I agree with Kane Nash but would like to expand it a bit. This song takes its title from an H.P. Lovecraft tale. The Nameless City tells the story of Randall Carter and his experiences amongst the catacombs wherein dwell the spiritual remnants of a race of prehuman serpent creatures who built a great civilization, and then retreated beneath Earth to a vast subterranean city the coming of Man. They exist now only as hateful shades that come forth from the pits and chasms of their Sabatean resting place in the form of a howling, swirling, tempestuous wind. They possess an utter hatred for anything human, and are driven by a maddening thirst for vengeance against the human race. Musically, the piece contains many chanting voices: gongs: choir-like monks: subliminal, horrific screaming: African ritual shakers fashioned from human bone and resonant Tibetan chanting. It also includes a Tympanic Kettledrum solo. The chanting voices are reminiscent of the Arabic ceremony of Dhikr. In the Dhikr
ceremony, all the participants repeat the name of Allah in a system of hypnotic respirations that bring them to a kind of serene detached trance. The
leader then psalmodies an improvisational poem that may be either sacred
or profane. In this case it is a chant of the Coptic tradition, which has maintained its original form from a pharonic chant. It is said that this melody
was one that accompanied the embalming of mummies.
I agree with Kane Nash but would like to expand it a bit. This song takes its title from an H.P. Lovecraft tale. The Nameless City tells the story of Randall Carter and his experiences amongst the catacombs wherein dwell the spiritual remnants of a race of prehuman serpent creatures who built a great civilization, and then retreated beneath Earth to a vast subterranean city the coming of Man. They exist now only as hateful shades that come forth from the pits and chasms of their Sabatean resting place in the form of a howling, swirling, tempestuous wind. They possess an utter hatred for anything human, and are driven by a maddening thirst for vengeance against the human race. Musically, the piece contains many chanting voices: gongs: choir-like monks: subliminal, horrific screaming: African ritual shakers fashioned from human bone and resonant Tibetan chanting. It also includes a Tympanic Kettledrum solo. The chanting voices are reminiscent of the Arabic ceremony of Dhikr. In the Dhikr ceremony, all the participants repeat the name of Allah in a system of hypnotic respirations that bring them to a kind of serene detached trance. The leader then psalmodies an improvisational poem that may be either sacred or profane. In this case it is a chant of the Coptic tradition, which has maintained its original form from a pharonic chant. It is said that this melody was one that accompanied the embalming of mummies.