It should be easy to notice, that Arkham (not to be confused with their countrymates Arkh'aam) perform music inspired by the writings of Howard Phillip Lovecraft and in this French band's case the music is blackish dark metal. 'Chapter III - The Madness from the Sea' EP is the first CD release after tape album and demos.

As the title of the release suggests, this is based on sea monsters in Lovecraft mythos. All the lyrics, except 'Quelque Chose...' (though in French in this song), are actual Lovecraft texts. 'Nemesis I' has the band's own lyrics in French, so I can't comment on their quality. I do not think I need to comment on quality of Lovecraft's writings?! So, two songs are in English, two in French. Words are expressed with hoarse black metal wheeze, which is moderately okay, but a bit too unvaried even though some screams and such is heard.

The music is definitely ugly and primitive in the vein of black metal, but riffs feel too familiar (Immortal, check, Celtic Frost, check). At times slow, sometimes dragginly so, and at times fast without much impact. What this lacks is both evil and eerie atmospheres, which the lyrical content requires. This is mainly caused by the lead guitar, which totally lacks of any kind of mood, because it's louder in the mix than other elements, and it causes immediate irritation. There's some echo in the vocals, and some effects such as deep water sounds and chaotic screams are used. 'Quelque...' features a 3-minute long ambient sound part, but it is quite meaninglessly put in the middle of a black metal song. The drumming is somewhat sloppy and therefore this ain't tightly performed. The bassist plays some slightly weirder things, but this alone does not help much. The sound on this release is quite dry, and this is one thing that prevents the atmosphere from building up. 'The Call of Cthulhu' is the best song of the bunch, being most varying and at least with some atmosphere.

Arkham haven't reached any kind of credible Lovecraftian mood on this release, I'm afraid. More careful mixing and by incorporating some Lovecraft geist would help the band for starters.

Rating: 4 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/15/2005 22:25