Lust Murder Box
It’s not often you come across a Lust Murder Box these days — Clive Barker harvested most of them off eBay ages ago. Luckily, Austin has its own jack-in-the-tomb holding down occasional nights at industri-Goth cornerstone Elysium, and their long-delayed first release is a slap in the face with a barbed-wire glove to critics who may have written off the dark-clad spook-music scene as dead and buried. What comes around goes around, and if you’re not paying attention, it’s likely to slip up behind you with a truncheon and smack you silly. Now that Scandinavia has made it safe for frenetic guitar rock to return to those few airwaves not beaten into submission by the Clear Channel goon squad, can the thumping squall of industrial or the melodic unease of Goth be far behind? Lust Murder Box is constructed around two key, salty pillars, Erik Gustafson’s thick, swirling guitars, and Kyle “NoX” Findlay’s keyboard and sampling skills, both of which recall the pair’s former incarceration in Austin’s seminal industrial Terminal 46. Teamed here with new surname-lacking recruits Vaughn and Marc, the glibly grim outfit is a Lament Configuration of bad vibes and busted hearts, Sisters of Mercy yowl with a sugar coating of sleek electro-punch, bracketed by Gustafson’s hissing guitar and Vaughn’s breathy, ominous vocals. Paranoid romance for the End Times or recidivistic backpedaling? Either way they make your ears sweat.
This article appears in May 23 • 2003.