The new project The Great Old Ones was recently formed by Raffaele ‘Sonologyst’ Pezzella. Via his own label Eighth Tower Records, Raffaele releases a series which is dedicated to the mighty fantasy-world of H.P. Lovecraft. I (recently) wrote and published a review for the second one in that series, Mythos Of Cthulhu, but I promised to write down my thoughts on the first recording too. So, here I am, even-though I’ll keep in short and concise this time.
Yog-Sothoth, and I will quote, is the first of a series of soundscapes inspired by the Lovecraftian pantheons of deities. These deities, the ‘Old Ones’ came to our galaxy thousands of centuries ago. Because of cosmic discrepancies, they sort of went asleep, if you want to, waiting for that sacred moment to resurrect from their slumber. One of these supernatural beings is Yog-Sothoth, grandson of Azathoth, and almost almighty through and throughout dimensions of Space and Time. Through four ‘stories’ (read: titles), this album will act as soundtrack to this unphysical creature.
First this. Everything was written, performed and mastered by Mister Pezzella himself, except for some guest assistance on Beyond Mortal Comprehension. Besides a digital format, one could find a cardboard sleeve compact-disc too, but I am sure this will be sold out in the meantime. The strange, original yet breathtaking artwork was created by MrZarono, who is no stranger to Lovecraftian themes within his visual art. Total running time: forty-one minutes.
For those trusted with the second album within this series, Mythos Of Cthulhu, I can be quite succinct. It’s about the same, yet then again rougher, more unpolished and more industrialized. This was easy…
No, seriously, Yog-Sothoth is, of course, comparable to its successor. But let’s not focus on that second chapter. This piece, which consists of two shorter (both in between four and five minutes) and two lengthy (twelve and twenty minutes) compositions, combines the most horrifying spheres, the most suffocatingly ominous structures and the most claustrophobic ambiences one can imagine. The album collects elements from Black Ambient, Horror Industrial and Dark Drone, drenched in mystery, mystique and reverence. It’s an abundant amalgam of mechanoid layers of oppressive and vibrant sonic malignancy, keeping the whole result veiled in an ominous nebula of utter bleakness. Yet then again, it’s more than just a summary of obscure sounds and evil noises. This is a confrontation with one’s Inner-Eye through a dark-poetic translation of frantic yet honorific sound-statuarica.
The Lurker At The Threshold, which is the first composition out of four, short of defines the atmosphere and the attitude behind the whole concept. An interplay of creepy echoes, haunting soundwaves, industrial mechanics and bleak, pulsating drones paint a gruesome vision of anguish, focusing on a contradictory equilibrium in between minimalism and overburden. The injection of psychotic, toxic and cosmic sonic tormentation strengthens the horrific posture, resulting in a claustrophobic enclosure.
Both shorter pieces that follow, Born From The Nameless Mist and Your Servants Call Upon You, drift on in a comparable way; the first being less combatant and rather enlightening, the latter delving deeper into the abyssal pit of isolationist, nihilistic grimness, while being wrapped in a thick airless fog, and being pierced by the sound of intolerant cosmic powers (cf. the mentally-ill additional tunes).
The extremely lengthy composition Beyond Mortal Comprehension sums up the graceful majesty of The Great Old Ones’ morbid, pallid, desolate, even obnoxious sonorism. Moreover, the addition of metallic percussions, lyre and daxophone (no, not a saxophone with an ‘s’ yet starting with a ‘d’, yet an experimental instrument, often been used in combination with a string-bow), performed by [ówt krí]’s Kenneth Kovasin, fortify the intensity (read: extremity) in tonality. Rattling drones, mechanoid ambiences, pugnacious structures, electroacoustic injections and opiating textures delineate an odd, unexplored and astonishing cosmos, leaving the listener confused, uncomfortable, submissive.
Yog-Sothoth stands for the essence of Lovecraftian audio-terror; it focuses on horror, on man’s transiency, on deities’ magnificence, on ritualistic mystery and enigma. Signore Pezzella succeeded to create his personal ‘tribute’ to Lovecraft in general, and one of Lovecraft’s creatures especially through a forty+ experience within spheres of Dark Electro Industrial Drone Ambient Music, or something like that…
https://eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/yog-sothoth
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/great-old-ones-it
https://www.deviantart.com/mrzarono/gallery
https://www.patreon.com/posts/through-gates-of-69419114
https://eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/through-the-gates-of-yog-sothoth-book