THE CALL OF THE WITCHES

"Call of the Witches" is an EP of bonus songs, presumably recorded during the 2012 "Dodecahedron" sessions and features 4 tracks that did not fit into the album's mold. I was honored to receive this from the band as a promo gift and if anything, it showcases this duo's unlimited potential, easily taking over the Goblin throne for exemplary cinematographic soundtrack music.

Dark, almost suffocating in deep nihilistic angst, where volcanic eruptions of sound coalesce with ardent synthesized fluttering, the impetuous opener "The Call of the Cthulhu" is about a story published in the pulp magazine "Weird Tales" in 1928. The character was created by writer H.P. Lovecraft who describes Cthulhu as "a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery- looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind". Nice! Obviously, the composition is serenely creepy with slithering echoes, misty tension and perspiring fear amid the synthesized notes. Unsettling piano gives a sense of paranoia, not unlike a de Maupassant/Kafka nightmare, gradually evolving into a grisly tourbillion of phosphorescent sound. Halloween music par excellence!

"Nosferatu" needs of course no introduction, being the vampirism legend of the 1928 film of the same name. Spooky terror, unambiguous menace and resolute doom mark this insufferable shorter ditty, a curious electronic/organic setting that pulsates wildly until a massive church organ blast settles in with dubious authority, amid the wispy synthesizer flickering.

"Witches" is another shorter piece, clocking in at nearly 7 minutes and suggests more creepiness, slightly less masculine than the previous bloodsucking quote and lush with uncomfortable sonics. A slight medieval piano based melody saves this from burning at the stake in Salem, again highly evocative and utterly original.

"Echoes from the Shore" is another epic book-end finale, 11 minutes of exhilarating soundscapes, deliciously ambient and soporific all the way through , with electronic dissonance and percussive oddness slowly creeping into the mix, like rivulets of some evil drug gathering in the blood flow. Highly experimental with little melody or structure, the mood is squarely in the stupor mode, as if strapped to a gurney with blue colored IV units plunging into one's veins. Towards the end, the monotone drumming (hello Mr.Mason!) gives the ominous piece some needed momentum as if arriving at the gates of some kind of liberating finality.

Boo!

4 Sorceress screeches