The influence of Howard Phillips Lovecraft spreads far and wide throughout metal like the spindly tentacles of some long forgotten shoggoth. The long-faced, New England eccentric had almost as much of an impact on metal as Black Sabbath. Had Howard known of the terror that would actually be unleashed upon the earth, perhaps he would have put away his pen and said no more. Much like the creatures who longed to break through the threshholds of space and time in order to turn the world towards madness, metal bands sought to use the work of Lovecraft to create an aura of mystique and chaos, and why not? The bible and Tolkein had been done to death, and neither could compete with the sheer sinister imagery of ancient, hate-fueled, grotesqueries unleashing unparalleled horrors upon an unsuspecting world. The Lovecraft mythos were culled for lyrical themes by such luminaries as Metallica, Morbid Angel, Thergothon, Entombed, Samael, Cradle of Filth, Therion, to name a few. And joining that fray was a little known Mexican death metal band who took their name, R'lyeh, from Cthulhu's hometown. In 1992, R'lyeh unleashed their own tribute to the Old Ones in the form of this demo titled Ancestral Terrors. It is a lumbering, putrid Zoth-Ommog of primitive death metal.
Damn, "Zoth-Ommog" was a deep cut. I had to look that one up. I haven't really read any of the "Cthulhu Mythos", outside of HPL's own work. Can you recommend any? I love that metal (and other genres) have provided a forum for people to nerd out on Lovecraft. Not enough people want to talk books, what with this internet thing everyone is tweetering about.
ReplyDeletei downloaded this before even reading the description past "howard phillips lovecraft"...
ReplyDeleteDigging that artwork. That's an evil shade of fuchsia indeed. Also, Sabbath themselves drew inspiration from Lovecraft. One could almost make the case that Lovecraft was MORE influential. He's certainly the most metal author of all time.
ReplyDeleteIt was an auto download.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Aesop, I can't wait to hear this. Nice to have you back among us.
ReplyDeleteAs far as mythos writers besides the Old Man himself, the best place to start may be Clark Ashton Smith, who, unlike Lovecraft, injected his horror stories with lots of humor and sex and had a more modern sensibility, even though they were contemporaries. Much of Robert E Howard's original Conan stories also contained man elements of the mythos, as well - he was a pen pal of HPL. August Derleth, despite playing a large role in keeping HPL in print in the early days, imitated all the worst aspects of the original stories: wooden characters, adjective abuse, casual xenophobia. Of the more modern writers I like Roger Zelazny, Brian Lumley, Robert Bloch, Alan Moore, and Robert M. Price. I would avoid Lin Carter's work as well.
abdul: what about frank belknap long? he's another great mythos writer, i think. robert e. howards "the black stone" is a fantastic story. and clark ashton smith...i wish i could find more books by him but in kingsport tennessee there isn't SHIT.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions. I'll be renewing my library card next week.
ReplyDeleteIve always considered compiling every Metal song with Lovecraftian themes but it would be my lifes work or something...
ReplyDeleteDoug - yeah,I was just listing some stuff off the top of my head. Long is some good stuff as well.
ReplyDeleteDeathsnake, don't be biting my shtick now...