ANTI-GOTH 710

(Description by J. Campbell)

Foreshadowing the release of their second full-length, Dreadful Relic have released a new demo entitled “Archaeomania.” Translated from Greek, it means “ancient obsession”—the title of their forthcoming album. This demo, recorded in 2023 with a new lineup, finds the band in pursuit of the same dark vision presented on their earlier recordings. Drawing inspiration from the surreal horror of Lovecraft, the fantastical barbarism of Robert E. Howard, and the primeval heroism and valor of heathen religion and folklore, Dreadful Relic conjure visions of preternatural malevolence and atavistic terror. While the obvious sonic blueprint for the band is Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Dreadful Relic do not engage in simple mimicry; it is a style deliberately chosen to complement the band’s thematic elements. The inspirational antecedents for Dreadful Relic may be well-known, but within their work is woven a complex web of allusion, allegory, and metaphor that captures the esoteric nature of the primary source material. Those who’ve paid attention to their trajectory will understand that Dreadful Relic is a band built on intention. Like a sculptor’s chisel, carving discrete lines and curves into a block of marble that give rise to a complex image, Dreadful Relic have cultivated a finely calibrated aesthetic. Though their musical style may seem deceptively elemental, every aspect of their work—lyrics, imagery, text, symbols, and sound—is part of a hermetic system, its power revealed through a holistic appreciation of the elements operating in tandem. “Archaeomania” contains some minor stylistic departures from the band’s earlier releases but retains the same visceral primitivism, though delivered with a greater degree of precision. The cover art, like the music itself, is self-referential—an illustration of the Atlantean King figure from Conan the Barbarian, a different version of which appeared on the “Archaic Conjurations” demo in 2014. Following the ominous, monolithic drone of the intro, “Guhrunk! (Malevolence Of Yuggoth),” the demo showcases alternate recordings of two new original compositions—the savage title track of the upcoming album, “Ancient Obsession” and “Carnivorous Hunt Of Samhain,” which opens with a mid-paced Hellhammer-style riff before erupting into a frenzy of berserker might. Also included, and exclusive to this demo release, is a cover of Manowar’s “The Demon’s Whip,” a plodding epic from their “The Triumph of Steel” album that Dreadful Relic somehow manage to forge into their own style while remaining faithful to the original. The tape ends symbolically, with the sound of a cemetery gate closing, a requiem to the fallen, having shed himself of the life of men and assumed his station in the underworld.