If there’s something I like, it’s H. P. Lovecraft, so when a band shows up with one of his titles as a name, they will automatically get a bit more attention.
When we then find out that they’re supposed to be some form of super-group of Swedish death metal notables, that attention increases even more.

Well, super-group might seem a bit of a stretch, given that three fifths of the band are from At The Gates. A side project would be a better likeness, I suppose.
Anyway, the band’s made up of ATG vocalist Tomas Lindberg, drummer Adrian Erlandsson, and guitarist Jonas Stålhammar. Joining them we have guitarist Fredrik Wallenberg (Skitsystem), and bassist Andreas Axelsson (ex-Marduk, ex-Edge Of Sanity).
Out of these, it was really Lindberg and Axelsson who delivered an actual performance. Erlandsson was banging away at the drums, but other than that, we couldn’t really get a feel for him, and Stålhammar and Wallenberg might as well join a shoegazer band for all they brought to the show. Ok, that’s not entirely fair, there was some still standing headbanging going on from their side, but yeah, no. Not all that impressive, sadly.
Lindberg and Axelsson on the other hand, they gave a good performance, filled with energy and bite, which lifted the overall impression of the band.

“The next one’s a fast one, but I guess you can handle that.”
- Tomas Lindberg (vocals)

Musically, we were travelling a very familiar Swedish old school death terrain, aimed more at pummeling aggression than melody, and lo-fi chainsaw sound over finesse. The songs chugged away at a high tempo with only marginal variation, so at first glance (or listen, I suppose), they ended up being hard to tell apart.
There’s certainly a crowd for that, although I’m personally for a bit more melody and hook, and given that I’ve never really been a fan of Lindberg’s vocals, The Lurking Fear proved a tough sell to me. But what about the rest of the crowd?
Well, the band started out with next to no one watching them, but the number slowly increased, so that after a few songs they’d reached, well, not very many. This was surprising to me. Sure, The Lurking Fear as an outfit was brand new, but the components making up the whole were all long-time players in the field, and I’d thought that they’d had more traction going. My best bet is that the band wasn’t properly advertised, and thus no one really knew who they were, but that’s just a guess.

At first, the response the band was given was equally underwhelming, but Metaldays slowly warmed up to them, and began cheering them on between songs, where Lindberg made a good deal out of introducing their material, which was appreciated. Heck, towards the end, there was even a small moshpit going, and when the band finished off, they got a good deal of cheering with them on their way.
Personally, I really wanted to like this. The concept was right up my alley, and mixing HPL with metal, death metal in particular, has proven quite effective time and time again in the past. The execution was just a bit too bland and unimpressive here for me to really get into it. Well, at least they had time to play their entire debut album, and that’s something.

Setlist:

Out Of The Voiceless Grave
Vortex Spawn
Tongued With Foul Flames
The Starving Gods Of Old
The Infernal Dread
With Death Engraved In Their Bone
Beneath Menacing Sands
Teeth Of The Dark Plains
The Cold Jaws Of Death
Winged Death
Tentacles Of Blackened Horror
Upon Black Winds