a long track we found ourselves wondering what happened with the time since we were completely transported to another place where time and space didn’t seem to matter.

Next up we have Umbra Nihil and their ‘doomier’ side of things, opening with some acoustic guitars and some Doom riffs that craft a very different atmosphere from the first song. The psychedelic elements that Umbra Nihil infuses to this song are very well incorporated and the deranged vocals near the end of the song make this track a very interesting and crazy experience.

With Arni’s “Lovecraft Knew”, we go back to the atmospheric trance-like state of the first track, but of course with Arni’s own brand of distorted guitars and creepy psychedelicness that creates a very strange feel to this song. With a feeling like a bad 70’s Sci-Fi movie, Arni manages (like always) to take the listeners away from their comfort zone and creep the shit out of them.

The crowning piece of this epic journey comes with the name of “Resurgent Atavism”, a 30 minute long track by Caput LVIIIm. In this track Caput LVIIIm brings their Funeral Doom Metal expertise and crafts a shape-shifting piece that flows very nicely. It also makes you forget that you have been just listening to a 30 minute song, which is always nice in such a genre that gets to be very dull.

Overall, we think that “Gate 1: Yogsothery - Chaosmogonic Rituals of Fear” is a very powerful release and greatly fits the whole Lovecraft influence behind it. All songs are very effective and while different from each other, they create a very uneasy and crushing atmosphere.

Release: November 15th, 2010

Country: Finland / Italy