Band:	The Great Old Ones
Album:	Tekeli-Li
Style:	Ambient, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	April 16, 2014
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

01. Je Ne Suis Pas Fou
02. Antarctica
03. The Elder Things
04. Awakening
05. The Ascend
06. Behind The Mountains

Bands that choose to take literary works as the thematic inspiration behind their music can tend be pretty hit or miss. It's an interesting idea, this fusion of artistic mediums, but it's not always executed in a way that makes the music feel relevant to the writing. Fortunately, BM Frenchies The Great Old Ones are proving this year that they know very well how to do just that, and they're doing H.P. Lovecraft proud yet again.

Tekeli-li, the group's sophomore effort, revolves around Lovecraft's novella At The Mountains Of Madness, which was basically about underground aliens in Antarctica before it was cool. As one would think is necessary with a dangerous alien theme, the music crafted is both raw, dissonant, and upbeat (the dangerous part) as well as melodic, dreamlike, and a bit eerie as well (representing the foreign, "trippy" nature of aliens). No track really sits too deeply in either territory, "Antarctica" perhaps being the best example: it dances between slow, heavy, fast, and crushing, all the while flirting with the tasty melodic flavor already established on Al Azif, which is the icing on the cake.

The production is definitely a step up from the debut album, however, which is certainly one of the album's most attractive qualities. Whereas things on Al Azif felt a little buried and murky, here everything pops out crisply enough to immediately grab your attention. It's a bit of a paradox, really, but a clever one at that: it's rough black metal, definitely, but it somehow retains that razor sharpe edge without being smothered too much in the gritty, lo-fi smoke so many other bands employ. The 17 minute closer, "Behind The Mountains," is just as good as it sounds: a fantastic blend of fury, sophisticated attention to ambiance, and spine-tingling spoken word that all comes together both in its mixing and overall structure to create a climax that feels more than worth it.

If you're familiar with At The Mountains Of Madness, you'll see how cleverly Tekeli-li really seems to follow along musically with the narrative. What happens to the humans in the story is horriffic and nightmarish, but in an entrancing, almost otherworldy way, and The Great Old Ones seem to reflect this strange dichotomy with the contrast between the harsh and more relaxed sides of their playing. Definitely one of the most well-composed black metal albums of the year thus far, with Tekeli-li The Great Old Ones give a very noteworthy follow up to their debut, further proving (as if we didn't already know?) that the French BM scene is not to be fucked with.

The mountains are beckoning.

*Also seeing these guys at Roadburn in 4 days with a veteran Dutchman and a tiny Chilean. Get hype!