The Lovecraft Covenant [Review]

I LIKE IT WHEN I'M WRONG!

(only in the case of doubting new podcast, though)

The Lovecraft Covenant popped up in my Who To Follow list in Twitter. I shrugged it off at first, I'm not a fan of H.P Lovecraft, I think I read one of his book, but it was pushed somewhere in the dusty corner of my brain. But a review mentioned that being a Lovecraftian is not a must to enjoy the story, so I decided to give it a try, even though still with a whole bucket of salt.
 

And I'm glad to say that my doubt was a mistake. 

The Lovecraft Covenant told a story of New England, where it had been stalked with a gory serial killer. Further investigation then showed a surprising connection between the serial killer works and the horror literature of H.P Lovecraft. The story were told from the point of view of an FBI Agent, Dolores Nayle, also alongside her team, and an investigative journalist, Jack Danforth.

And the review was right. You don't have to know H.P Lovecraft stories to get hooked to the podcast. (But, at least, just try to google Cthulhu, okay?)

My main pet peeves with most of new podcast is when they try to dump all the details (of the story, the plot, the characters, even the background setting) as many as possible in the first episode. It's crowding my ears and made my brain shut down and ignore the whole episode, whole podcast even.
But The Lovecraft Covenant pass this test (imagine my sigh of relief). 

The early introduction to the story and the characters went really smooth. No tonnes of characters, and a simple plot: serial killer, FBI agents, typical journalist.

Of course it also helps that the actors' voices were distinctive enough. The voices could easily switch and you'd still keep track on whose is who. I'd say that the voice talents were quite good. Well, some of it was a bit dodgy, but not really awful.

Sound engineering was not bad. The podcast didn't contain a lot of elaborate sound effect like in a space or fantasy podcast, so there wasn't any need to try to describe weird sounds. However though, the sound levels were a bit unstable, particularly in some of the conversation and also when it compared with the loud opening track.

The writings, I need to say no more, was pretty good. The story was concise and the jokes were spot on. It's only a six less-than-half-an-hour episodes podcast, but the fast pace wasn't overwhelming enough that it made you feel like watching the last episode of detective show. Then again, as the usual trouble with one-time podcast, the story sometimes felt kinda rushed, and for me, it left some tiny plot holes.

The Lovecraft Covenant was already over. But unlike EOS 10 (!!) or The Hyacinth Disaster that made you craving for more, this podcast ended neatly and the story was completed in a...pretty round circle.

But if you're like me, three or so hours of pods won't satisfy you, thus worry not, Haunted Jukebox Entertainment and Robert F. Mason, the brain behind this podcast, are on their way to make another podcast, The Allosauriad and Prince of Hell; one about Americans trapped in Dinosaur era, and the other about Prince Vlad III Dracula―no vampire included.

So the conclusion is, The Lovecraft Covenant: Highly Recommended!

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Note:

• The Lovecraft Covenant Official Website
• The Lovecraft Covenant episodes in iTunes and Audioboom
• genre: performing arts, fantasy, mystery, thriller, sci-fi
• recommended if you like: dark monstrous entity that live under our feet, Prime Suspect serial, true crime stories, and a bit of The X-Files. 
• caution for: gory details of murder and violence