Dark Ambient Review: Shub-Niggurath
Review by Casey Douglass
I
don’t like Christmas. It’s true. Rather than dwell on that
though, I will dwell on what I do like, another Cryo Chamber
collaboration honouring the master of the eldritch, one H.P
Lovecraft. And it is out this December, which is the perfect antidote
to all the dross about that fat red guy jumping down chimneys. This
collaboration is named Shub-Niggurath, after a tentacled dark
god with universal appeal to the peoples of Lovecraft’s shadowy
worlds.
Album Blurb: A 2 hour dark soundscape album recorded by 20 ambient artists to pay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. Dark sounds from dreamy dimensions to never ending cursed forests. Join us in the ritual of lust for the Black Goat of the Woods.
Shub-Niggurath is an Outer God (or Outer Goddess) in the pantheon. She is a perverse fertility deity. An enormous mass which extrudes black tentacles, slime-dripping mouths, and short, writhing goat legs. Small creatures are continually spat forth by the monstrosity, which are either consumed into the miasmatic form or escape to some monstrous life elsewhere.
Of all the mythos deities, Shub-Niggurath is probably the most extensively worshipped. Her worshippers include the Hyperboreans, the Muvians, T'yog of K'naa, and the people of Sarnath, as well as any number of druidic and barbaric cults. She is also worshipped by the non-human species of the mythos, such as the "Fungi from Yuggoth" (the Mi-Go) and the Nug-Soth of Yaddith. With the proper occult paraphernalia, Shub-Niggurath can be summoned to any woodlands at the time of the new moon.
As
with previous collaborations, Shub-Niggurath comes as a couple
of hour-long tracks, in which the various artists get to flex their
aural muscles and stamp their own brand of murk onto things. A little
like a Lovecraftian pass the parcel, except with something you’d
actually want to have at the end of things, rather than a chocolate
coin or plastic comb. As it’s two long tracks, I will keep my
comments quite general, but still relate the things that grabbed me.
The
album opens with the taut beat of a drum, first singular beats, but
ramping up into a more ritual-like rhythm a little later. It doesn’t
take long for one of the things I most like about the album to emerge
after this: the sound of eerie flute/pipe notes. Maybe I am overly
enraptured with the concept of the mad god Azathoth, his throne of
chaos, and the “thin flutes piping mindlessly”, but I find that
kind of sound far more sinister and sacrilegious than a lot of other
sounds. These flute-based sounds appear quite often on
Shub-Niggurath, and each time they do, I smile. The other
element that occurs at quite regular intervals are discordant
string-based notes. These bow and scythe their way through the
soundscape, any other flavour sounds bolstered by their allusions to
things being “not right” and madness.
As
far as specific impressions, my absolute favourite occurs during
track two, around 12 minutes in. The soundscape hushes and falls
relatively quiet. A wheezing, breath-like sound insinuates itself,
and before you know it, you feel surrounded by gurgling sighing
things, glugging their way out of the murk. To me, this was the audio
equivalent of being at a lakeside, looking away, looking back, and
seeing strange creatures’ heads surfacing in the still water. There
are a number of moments on Shub-Niggurath that conjure this
swampy, humid feeling, of the trees being too close, the ground too
moist and the movement at the edge of your eyes being too unsettling.
Of course, I liked this a great deal.
Another
compelling moment for me, occurred on track one, about 43 minutes in.
The sound of chimes and rain soothes, but there is soon a deep
whooshing rumbling rhythm that mingles with dripping water. It kind
of made me think about what a twisted Ent (of LOTR fame) might sound
like, crumping through the landscape. It isn’t too long after this
that you hear strange vocalizations, and what sounds like a
heartbeat, mixed with curious creature calls. Eerie and magnificent.
There are also ample opportunities to hear the sounds of scurrying,
wet, chitinous things scrambling through the various soundscapes, so I hope
you enjoy creepy crawlies.
Shub-Niggurath
is a fitting tribute to another of H.P Lovecraft’s dark gods.
The soundscapes created by the various artists all dance around this
theme, some are dark, some are so murky even the vision of a Great
Old One might struggle to pick out any light. What they all are
though, are a remarkable journey into ominous valleys of thought and
superstition. The long running-time only aids this feeling, and
listening to the whole thing in one long session (if you have the
time), leaves the listener feeling like they have travelled much
further than the distance their eyelids might have closed. I’ve
listened to it a number of times, but I’m sure it will take many
more listens to fully take in what is going on. As far as I can tell
though, Shub-Niggurath is a fine addition to any dark ambient
fan’s collection.
I was given a copy
of this album for review purposes.
Album Title:
Shub-Niggurath
Artists: Cryo
Chamber Collaboration: Atrium Carceri, God Body Disconnect, Dronny
Darko, ProtoU, Kolhoosi 13, Neizvestija, Northumbria, Apocryphos,
Randal Collier-Ford, Dead Melodies, Flowers for Bodysnatchers, Ager
Sonus, Council of Nine, Kammarheit, Gydja, Creation VI, Darkrad,
Aegri Somnia, Ugasanie, SiJ, Alphaxone, Keosz.
Label: Cryo Chamber
Label: Cryo Chamber
Released: 4
December 2018