Entry 860 - Cthulhu

Style: Dark Ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Beware the horrors that lie in the deep waters, in the silence and darkness there are monstrosities that our brains cannot comprehend

Thoughts: This was an album that I bought when the vinyl first came out, listened to it, forgot everything that was on it and put it on my shelf for years. It's been sitting here unlistened for forever, and honestly I have no idea what I'm in store for. 

With a name like Cthulhu I have some idea of what I would expect. At minimum this should be a dark ambient album, likely with a lot of horrific sounds and subtle yet incredibly disturbing auditory imagery. At least that is my hope. 

Lovecraft's horror is not one that is overt, it is insidious and slowly works itself into your brain. Fear, true fear. Specifically fear of the unknown. Fear of things we cannot comprehend. Fear of things that are beyond our control. That is the true horror of Lovecraft.

The first thing I noticed with Cthulhu was actually the silence. The lack of overtness stood out immediately. I almost expected a jump scare right out of the gate to be honest, but this silence was something even more frighting. What was going to come? What is awaiting me in these two records?

As the album continues the sounds begin to slowly amass. Nothing has yet made itself clear enough to ascertain what it is, but I now know that there is s o m e t h i n g there. I am not alone... and that is terrifying. 

Whatever is here with me does not seem to even care about my presence. The music does not care what I am or who I am or what I expect. It moves at its own pace, it moves in its own time, it's own will. This is what I was hoping for. 

Cthulhu is an excellent collection of dark ambience. This is one eighty minute long song that has been split into four parts for the sake of getting it on vinyl. It is deep, it is contemplative, and it invites the listener to pay the utmost attention to it. It does not care about anything that I do, it simply exists in it's own world, down there in the darkest depths. 

Written June 30th 2024