Cthulhu Rise — Last (2020)

Cthulhu Rise publicized their "Last" EP release on the 24th of January on the collective’s Facebook page, adding description of mini album’s sound and place in their work – it appeares to be their swan song. The band itself stopped its activity a few years ago, so the numbered opuses of this release are nothing else but old material compilation.

The band dedicated its art to the mythology of Cthulhu, fictitious creature from mystical Howard Lovecraft’s universe. Their first album under the name "42" saw the world in 2012, the second one under the same name ("Second One") was released in 2016. The third and the last one needed us to wait long to 2020. All the musical achievements of the band invariably came out on Musea label, which signs prog and jazz rock exclusively.

If someone is already acquainted with this quartet’s style, they should be expecting it to be the same (although the words about melodic are not much relevant this time):

"A bit less of square sizes, a bit less of melodic and some pop overworked harmonies and a bit more of dissonances, nonstandard sizes, which make you listen to music" – that’s how Ivan Serdiuk, band’s guitarist, explained the direction they represent on the "Broken estrade rhythms" festival.

During whole EP the instruments separately enjoy themselves, until they finally turn off the meandering mathcore road to be merged into beauty for a short period of time. In "opus 43", for example, the most prolonged and jaunty composition, the same motive repeats many times in the surprising places of it diluted only by keyboard break-ins of Stanislav Bobritsky into the musical row. This track is like the result of all band’s prog and jazz inspirators. Gloomy end of it leads the howling guitar of Ivan Serdyuk to be teared right by the flashed saxophone solo of Pavlo Lisovsky, musician from the Paranoise Crew band, who is the regular guest of Cthulhu Rise on stage as on the recordings.

Rather spirited organ sounding – one of the band’s leitmotifs in general. Second creation "opus 44" is emphasized by it exactly, masterminded by Stanislav Bobritsky, who make it sound very familiar as if it remained in a mood of Kansas band from 70’s. And even in the disharmony of sounds some clear common atmosphere can be caught, each instrument though separately heard, plays subordinated. This effect is reached by Andriy’s Prischenko sensitive drums which adapt to each instrument at the opportune moment – that’s how there is perfect unity between instruments instead of noisy fusion.

The third composition "opus 45" is the most experimental and unfocused, jammed up organ lives its own life at start. But since the third minute wonderful consonance stairs appear, they go down to create the height for coming back up, to the newborn guitar melodic. During the album, and in this composition especially, the place of bass line impresses – Olexander Chub predicts the future evolving of the song in an abrupt way with the help of his guitar. Stanislav Bobritsky makes listeners feel thankful for tones conglomeration in none of which he keeps his instrument for too long.

This EP gets further from the hard music by entering the avantgarde space with the bigger interest. Was it picked up so on purpose or it seems so because of the songs’ number, but the heaviness was certainly replaced. There are beautiful passages with the crossovers between them instead of it, the guitar is no more noisy or blurry, like it happened sometimes in the previous releases, though there was no abuse of it. Here Ivan Serdyuk is more melodic even in the moments of stamping one quick motif.

Photo Kirai gigs

The compositions are exclusively instrumental, although EP is full of literal intonations, music phrases are very alike verbal ones, because of what changes from one instrumental combination to another look natural. No need to say this release is worse or better comparing to previous ones but some difference as the matter of fact should be accepted, perhaps, even by Cthulhu Rise which once may be ready to continue what they started on the same chosen track. 

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Cthulhu Rise in social networks:

https://cthulhurise.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Cthulhu.Rise/