Lovecraft - Dark Ages
Lovecraft recently dropped their debut LP, called Dark Ages. The French punk trio got together in 2017, in the south west of France.
Lovecraft
The band’s sound merges elements of punk, grunge, and alt-rock, and is influenced by Sonic Youth, The Burning Heads, and Leatherface. Constantly on the go, Lovecraft has toured all over France, including Switzerland.
The trio released a three-track demo, followed by hooking up with PCT Musique to put together Dark Ages. PCT Musique is a punk rock label specializing in releasing and promoting recordings from European and Canadian bands.
One presumes the band’s name – Lovecraft – is derived from H.P. Lovecraft, aka Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the renowned horror fiction author, whose creations include “The Call of Cthulhu," "The Rats in the Walls,” At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, later referred to as the Cthulhu Mythos, a term invented by August Derleth.
Containing 10-tracks, the album commences with “Summer93,” opening on gleaming metallic riffs flowing into a low rumbling melody riding a thick, powerful rhythm. Offhand angst-filled vocals infuse the lyrics with deep, delicious tenor flavors.
Chock-full of driving punk impetus, this track emanates extravagant breast-beating harmonics.
“Lovecraft,” one of my personal favorites, features growling alt-rock savors mingled with surging punk dynamics, as well as beaucoup scrummy feedback. I love the flow of this track, suffused with hints of rolling country tinctures.
The title track exudes hurtling guitars flavored with baroque Spanish tints, as the rapidly pummeling drums imbue the rhythm with muffled throbbing cadence.
The best tracks include those mentioned above, along with “Rappell,” which travels on blistering guitars atop crunching drums. Chock-full of driving punk impetus, this track emanates extravagant breast-beating harmonics.
Dark, dirty guitars, raw and starkly edgy, provide the intro to “Soldier.” When the guitars ramp up to chugging levels, the harmonics take on dense resonance. “Decline” opens on blazing machine-gun-like guitars, at once luminous, ghostly, and severely, scrumptiously layered. Traces of surf rock tangs give the sizzling guitars delightful gushing colors.
With Dark Ages, Lovecraft takes punk momentum and injects it with redolent tabletop guitar timbres, all crowned by cogent vocals.
