Dreadful Relic - Warlords of Cosmic Sovereign - LP

Less than a year after “Archaic Conjurations,” Dreadful Relic delivered their first vinyl release—an eruption of all the potential stored in the demo. Recorded after the summer solstice in 2015 and self-released later that year, the “Warlords of the Cosmic Sovereign” MLP showcased the band’s esoteric proclivities and potent songwriting, drawing inspiration from Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Samael, and other progenitors of the black metal genre. Each side contains an atmospheric intro followed by a bludgeoning original composition. Additionally, the MLP closes with a cover of “In the Shrines of the Kingly Dead” by Treblinka/Tiamat, a song perfectly suited for Dreadful Relic in both style and substance. As always, themes of Lovecraftian dread and Hyborian valor permeate the lyrics, but Dreadful Relic’s inspiration on this MLP comes not only from the terrestrial and mythical but also the celestial, where cosmic scenes play out, precisely and predictably, in the theater of night, as constellations crawl across the darkened sky, their relative formations unchanged across millennia. Prehistoric photons dispatched from inconceivable distances absorbed in the eyes of those condemned to wallow and toil on this spinning sphere. Shards of ancient light piercing the black dome above—omnipresent reminders of man’s insignificance and the limited scope of his understanding. His empires rise and fall. Advanced civilizations once mighty wither and disappear. Magnificent edifices erode, abandoned and reduced to rubble. All of this a mere flicker, a speck of dust compared to the vastness of the universe itself. Through this channel to the ancient past, Dreadful Relic conjure the abject horror of unnatural forces beyond our comprehension, metaphysical warfare, civilizational ruin, and the cataclysmic cycle of destruction and rebirth. “Warlords of the Cosmic Sovereign” is an acknowledgement of the mysteries of forgotten epochs and the naïve blindness of our perspective. Amused by the mortal carnage, forgotten gods reclaim their thrones.