Dave Lombardo is venturing deeper into experimental territory with a new collaboration alongside dark ambient pioneer Lustmord.
Working under the appropriately direct name Lustmord Lombardo, the pair will release their debut album, The Pulse of Atoms, on October 2 through Ipecac Recordings. The project has already offered its first glimpse with the release of “Paleomagnetic Resonance.”
For Lombardo, whose career has been built around some of heavy music’s most recognizable and adventurous projects, the collaboration represents another substantial departure from expectations. The drummer rose to prominence as a founding member of Slayer and has since accumulated a remarkably varied résumé that includes Fantômas, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Mr. Bungle and the Misfits.
Lustmord brings an entirely different musical vocabulary to the partnership. A major figure in dark ambient and experimental electronic music, he has spent decades constructing ominous, immersive soundscapes that frequently operate far outside traditional song structures.
That contrast appears to be central to The Pulse of Atoms.
Instead of attempting to squeeze their respective backgrounds into a familiar rock or metal framework, Lombardo and Lustmord have created music intended to resist easy classification. The album takes inspiration from immense cosmic ideas, including creation, destruction and the life cycles of planets and stars.
The collaboration also has roots stretching back nearly two decades. Lombardo and Lustmord first encountered one another backstage at a Fantômas show, where mutual friend Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced them. Years later, that connection has finally developed into a full-fledged musical partnership.
The Pulse of Atoms will feature seven tracks. Its sequence includes the two-part pieces “An Eternal Presence” and “The Desolate Shore,” as well as “Paleomagnetic Resonance,” “Beyond The Vast Cold Waste” and closing track “The Abyssal Deep.”
For a drummer whose career has repeatedly pushed beyond the boundaries of thrash metal, Lustmord Lombardo provides Lombardo with another opportunity to explore unfamiliar ground. Paired with Lustmord’s atmospheric approach, the result promises to occupy a particularly strange corner of both musicians’ extensive catalogs.
