The sympathetic Belarussian (or is it Antarctic) damsel (not-in-distress) Olga Kann finally released a new (full-length) album, which was inspired by Horror master H.P. Lovecraft. Olga did work on it over a period of many months during 2021 and 2022, and now it got finished under the working-title Gravedigger’s Diary: The Lurking Fear. It’s her third conceptual album (the fourth official release under the Cryo Depth moniker), consisting of no less than thirteen tracks this time. That’s a huge difference with the past, for all former releases were a gathering of only few yet quite lengthy ‘songs’. Does it matter? No, of course it does not; but it’s just an important remark to make.
As you might know, The Lurking Fear was a short-story by Mister Lovecraft, telling about a surreptitious family with an isolationist life because of quite some secrets and mysteries. Miss Kann did put this story into thirteen individual yet sequacious chapters, seen from the visions and experiences told by the diary of the gravedigger. Some mysteries are best left unsolved. But if you have opened Pandora’s box, then try not to fall into madness like your predecessors. This story narrates about horrific tales of creatures from the haunted house, or what lies beneath, in the hidden corridors of that manor. Of course it comes with fitting artwork, created by the lady behind the project herself once more.
There’s a certain logic if I say that Gravedigger’s Diary: The Lurking Fear is very varied, seen the impressive number of tracks involved. On this recording, Olga / Cryo Depth explores new sonic territories, keeping most elements from the past alive as well. Contemporary Classical, Drone, Dark Ambient, Cinematic Horror Music and the likes get joined by noises and samples (helping to create that cinematic profile behind this album’s concept), resulting in a mostly experimental yet ultimately dark and horrific story. It surely is a sonorous expression of a diary, filled with obscure secrets, mysterious narratives and evil settings.
The opening piece, Memories Of The Visit To Tempest Mountain immediately shows the diversity behind the aural approach, despite its very short duration (1:12). A very eldritch, almost asphyxiating form of Dark Ambient, slow and heavy, gets injected by different sounds, like crackling noises reminding me of old paper documents (the diary?), being written and turned, and distant thunder or so. This nice introduction opens the portal to secrecy and concealment. With Secrets Of The Catskills, this approach gets unveiled in an even deeper sense, mingling doomed drones with oppressive piano tunes and a whole amalgam of strange samples (engines, thunder, some tapping and so on). Despite a specific minimalism, there’s an abundant sound-palette, with floating synths as the ‘spine’ behind this work. And so Gravedigger’s Diary: The Lurking Fear floats further and further. A whole scala on recorded sounds, stylistic genres and sampled noises creeps forward. Every single chapter on the album has its own face (a scary, scarred face, evidently). A couple of times, hints of Martial and / or Dungeon Synth show up, like that piece called Eaten Face, providing a militant, resolute and kinetic energy, or the obtrusive track The Horror In The Eyes, filled with trepidation and suspense. Sometimes it’s nihilistic, dreamy, nightly and cold in essence. The Shadow Of The Chimney, for example, which is the lengthiest piece with its six minutes of duration, by the way, is an example of that sober attitude. But soberness does not mean frugal, yet rather stringent, in this case. Icy keyboard harmonies are like remote, untouchable waves, at the very same moment haunting and mesmerizing. It gets injected by sounds of broken glass, cold winds and scarifying thunder, yet the core, build around hypnotic synth-drones, procreates that bleak atmosphere. Then again, a few compositions rather remind me of being a chapter from some horror movie soundtrack, such as The Lurking Fear, with its repressive and vibrant synths and spectral piano melodies, or the gruesome piece Digging A Grave Of Jan Martense, indeed coming with the sounds of a shovel used to dig a hole.
Every new listen of Gravedigger’s Diary: The Lurking Fear seemingly unfolds new elements and details, caused by the synth-execution at the one hand (and the few piano intermezzi), and the multiple samples at the other hand. In its totality, as a whole, this full-length is quite adventurous, as well as thrilling, coming with a fine out-of-the-box-thinking creativity. Fear is lurking and it will surround its victims with this album’s tunes as final elegy…
https://cryodepth.bandcamp.com/album/gravediggers-diary-the-lurking-fear
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-depth
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https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-depth-2