Ultar: Kadath (2016)

Honestly, any time there is an album and band that makes this many references to H.P. Lovecraft is going to grab my attention.  Especially when the references are a bit more obscure than the typical Cthulhu/Azathoth/Nyarlathotep references.  So when I came across this Russian post-black metal band with an album named after the dream city home of The Ancient Ones that Randolph Carter visits on his dream quest, I figured it would be worth checking out.  Unfortunately, I was not as impressed by the album as I had hoped.

I will start with the negatives here.  The biggest problem here is the production.  It is extremely muffled.  The drums and bass are pretty high in the mix, but the guitars and vocals come across flat and lifeless.  The other issue is that the music does not really match the lyrical content.  The music does not come across as hopeless and desolate as one would expect for songs based on cosmic horror.  In fact, some of the music sounds almost hopeful and light.  I have found that the funeral doom albums by Catacombs and Tyranny have captured the atmosphere of Lovecraft most effectively.

I do not mean to imply the album is really bad.  It just does not really meet my expectations.  The music is decent enough, and the title track does actually hit the right atmosphere.  That track does revert to a lighter section, but it matches the story line, which ends on a more positive note, surprisingly enough.  There are some definite high points in the album and overall, it is decent enough.  I am not closing off the idea of checking out anything else by the band.