The Nameless Dread

 

Well, the gateway to Mediafire seems to be closed temporarily, so I must improvise tonight's entertainment.  I thought this timely with the passing of Bil Keane, creator of the widely loathed Family Circus.  Though numerous parodies of his maudlin creation existed, often with his blessing, only the now-defunct Nameless Dread was actively suppressed, presumably after touching some dark nerve in Keane's soul.  Fortunately I have many of them preserved in my private archive and now I shall pass them along to you, dear ones.  Presumably normal transmissions will resume tomorrow. 

Shub-Niggurath Please

Vader - Out of the Deep
Morbus Chron - Red Hook Horror
Necromandus - Nightjar
Arkham Witch - Dagon's Bell
Briton Rites - A Meeting in the Woods
Orchid - Eyes Behind the Wall
Noctum - The Seance
The Wounded Kings - Return of the Sorcerer
Innsmouth - The She-Goat Quandary
Portal - Omnipotent Crawling Chaos
Abgott - Book 3-The Eye of Yog-Sothoth
Vasaeleth - Wrathful Deities
Necronomicon - Dreaming of the Old Ones
Thergothon - The Twilight Fade

Happy Halloween

Briton Rites - For Mircala

 

Greetings, dearies!  I have once again returned to the Swamp, and am back among you.  Today I have for you one of the great unheard doom albums of the last year, the debut album from Georgia's hirsute Briton Rites. Effortlessly evoking the dark history of doom metal without sounding artificially retro or atavistic, For Mircala is a loose concept album centered around vampirism and Lovecraftian dimensional bleedthrough.  I have a particular weakness for metal bands with literate and diverse sources, and these chaps certainly deliver on that front: the title cut is based on a pre-Dracula vampire novel; "The Right Hand of Doom" is grounded in a Robert E. Howard short story starring his demon-hunting Puritan, Solomon Kane; several other are grounded in Hammer Horror flicks and pulpy supernatural melodrama.  Musically, it owes a heavy debt to the doomier side of NWOBHM, like Witchfinder General of Pagan Altar, with killer vocals from Phil Swanson (of such Swamp favorites as Hour of 13, Seamount, and Atlantean Kodex) and guitars by Howie Bentley of legendary Georgia metal band Cauldron Born.  More importantly, every song is memorable, catchy, and tough - no pretty stuff here, just doom and blood and haze.

The doom evoked by the words he spoke, as the hand began to crawl

Throng of Shoggoths - Nauseated and Terrified for the Future

Well, this is certainly destined to end up here sooner or later, so let's just go ahead and get it on! Throng of Shoggoths is a sludgy doom monster from Alabama, dedicated to the Lovecraftian and the foul. Leaning heavily towards the obscenely slow but occasionally erupting into fierce and nasty hardcore, this unpredictable beast of a demo splits the difference between Buzzov*en-styled drug sludge, Swedish death/doom, and crusty crossover metal. Truly impressive; I have high hopes for these gentlemen in the future.
Buy here.
Ftagn here.

Cthulhu Coloring Book

Eyeball it here.
Buy a real one here.

Curt Sobel - Cast a Deadly Spell OST

Big thanks to Alymer over at Unflinching Eye for pointing me in the direction of this little rare gem. Cast a Deadly Spell was a 1991 HBO movie about Detective Harry Lovecraft, an affectionate tribute to HPL, film noir, detective fiction, and a sharp and funny satire to boot. It left a distinct mark on my impressionable young soul and probably helped shape my interest in esoteric pursuits and, consequently, may be in some way partially responsible for the very existence of the Swamp itself. Musically it's a fine mix of sinister lounge jazz, leftover 80's synth cheese, the occasional torch song, incidental stabs of orchestration, and some wild noise.
Do the Dunwich Rumba

Incedentally, if anyone has the soundtrack to its sequel, Witch Hunt, please do share.

The Ziggurat - Hymns of the Cthulhu Mythos

What can we say about the Ziggurat? Their palpable enthusiasm for Lovecraftiana is undeniable, and the primitive death metal approach is just on this side of competent, but something about this band just makes me smile and shake my head in amused bafflement. Everything about them, from the goofy song titles (my favorite, sadly not on this album, is "Chocolate Shoggoth Shake") to the requisite Geocities homepage to this photo of band leader Dwayne Boyd, screams unintentional hilarity. This particular LP might be less obviously amusing if the vocals weren't twice as loud as everything else and the drums didn't sound like rubber tubs, but then it wouldn't be as memorable either. Ah well, who cares what we think?
Into the Dank Abyss

Yog-Sothoth - Hypnotic Crushery

Oh, what to do when of my little seedlings abandons the Swamp and perhaps narrowly escapes a gruesome fate? Merely shamble on, I suppose...
Not to be confused with Appalachian no-hyphen black metal project Yog Sothoth, this Minneapolis instrumental psych-metal band layers sheets of rippling guitars over thunderous rhythms to produce an effect very similar to what it says on the package. Yog-Sothoth separates itself from the post-metal non-genre by, instead of focusing on elaborate mutli-part compostitions and loud-quiet dynamics, simply picking a riff or two and beating the daylights out of it over and over and only adding more and more layers of feedback and chaos. The snarky song titles don't jibe well with single-mindedness of the songs or the decrepit atmosphere, leading one to question the sincerity of this form of worship, but on the other hand there's also a theremin. Make of it what you will.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Ossadogva - Iä Ancient One

Speaking of Hastur (get it?), it's no secret that your host takes an unhealthy bizarre relish in obscuritan sub-sub-genres, and this doomish one-man black metal hybrid beast from the one-shoggoth town of Kremenchug, Ukraine, virtually defines "depressive Lovecraftian ritual black/doom." This is their first release, a three song demo championing the three amigos of the apocalypse - Cthulhu, you-know-who, and Yog-Sothoth (on the excellently ESL titled and wildly disorienting "Gates to the Yog-Sothoth.") They are apparently quite fervid little cultist, eschewing "alcohol, drugs, tobacco and similar stimulators; do not watch TV, listen to radio, read newspapers, use mobile phones and do not give concerts and autographs." One may read a delightfully babelfished interview with them here, ending with a choice refrain:
IA Ancient One! Да пожрет Azagthoth ваше сознание!

Dayglo Abortions - Here Today, Guano Tomorrow

Click on that cover above to see the large version. Go ahead, do it, I'll wait.

Dayglo Abortions, the Pride of Canada, are not known for their subtlety, their regard for societal norms, or their boyish good looks and charming personalities. They are, on the other hand, notorious for their primitive crossover hardcore, their sick sense of humor, and their constant mistreatment of hamsters. They would have already qualified easily for inclusion in the Swamp library on the merit of being Reagan Rock and their typical 80s-style Nuclear War Fetish, but this album in particular is a personal favorite because of the track "The Spawn of Yog Sothoth." You know what a softy old Uncle Abdul is for that sort of thing.

Also available on 8-track.

Anaboth - Nie Czas Pomiotów

Tasty Polish black metal monikered after the yellow toad demon crucial to the Necronomicon's spell for summoning Yog-Sothoth. Specifics aside, this is some truly mysterious muffled noise, as if the band was being suffocated by a pillow, or playing from beyond some dimensional threshold. Primitively and hatefully played, surely unintelligible to even native Poles, and devoid of hope and air.
Wsrod Ohydnych

Teach Your Plants to Talk

In celebration of the upcoming 100th post here in the Swamp, your host has compiled these varied fragments from several of the tomes already featured here and from the many more that remain, so far, obscure. Here is a track listing - I will let the yawning infinity of madness speak for itself:
Joseph LoDuca - Introduction
Anaal Nathrakh - The Yellow King
Argus - Bending Time
Ironsword - Overlords Of Chaos
Arkham Witch - Legends of the Deep
Rotting Christ - The Old Coffin Spirit
Dagon - It Came from Beneath the Waves
Payne's Gray - Within the Vault
Bog People - Slow Green Pace
Brown Jenkins - Dagonite
Crystal Eyes - Dead City Dreaming
Dayglo Abortions - The Spawn of Yog Sothoth
Teen Cthulhu - The Great Race Of Yith
Electric Wizard - Dunwich
Fall of The Idols - Cold Air
The Grotesquery - The Terrible Old Man
Harvist - He Who Rises From the Deep
Kataklysm - Mystical Plane Of Evil
The Lamp Of Thoth - The Doom That Came To Sarnath
Mercyful Fate - The Mad Arab
Dunwich - Strange Sacrifice
The Wandering Midget - I Am the Gate
Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
Henry Wentworth Akeley - Akeley's Wax Cylinder Recording

Teach Your Plants to Talk

Baby's First Mythos

Not normally one to buy into the cutesyfying of the Mythos, I nonetheless was charmed by this little booklet of ABC's designed to help rear little monsters properly. This is a scan of the old black-and-white handmade edition; the book has recently been re-issued in color (and "now with X!") and is available for purchase elsewhere.
Hmm....

Thergothon - Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth

Well, judging by the overwhelming silence from the cult, Doom Metal Week has been an unparalleled success. Moving right along, here is further evidence of the unspeakable malign destiny crawling towards you as you slumber. Have you noticed time speeding up lately, or is just that the music's getting slower? Thergothon might be a couple of decades ahead of you, little bunny, but they're moving slow enough for you to catch up.
"FEEL THEM PRESENT AT ALL THE TIMES
AND YOU CAN SMELL THEM, SMELL THEIR FOUL PRESENCE. . ."

Yog Sothoth - Appalachian Cult

Well, loathsome ones, we've finally become a real blog! Our first threatening letter has arrived today from the presumably corpse-painted team of lawyers representing Bal-Sagoth, demanding the removal of their album from the Swamp. In humble acquiescence I have closed that portal, only to have another orifice open further south, deep in the mountains of Appalachia. In the long tradition of isolated hillbillies stumbling drunkenly upon things too large and abstract for their own comprehension, Yog Sothoth, the foul and primitive squealings of one mysterious individual, creeps forth and drunkenly splays itself on the shore for baffled fishermen to puzzle over. Devoid of shape and squawking in alien tongues, this monstrosity is surely too crusty and maddened to bother with a lawsuit.
The line is drawn, and snorted.

The Wandering Midget - I Am the Gate

A promising omen of things to come, one hopes. Finland's colorfully monikered The Wandering Midget unravel the fabric of space-time with sheer cosmic doom. Fully aware of their tiny insignificant place in the monstrously vast universe, these three monks cower in fear and chant for mercy out into the unknown. Doom metal, notably generally for its atavism rather than its love of progress, requires much subtlety and finesse for a band to stand out from the howling pack. The Wandering Midget specializes in atmosphere, primarily expressed through the wail of frontman Samuel Wormius, and especially his evocative ESL lyrics, which are crammed with gleefully repugnant details and haunting images.
Time leaves its marks on each man but not in me.

Portal - Lurker at the Threshold

Perhaps the most mysterious force active in the realm of non-Euclidean death metal, Portal is no merely longer spoken of in hushed tones by the twisted acolytes of forces best forgotten; their growing army of degenerate followers slowly encroaches on more lighted lands. Clad in a tattered and cobwebbed exoskeleton seemingly acquired from long years spent in trapped in dusty attics, Portal finds apotheosis in this era in the form of a man with a broken cuckoo clock where once reposed a hideous inhuman visage.
Be Warned.