Artist: Lustmord
Album: Metavoid
Date: 2001
Label: Nextera
Genre: Dark Ambient
Format: EAC-APE-CUE-LOG
Review:
After a prolonged silence, that master of definitive dark ambiance (and I don't mean that in a pigeonholing sort of way...!) arises again... while many of Lustmord's trademark tendencies remain, various spacey mutations have occured... evolving from horror of the grave to the terror of the unknown which fills Metavoid...
Brian Lustmord's short biography:
During the seven year absence Lustmord's legendary Brian Williams concentrated on other activity, including collaborative projects and work as Music Sound Designer for over thirty Hollywood motion pictures, including The Crow; Strange Days; From Dusk Till Dawn; The Craft; Spawn; The Negotiator; Bride of Chuckie; The Siege; The Insider and Pitch Black while more recently he has been composing music for Television and Video Games. Active in music for over twenty years under the name Lustmord, Brian first gathered attention as part of the small group of individuals that spawned the original "industrial" music scene out of the United Kingdom in the late seventies.
The two albums quickly established his reputation as one of the leaders in the genre of atmospheric "ambient" music with his use of diverse recording sources such as cosmological activity, caves, crypts and catacombs, and later recordings utilized extensive computer manipulation of natural recordings, and are credited as single-handedly creating the "dark ambient" movement, with Lustmord albums have appeared on numerous "all time top ten" and "best" lists, both in print and on the internet. In the early eighties he was a member of SPK, one of the most influential groups of the industrial music genre, and from 1985 until 1999 owned and managed the record label, Side Effects and served as a technical and artistic consultant for Mute Records (London). He has collaborated on projects with a diverse group of artists including Clock DVA, John Balance (Coil), Robert Rich, Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream), Jarboe (The Swans), Monte Cazazza and Chris & Cosey, as well as touring extensively throughout Europe and America as both performer and technician.
Brian Williams is the soul (or lack thereof) of Lustmord; thanks to him for giving us an interview this month. Within The Ambivalent Abyss (12:14), dark symphonics converge with the sounds of mechorganic entities; sometimes submerged in a murky vacuum, othertimes free-falling upward into spacious darkness, slow string movements and alien chatter seem to swirl above a chasm of infinite depth. Toward the opener's conclusion, mutant speech fragments are sporadically transmitted into a semirhythmic stream. Beneath the soft tribalish beats and choral wafts of Blood Deep in Dread, a droning bullroarer (courtesy of Steve Roach) whirrs. Occasional rough spurts of electricity crackle through the mournfully majestic space-orchestral floes of The Eliminating Angel.
Paul Haslinger contributes additional synthsounds to The Outer Shadow which casts its gleaming darkness upon a sweltering stew of ominous drums, choruses and chittering electronics. Stirring strings are stirred even more by thumping beats in the edgy thriller, A Light That is Darkness (4:54) It may not matter, but Insignificance closes the disc with a wavering strand echoing into an atmospheric expanse underscored by rumbly aftershocks. Less demonic and more symphonic than some of Lustmord's previous outings, Metavoid floats in an deceptively gentle darkness. Given that Williams works in filmsound, it's not surprising that these pieces sprawl like soundtracks to some Gothic-tinged science fiction epic, or perhaps the movie diary of some unsettled mind... or provide your own imagery when you surround yourself with these 8.4 expanses.
Tracklist:
01. The Ambivalent Abyss
02. Blood Deep In Dread
03. The Eliminating Angel
04. Oblivion
05. The Outer Shadow
06. Infinite Domain
07. A Light That Is Darkness
08. Insignificance
Lustmord.-.Metavoid.(EAC.APE.CUE.LOG).by.UNREST.rar