cucurbitophobia - Dies Ferialis: Awakening the Lemures

cucurbitophobia

Dies Ferialis: Awakening the Lemures
​self-released; 2020

3.9 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

It’s been a tough year for the majority of us. Do we really need to be more scared this October? My answer is bring it on. Halloween is made up of goblins, ghouls, vampires and more which was created in minds as a work as fiction. There are truly scary things that happen in the world but this is not it. The lore or Halloween and the horror genre in general for me has always been about fun and suspending disbelief. I for one love a good haunted house and watching scary movies with the lights off. The prolific band Cucurbitophobia has done their part in keeping the horror genre alive through their music and they are back with their latest entitled Dies Ferialis: Awakening the Lemures.

On their Bandcamp page they mention that “Dies Ferialis: Awakening the Lemures is a thematic album, painting a fictional picture of ancient Roman deities of the Underworld.” There is more info there regarding the themes if you want to get more into the lore.

This album to me plays like a movie. It’s very visual and was begging for some visual accompaniment although those with a good imagination can just close their eyes. On “Exordium,” a lonesome piano plays in a big empty room. It’s haunting, sparse and even beautiful.

Tension starts to crawl up your spine on “The Catastrophic Flood” with a cascading melody, military type drums and ancients pads which loom in the darkness. Once “Subortus: Excludunt Ab Inferis” arrives I felt like I was in a medieval battleship waging war with skeletons that rose from the dead.

This sense of dread only intensifies at night as we hear on “Divalia” while “The Quiet Quest into the Underworld” is a slow, ominous burn that finds us winding down the river. “The Sigillaria and the Summoning of Saturn” is more intense as if this is where a lot of the action is occurring. The nightmare continues with “The Infinite Abyss,” “Et Factum Es Monere Te” and “Peroration.” We end the journey with “*Eyes of the Black Cat*” which lingers and leaves you with a sense of unease.

​Dies Ferialis: Awakening the Lemures is another one in the win column. The artist knows what he wants to do and how to do it. Throughout this album he creates an auditory environment that embraces all things horror. If you happen to be running a haunted house or maybe a virtual haunted house house this year this music would surely add to the atmosphere. Recommended.

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