ANNOTH RHÜL
LEVIATHAN

THE REVIEW

Annoth Rhül is the project of guitarist/keyboardist Sigurd Tonna, whose latest album Leviathan was released by Black Widow from Genoa in 2014. This work is largely inspired by the visionary and mad genius of H.P. Lovecraft, as acknowledged by Tonna himself. At least 3 tracks (“The Colour Out Of Space”, “The Mountains Of Madness”, and “R’lyeh”) are declared tributes to the solitary of Providence. Moreover, it is not surprising that the “Lovecraftian” universe has always inspired a lot of music of all genres (staying in the progressive field, the American psychedelic H.P. Lovecraft, the German hard-prog Necronomicon, and recently the Italian progsters Goad come to mind, just to name a few examples). The music is dark, at times hard and at times dreamlike with “Floydian” reminiscences. But there are also references to the Cosmic Couriers and particularly to Tangerine Dream and the space-rock of Hawkwind. The use of keyboards is massive and characterizes the sound of Leviathan. Tonna plays most of the instruments (including an extremely varied array of keyboards) but is helped here by some collaborators. The title track is obviously dedicated to the ultimate biblical monster, namely the Leviathan. The beginning is cosmic and gloomy, but then the music of this mini-suite becomes very varied and fragmented, with the central part particularly successful with the synth standing out. “The Colour Out Of Space” is a beautiful space and progressive track that always takes advantage of effective keyboards. “Surya” is short with some references to Goblin while “Distant Star” is calm and has a beautiful melody. However, in the following “Mountains Of Madness”, the atmospheres return to drama and really seem to evoke the haunting Mountains of Madness born from Lovecraft's imagination. The concluding “R’lyeh” takes us to the depths of the ocean to visit the phantasmagorical city of R’lyeh where “the dead Cthulhu lies dreaming and waiting”. A great atmospheric and dreamy track that marks another peak of the album. “Leviathan” is highly recommended to all space-rock lovers and also to all H.P. Lovecraft fans!