In the Depths of R'lyeh

The word "Depression" is used quite frequently these days. Newsflash folks, you have yet experienced the feeling of depression in your life untill you listen to Catacomb's new album, titled In The Depths of R'lyeh. Catacombs is the one-man-band of Xathagorra Mlandroth, producing some of the most extreme Funeral Doom music I've ever heard. In The Depths of R'lyeh is actually the first ever full length album released by Xathagorra, although he's been active in the extreme metal scene since 1994.

The album starts with the title track, In The Depths of R'lyeh, an eleven minute piece that shows right from the very first second what are you dealing with – deeply distorted guitars combined with some high notes, extremely slow drumming and deep, depressing grunts. Combined together these elements create a very dark and dispiriting atmosphere. At this point I must note that although the obvious reference to H.P. Lovecraft's fantastic works in the title and cover of the album, Xathagorra Mlandroth claims that it was merely inspired by Lovecraft's writings and nothing more.

Dead Dripping City, the longest track on the album, keeps up with the dark line of it's former. Although there is a slight rise of tempo on this song it is still a very deep and even quite scary song, of the kind that will make you peek behind your shoulder and wonder if the devils are really coming for you or it's just the music messing with your mind.

By the time you get to the forth song of this album you really get the point and know what to expect from the song and it wont disappoint you in any way – again the slow drums, the high clean notes opposing stretched and heavily distorted riffs creating together one of the deepest and melancholic atmospheres ever recorded. When you finally get to the last track of the album, Awakening Of The World's Doom, you think that you're going to hear another long, slow and depressing song, but after a couple of seconds you gather that it's actually a sort of an outro that marks the exit from Xathagorra's doomed world and coming back to the real world.

I can not recommend this album to everyone. Only extreme doom metal fans will really enjoy an album like this one and it's probably not the best choice for someone who's trying to get into the Doom Metal genre, but it's surely a great album – amazing atmosphere, excellent production for an album this extreme and off stream, great concepts and lyrics… This is definitely an album that invades the deepest, darkest places of the listener and flows him with doom.

(Note: This is the English version of the review I wrote for this album on the site www.Metalist.co.il)