LUSTMORD
THE MONSTROUS SOUL
ALBUM SOLEILMOON RE-RELEASE: SUMMER, 2000 REVIEW: AUGUST 1, 2000


This is a record most Cold Meat Industry acts would probably kill for to have made themselves. Recorded in 1990 by Lustmord and Clock DVA's Adi Newton, "The Monstrous Soul" is an hour long exercise in doom, gloom and horror.
The five songs contained revel in a sort of restrained melodrama, packed with horror movie samples and apocalyptic tensions. But Lustmord and Newton skilfully avoids all cheesiness, as "The Monstrous Soul" is often truly scary. Fierce drones penetrate the heavy air as the album moves forward in a soundworld so hostile it will chill you right down to the marrow.
The 25-minute centrepiece "Primordial Atom" is so slowly mutating it fools you into a state of safety before it suddenly attacks; the bass drone turns into a rapid pulse, an ancient voice talks about "devils and demons" and everything sinks into one icy vision of hell. Even more fascinating is the closing "The Fourth and Final Key". The sounds of chanting monks and a booming gong are electronically treated, drawn out and sculpted into ten mercilessly nightmarish minutes. Music to scare Mortiis fans shitless with.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN