Cemetery Lights – The Underworld LP
Cemetery Lights – 'The Underworld' LP
Black vinyl edition with insert
Cemetery Lights rightfully gained the attention of the black metal underground for its atavistic approach that melded the sounds of various influences from decades-gone-by to produce an early body of work that somewhat resembled a newly-discovered series of recordings from the vault of Unisound Records. With its thematic focus on a ritual of exorcism from ancient Rome, the first of these demos, “Lemuralia,” demonstrated that the band not only worshipped the sound of mid-90s Mediterranean black metal, but also the ancient history and literature of the region that helped set the stage for its birth many centuries before. With this 2019 debut album the band’s sole member paid exceptional attention to writing and recording an album that would pay appropriate tribute to the worldwide influence of Greek literature over the past several millennia. Rather than rehashing themes that had already been explored by others previously, the goal was to delve into this mythology in a way that had not yet been done. As such, instead of paying homage to the characters in these narratives, “The Underworld” seeks to describe the realms that those characters occupied. Thus, the music and lyrics are paired, for example, to boldly proclaim the splendor of Olympos, the dread of Tartaros, and the melancholy of The Fields of Asphodel. This outcome was achieved in great effect through careful study of primary tomes, such as Homer’s “The Odyssey” and Hesiod’s “Works and Days,” as well as several other complementary texts.
