I really wanted to put this album on my best albums of 2024 list, but while it was released in this format last year, it is actually the mashing together of 2012’s “Legions of the Deep” and the 2013 EP, “Hammerstorm”.
Disc 1802 is…Legions of the Deeper Depths
Artist: Arkham Witch
Year of Release: 2024 but featuring content originally released in 2012 and 2013
What’s up with the Cover? Dread Cthulhu returns! Also featured some Deep Ones climbing out of the shadows and some local townsfolk who clearly have the Innsmouth Look preparing to join them to celebrate the end of the world.
If phrases like “dread Cthulhu”, “Deep Ones” and having “the Innsmouth Look” don’t mean anything to you, this record may not be for you.
How I Came To Know It: Last October I was digging around randomly on Youtube (as one does) and I found a song called “On Crom’s Mountain” by Arkham Witch. As I grokked the rest of the band’s catalogue I discovered they had a real penchant for H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. This drew me further in, and before you know it I was on their Bandcamp site, gleefully giggling like a cultist experiencing the apocalypse.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Arkham Witch albums. Of those three, “Legions of the Deeper Depths” comes in at…#1.
Ratings: 4 stars
Some metal bands like to sing about one topic a lot. Sabaton likes battles. Alestorm likes pirates. English traditional metal band Arkham Witch likes H.P. Lovecraft. If you like this sort of thing, you are going to have a good time listening to this record.
“But wait,” you cry out, “If I just want to hear crunchy guitar riffs, is that enough?”
In the case of “Legions of the Deeper Depths” that is enough and then some, because these guys are the absolute masters of the crunchy metal riff. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve heard a more riff-centric record.
You know with some metal you get a tasty couple of bars of a riff and then the band moves on before you can fully chew on that mosh-tastic goodness? That does not happen here. Arkham Witch digs into a good guitar riff and then they settle down and stay a while. Worst case scenario is a song might have two or three crunchy riffs, with the band artfully cycling through them. You will get your fill of guitar growl and then you will get some more of it.
The style of music shows a band that grew up listening to Black Sabbath and Cirith Ungol. You will not get musical acrobatics here. You will get a doubling down of thump. I think it might be too much for some, and if you like your metal a bit on the proggy side, you are going to get fidgety listening to this record. “Why don’t Arkham Witch do more with this song?” you may (wrongly) opine.
Answer – they don’t have to. When you drop furious licks like these with this kind of amped up but impeccable timing you have done all you need to do and then some.
But enough of that, let’s get back to the horror themes, shall we? Arkham Witch are lovers of literature, and while the lyrics are to the point (and sometimes full of expletives) they are thoughtful reimaginings of Lovecraft’s mythos. “At the Mountains of Madness” is a brilliant retelling of the 1931 novella of the same name. We’ve got creeping evil shoggoths, and star-spawn and a general reveling in the horrible discovery (as the story relates) that humans are small and insignificant before the terror of elder gods and alien races. Fun!
This being early Arkham Witch they don’t sing exclusively about Lovecraftian stuff (for that experience check out 2016’s “I Am Providence”). They mix in other standard metal fare including Vikings (“The Cloven Sea”) and some post-apocalyptic science fiction (“Infernal Machine”). This is also great, and just as filled to the brim with rifftastic action. The record ends with a song celebrating the band’s hometown (“We’re From Keighley”) which is a bombastic punk/metal crossover that is fist-pumpingly fantastic.
As noted in the teaser, this re-issue includes three bonus tracks, which were originally the EP “Hammerstorm”. This EP is equally awesome, and having it tagged onto the album was like getting sprinkles on your ice cream cone – it just made it better. “Hammerstorm”’s title track is an 11-minute epic about Thor (obviously) followed by two songs celebrating the pure joy of heavy metal music.
The best of these is the aptly titled, “For Metal” which celebrates metal in an undiluted way that recalls such classics as Saxon’s “Denim and Leather”. “For Metal” isn’t at the same level of “Denim and Leather” but the celebratory tone is there. Best line, “We will not suffer a poser to live.”
Arkham Witch are far from famous, and if you don’t love the sound of the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal, they may not be for you. But if you like heavy metal, timeless guitar riffs and songs about cool shit, you are going to have a good time.
Best tracks: David Lund, At the Mountains of Madness, Infernal Machine, Kult of Kutulu, We’re From Keighley, For Metal
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