CD Odyssey Disc 1900: The Lamp of Thoth

Sometimes to know a band, it helps to know the band they were before.

Disc 1900 is… Cauldron of Witchery

Artist: The Lamp of Thoth

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? A creepy, eldritch bit of stylized art of what I presume is a witch (because of the album title).

No cauldron in evidence, but the witch does look she has been doused with water.

How I Came To Know It: I am a big fan of the band Arkham Witch, and The Lamp of Thoth was the precursor to that band. Knowing this, when I saw a used copy last Saturday in my local record store I lost all composure, snatched it out of the miscellaneous “L” section, and carried it, giggling with glee, to the checkout.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Lamp of Thoth album – and an EP at that – so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

How serious can you take a band where the lead singer goes by the moniker “The Overtly Melancholic Lord Strange” and the drummer is “Lady Pentagram”? As serious as you like, I say. If nothing else, Lamp of Thoth is seriously heavy, and in the world of metal that’s a good place to start.

Rounding out the trio is guitarist “Randy Reaper” (who has the least fantastical name in the band) and the amount of noise and thump these three make is impressive. Say what you will about some of the dodgy production value on this record (likely made on the cheap) but these guys manage to land some serious low-end rumble.

The musical style of the Lamp of Thoth is something of a cross between Black Sabbath and Black Flag. These guys love their old school doom metal, but they also have a frantic punk sensibility that gives things a bit of snarl and snap.

The album’s opening track, the eponymous “The Lamp of Thoth” is also the record’s best, and proof that any band starting out that works hard enough has one classic song in them. “The Lamp of Thoth” is that song for this record. This tune has it all, anthemic guitar riffs that make you feel like you’re on an epic adventure, and a deliberate Bill Ward style drum thump from Lady Pentagram that lets you know said adventure will be perilous. “The Lamp of Thoth” is a true headbanger of a tune and shows off Lord Strange’s vocals. Strange (who will go on to make many a killer Arkham Witch record) hints at his future greatness here.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to recommend on the record beyond their brilliant opener. “Sunshine” shows the band’s fealty to Black Sabbath a bit too much, with an opening devil’s brew of three chords that is two-thirds Black Sabbath’s title track, with the other third not different enough to count as special. Later in the same song they throw in an Ozzie-like “all right now” straight outta “Sweet Leaf”. It’s clearly an homage that is born of love for the original masters of reality, but I found myself wanting more.

The other great song on the record is a cover of Cirith Ungol’s “Frost and Fire” which is anything but derivative. Twice as long and just as nasty, Lamp of Thoth’s cover is an homage to the original, reimagined like it were played on an alternate earth where gravity makes things three times heavier.

Here ends the studio experience on the record, as the final two songs are both live cuts, “Blood on Satan’s Claw” and “Into the Lair of the Gorgon”. These songs land the visceral quality of a punk show, and along with it, the requisite dodgy recording quality.

I am a bit of a production snob, and so while I can’t deny the Thothers 100% committed to their punk sensibility on these tracks, I wanted it to, you know, sound better. It’s not as annoying as someone posting whatever their raised iPhone managed to record while blocking your view (nothing is). However, it does sound a bit like it was recorded through the wall of the venue so you could avoid the cover charge.

For “Blood on Satan’s Claw” in particular, I found myself wishing I had the original studio version which was recorded for their demo record released the previous year (the hilariously named “I Love the Lamp”). Something to search the record store for in future.

Whatever else, you have to love the Lamp of Thoth’s energy. I’m thankful that later they would transform into the more fully developed Arkham Witch I’ve come to know and love, but I’m also happy to have this early effort, uneven though it is, as a keepsake of their early sound.

Best tracks: The Lamp of Thoth, Frost & Fire

CD Odyssey Disc 1802: Arkham Witch

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