Lethe — Theodore Robert Bundy
Lethe is one of the main projects of Minneapolis based Cory Strand (who also runs the excellent Altar of waste label). This prolific project has put out 8 releases(many of them multi-disc sets), since it’s start in May 2012, and these have gone from hopeless drone, to HNW, to death ambience, to greyed sub-tone studies. This release is mostly based around creative yet fairly fixed brutal HNW, through the last disc is more locked guitar drone based in its feel.
The four CDR's come in a see-through four tray single DVD case, and this features on it’s front a rather brooding black & white picture of Bundy taken from under a table looking-up, with his leg shackles clear. On the back, along with the track listing is a some what bizarre picture of Bundy doing a joyful jump in front of a woodland backdrop. The reverse of the cover finds a close-up of Bundy’s face, and a quote from him ‘Murder is not about lust, and it’s not about violence- it’s about possession”.
Each disc here features around an hour long track. And the first disc is taken up by the track “Issaquah”, which takes it name from the Washington city where Bundy took his first victim. The track opens with a fading-in mix of locked/ shrill mid-range electro alarm texturing, and churning/ chugging mass of suffocating noise matter. As the track progresses and settles down into it’s walled path, the shrill electro texture seems to shift slightly to a locked jittering grating element- and it also merges with the chugging wall of sound to create this huge mass of truly brutal sound. Seemingly the 'wall' get’s more intense/ suffocating the longer it goes on; through it remains fairly locked & unmoving in it’s feel. This first track is a great & truly searing brutal opening to the set.
Disc two is entitled “Sammamish”, and it takes it’s name from a state park in Washington, where Bundy abducted two young women in broad daylight within four hours of each other. This track is built around a seared/ blurred locked churning guitar texture- this guitar texture has quite a noise bound industrial feel to it, and the way it sounds rather reminded me of the type of locked industrial guitar based noise Merzbow did on albums like 24 Hours - A Day Of Seals. Though of course Strand has blow torched ‘n’ grinding the guitar texturing into a ‘wall’ structure, which is searing with billowing/chopping locked sub-tones.
Disc three’s track is entitled “Chi Omega”, and this track takes it’s name from Florida State University sorority- where Bundy carried out his last frenzied attack, killing two women & brutally attacking three others. This track is based around a fixed ‘n’ roasting guitar drone element, I guess you’d say this it’s more thick guitar based drone instead of straight HNW, through the guitar texture is huge sounding & continuous in it’s tonally feel, so I guess you’d say it was certainly ‘wall’ like.
Lastly disc fours track is entitled “Memories of Necrophilia”, and this track is more in a brooding drone territory. It’s based around a very sinister sounding guitar drone, and these distant whipping wind ‘n’ clunking textures. The track seems to keep getting closer ready to engulf you in its suffocating evil-ness, then suddenly it peters back. The tracks fine for the first ten or so minutes, but by the end of it’s near on hour length it seems to have lost most of it’s impact/ surprise with it's close then distant trick. Also there’s a really annoying clicking glitch which happens when the track peters back, and this really started to grind on me as the track goes on.
On the whole this set is most rewarding, with Strand conjuring up a nice mixture of brutality, suffocating atmospherics, and prime evil mood-niess. It’s just a pity the last track/ disc doesn’t fulfil its potential. Anyway this is well worth checking out if you dig dense yet moody HNW/ brutal drone matter.