Lustmord - The Monstrous Soul (1992 / 2000)

Ten years ago Lustmord (a.k.a. Brian Williams) and Clock DVA-founder Adi Newton were forging the dark audio-dungeons of The Monstrous Soul, a follow-up to the seminal Heresy. The disc went out of print, becoming a not-quite-forgotten legend whispered about on stormy midnights only by those of a dread-seeking constituion…

Exhumed by Soleilmoon, the monster has risen again…
Unlike its predecessor, The Monstrous Soul didn't use field recordings from crypts, etc., instead relying on extensive digital recording, manipulated sources from military surplus sound generators and (not always effective) spoken word samples.

"It is the night of the demon" proves to be one of the most over-repeated spoken bits ever; in Ixaxaar's short (5:08) span, the clear-voiced (middle-aged, British, dispassionate) phrase occurs 75 times… every 4 seconds! This annoyingly overused sample dominates the backdrop of dreary synthstrings and electronic winds of woe, until those elements reach a near-deafening crescendo, but the speaker gets the last word in regardless… Softer conversations are buried amongst the flatly droning rays which emit from Primordial Atom (25:27). Foghorn-ish blares and muffled, spacious beats permeate the piece which includes church choirs slowed down into dirge-like mirages and assorted whispery veils of nocturnal ambiance. At the bitter end, a "devils and demons" quote gets the "oft-repeated" treatment, but only for a dozen times or so…

Soft solo chants and tolling bells signal the Protoplasmic Reversion, accompanied by ominously quiet string passages and other strange sounds, concluded by over-theatric samples (only used once though). The Daathian Doorway leads to a clamorous, industrial-strength zone of chaos where the murky thunder of clangs and gusts swelters in a powerful haze of omnipresent danger which trails away. Monastic choirs are buried under the mists of sporadic eruptions to turn The Fourth and Final Key. A forceful drone cuts through, to be dappled with more sludgy percussion, doleful gongs and various (mostly submerged) word-based snippets.

Lustmord has since worked mainly in film sound, creating atmospheres for (not surprisingly) dark-tinted movies as "The Crow", "Strange Days", "The Craft", "The Saint", "The Negotiator", "Bride of Chuckie", "Pitch Black" and "The Insider", as well as doing sound design for a video game. Impending musical projects include a currently-on-hold new release… we definitely look forward to hearing what Williams has been up to after all these years.
Undeniably a master of sonic darkness, Lustmord established himself early on. Acolytes of ambient's nether regions will flock (again, or for the first time) to the blackened altar of The Monstrous Soul which, due to iffy word-sampling, gets a mostly-impressed-but-eager-for-something-fresh.

TRACKS
01.IXAXAAR 05:08
02.Primordial Atom 25:28
03.Protoplasmic Reversion 05:55
04.The Daathian Doorway 06:38
05.The Fourth And Final Key 11:05