PERTURBATOR - Lustful Sacraments

Review by KIZUNAUT

James Kent aka Perturbator is an artist that has been both genre-defining and genre-defying. From 2012 onwards he helped to establish and popularize the darksynth sound, developing his own highly recognizable style within the genre. Offering a mix of driving rhythms, gnarly synth basses, dark futuristic ambience and flourishes of synth melodies wrapped in song structures that expertly work with tension and release, Perturbator has been perhaps the most musically accomplished of the darksynth artists. It's no wonder he is among the rare few synthwave-associated artists known to a larger audience.

Perturbator's early style peaked with 2016's The Uncanny Valley, a cyberpunk-tinted dark electronic masterpiece offering the perfect mix of energy, atmosphere, passion and songwriting sensibilities. A diverse yet coherent album rooted in an expert sense of aesthetics. A true hallmark record and the perfect crystallization of the themes explored by the darksynth genre.

Having reached the highest possible peak of the synthwave genre there was only one direction to go to: elsewhere. 2017's New Model took the retro out of the retrowave and offered a decidedly futuristic take on Perturbator's style, a hyper-synthetic ultra-dark slice of futurewave with crafty synthwork and occasional bursts of synthetic blastbeats recalling extreme metal more than anything else. The result was the musical equivalent of an AI-piloted stealth bomber.

Lustful Sacraments offers another evolution of Perturbator's sound. Influenced by post-punk and the gothic music of the 80s and 90s, Lustful Sacraments is decidedly more human and retro than New Model in it's sound. While Perturbator isn't the first artist to explore mixing synthwave influences with post-punk, he has managed to blend the chimy chorus-drenched guitars and deep vocals seamlessly into his style of production and composition seamlessly. The results are tremendous, sounding instantly recognizable as Perturbator yet breaking new ground for the artist. The album also contains the most sung parts of any Perturbator album, some of them delivered by guest artists, some of them by Perturbator himself for the first time. 

Pertubator has for a long time had a talent for crafting a kind of a background world for his albums. According to an interview with Metal Hammer, Lustful Sacraments is set in a fictional city called Xanadu where everything is free and nothing is forbidden. While there might be a fantastical backdrop to the album, it sounds and feels far more grounded in real life, real human concerns, in a style and culture that has actually existed. Indeed, in an another interview with the Daily Express Perturbator stated that the album is about ”...self-destruction, how humans tend to destroy themselves through addictions, through discontent...It's not like a message, there is no lesson...it's more of a look at myself and other people, maybe, to relate”. This gives the album a rare air of truthfulness and introspection in a genre preoccupied with fantasies. While not as explosive or straightforward in it's delivery, the album's theme of self-destruction through hedonism has shades of Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral in it.

The post-punk and darkwave influences can also be heard in the production style of the album. There are sections of it which sound like they could have been made in 1989. While there are plenty of modern influences, sounds and production techniques to be found, it's in some ways the polar opposite of the inhuman ultra synthetic audio wizardry of New Model. The tracks have a more rounded, airier quality to them, a darkness that's more sensual, softer and gothic than that found in his previous works. The drums recall classic 80s sample-based drum machines, the synths mostly sound like things that could have existed 30-40 years ago, and when the classic post-punk guitars come in other elements make way for them. The album hits a wonderful sweet spot between sounding modern and retro. The beats are punchy, the basses move air with real force and the production is discerning and clear while retaining a certain twilight ambience. Perturbator has done a great job fusing musical influences with production choices.

On the visual side of things, Perturbator already took a clean break from the usual synthwave tropes with New Model's ultra stark black on white aesthetics. Lustful Sacraments is more colourful, featuring an illustration of people dancing in a ring inside a structure that recalls perhaps some kind of a futuristic cathedral. The impossibly thin supports, intricate details, unusual angle and long, spindly shadows make it extremely striking and uncanny. The deep amber orange background brings life and warmth. I am biased as orange on black is one of my favorite color combinations, but I find the cover to be one of the best album covers ever made, wonderfully reflecting the style and themes contained within the album while also standing out from usual gothic tropes. The long sold out colored vinyls are especially wonderful looking artefacts.

The album begins with Reaching Xanadu, a somber instrumental that opens with deep, resonant synth hits. Soon rolling, crips synthetic beats that recall the beats from New Model join in. Swirling synths loom in the background. The track soon builds towards a crescendo, with a soaring, weepy synth string topping off the track, eventually descending in a glissando towards unknown depths. The brief intro ends with sounds of glass shattering. Perhaps the way to Xanadu goes through a bottle or a pipe.

The intro is followed by the title track Lustful Sacraments. It opens with a reverb-drenched, melancholic guitar line looming over mid-tempo driving beats and a low, constant synth bass pad. Brief vocal passage comes in, and the very post-punk influenced soundscape gives way to a more synthetic section with throaty synth hits dominating the soundscape. Soon enough the song returns to as it began, only to quickly move into a very mechanical-sounding synth passage. Synth strings sweep in before the track starts to wind down, only to build itself back up into a mesmerising swirl of guitars and synth pads. The track has a deep air of melancholy, perhaps even regret to it all. The aversion to typical verse-chorus-verse structures and the blending of various different parts carries over to the rest of the album.

Excess offers a mix of straightforward, catchy post-punk parts spliced with more synthetic sections featuring Perturbator's hallmark guttural bass synth strings mixed with airier pads. The track kicks off with a squirming bassline and metallic synth hits that recall oldschool EBM. Somber, low-key vocals about taking too much today as was taken yesterday come in before the track bursts into a jangly, catchy, instrumental post-punk section. The guitars give way to a sparse passage with shouts of ”Excess!” floating over rapid bass arps, surrounded by gliding, voice-like synthlines. A burst of guttural bass pads leads into another post-punk section, only for the rhythm to be stripped away. Shouts of ”Excess!” ringing over deep bass pads that jawn like some kind of subterranean abyss. The track evolves into a dreamy, even narcotic, hazy guitar solo, followed by a brief buildup and one last burst of energetic, driving post-punk. The track ends with an extended synth outro featuring fluttering synth arps, noisy swooshes and hollow synth sequences.There is a wonderful mix of melancholy and dark passion to be found in this very varied track, and it is my personal favorite from the album.

Secret Devotion opens with clicky, zippy synthetic beats and raw saw synths that somewhat recall Nitzer Ebb. It soon evolves into a more post-punk influenced fare. Dissonant bell synths clang over a pulsing beat, and deep vocals paint an atmosphere of gothic passion. The track builds up into an brighter-sounding passage that leads into a section that sounds almost Depeche Mode influenced. A change in rhythm leads to a somewhat sparser section with spoken vocals, synth pads and atmospheric guitars looming in the background. Another synthpop-influenced section comes in, this time featuring twinkly square wave synths and the clangy bells from earlier of the track. The track oozes with dark romance. Building into a crescendo with airy synth pads, the track starts stripping itself down only to quickly shift into end with a sinister, energetic section that recalls Perturbator's classic darksynth sound more than anything else in the album so far.

Low, bending synth pads bridge Secret Devotion straight to Death of the Soul. A squirming, sinister bass arp comes in, recalling oldschool EBM somewhat. Pained, ghostly synthlines float over the track. The beat kicks in, the bassline builds in intensity and vague vocals in russian loom in the background. The bassline mutates and ominous synth strings make a brief passage. Another vocal section comes in, followed by a very percussive part that leads into a section dominated by a swirling mass of synth pads in Perturbator's instantly recognizable style. The squirming bass returns, as do the sporadic vocals, this time with more synths added to the mix. A more percussive section once again builds to the track into it's climax, a repeat of the swirly synths strings, this time featuring brief passages of melancholic guitars before ending with a brief synth outro that descends into nothingness. The track has a very energetic, sinister atmosphere and its structure is deceptively simple compared to some of the other pieces on the album. It's easy to see why it was chosen as the lead single.

The Other Place kicks off with clacky percussions and extremely modulated synths that somewhat recall certain moments of The Downward Spiral. Soon enough they are replaced by a bit slower section that offers a mix of airy synth strings, melancholic post-punk guitars and resonant synth melodies. The track picks up energy and moves into a wonderful passage with reverb-drenched guitars casting a mysterious atmosphere. A more sinister-sounding synth passage gives way into another more post-punk flavored section with a different guitar melody that eventually leads into a repeat of the earlier section with resonant synths. The drums drop out and the heavily modulated synths make another appearance, joined in by various synth pads and a low-key, deep bassline, slowly dying down. The track explodes into life once again, and the mysterious-sounding guitar line makes a reappearance. Another personal favorite from the album.

A brief vocal sample bridges The Other Place into Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze. Opening with a mix of slow beats, melancholic guitars and high-pitched squarewave synths casting an uncanny atmosphere, vocals eventually come in, speaking of death and decay. There is a brief rhythmic and tonal shift that soon leads to a repeat of the beginning, this time with low-ley synth pads fluttering in the background instead of the square synths. An interlude follows that dances between sounding melancholic and ominous, eventually leading into an extended outro ultra-deep bass pads and clangy, noisy, rhythmic synths that give way to sad synth strings. A mournful atmosphere permeates the whole track. Eventually, the whole track fades into almost imperceptible noise.

Messalina, Messalina begins with a rapid beat that is soon joined with dramatic synth strings and low-key vocals that talk of ends justifying means. The vocals drift away and a different type of string melody comes in, only to make way for reverbing guitars that cast a very sinister atmosphere. A shout is followed by rapid-fire bass drums and dissonant ambient noises, leading into a repeat of the beginning section with dramatic strings and vocals. The variation of the string melody is this time joined by guitars, and eventually the strings drop, leading to the return of the sinister guitar line from earlier. The almost verse-chorus-verse structure gives way to an extended interlude featuring sparse, almost dissonant synth strings, airy guitars, deep synth hits and slow rhythms that dies down into nothingness, only for the track to explode into an extended outro with dark, gnarly bass pads and rapid beats that recalls a more gothic version of certain tracks from New Model. The sinister guitar line comes in one last time as an outro. The almost metal-like rhythms and majestic synth strings give the track a curious mix of dark passion and regality. 

God Says ends the album and it begins with an extended intro section featuring metallic, distorted atmospheric synths. A bright synth arpeggio and remote bass hits eventually join in, followed by dark bass pads and synth strings. After a brief pause cymbals come in, followed by melancholic guitars and soft vocals. The track is sparse and somber. The cymbal builds up a pace a bit, joined in by bending, swirling synth leads. The vocals make a return, as do the metallic atmospheric synths, and soon only the synths remain. The cymbals return and the track bursts into life, turning into an almost doom metal-like dirge, with constant buzzing bass synths serving as the backbone. Melancholic guitars glisten over the darkness, and vocals come back again, this time more passionate in their delivery, telling us that ”God says he's away”. There is almost a post-rock vibe to it all. Heavily reverbed snares roll in and the track abruptly ends, ending the album with it.

Lustful Sacraments is Perturbator at perhaps his most progressive, offering complex song structures that frequently feature sudden turns, changes and building up and stripping down of elements. There are dynamics and subtlety to be found within the music. The album is far less in your face and aggressive than his previous works while retaining a healthy degree of energy and drive. The listener's enjoyment will heavily depend on their taste for the decidedly more human, more post-punk approach presented within. Those who were looking for hard cyberpunk dancefloor bangers are probably gonna walk away disappointed.

My initial impression was that while I enjoyed the album tremendously, I found the songwriting not to quite reach the highest peaks of Uncanny Valley. But upon repeated listening and revisiting Uncanny Valley I wasn't sure anymore. The songwriting isn't perhaps as instantly memorable as it was on Uncanny Valley or New Model, but the album rewards analytical listening more than anything Perturbator has put out before. It's a wonderfully unique prog-synth-goth experience that's executed masterfully. There really is nothing like it out there, and even if it were to spawn a wave of imitators I doubt few will ever approach Perturbator's craftsmanship.

My only real complaint is that I would have prefered the vocals to be a bit more intelligible. The style itself is fine and I'm not sure if it's a mixing issue or English being my second language, but I often had a hard time hearing what was being sung. Perhaps the choice of having the vocals be more of background tapestry or instrument amongst others was a deliberate artistic one, but I found it diminishing my enjoyment ever so slightly.

Overall, Lustful Sacraments is a wonderful triumph of artistry, craftsmanship and good taste. It is also likely a polarizing album. Not only is it a major stylistic shift, the album was preceded by a scene uproar over the Metal Hammer interview which had ”SYNTHWAVE IS DEAD” as the header. While Perturbator never said so, he stated that after Uncanny Valley he felt that the scene was reaching a saturation point and that he doesn't consider himself involved in it anymore. In some ways I find it understandable and it reminds me of Trent Reznor drifting away from industrial rock, a genre he helped to popularize to seek new inspirations. True artists are able to transcend boundaries and grow, and perhaps this is simply the direction that James Kent has chosen to grow to.

At the same time I am saddened, as I believe and hope that the scene could and should incorporate a diversity of sounds and styles. In a scene filled with ”fan” groups chock full of inane and tedious ”debates” over whether synthwave can have vocals or guitars or piano or sax in it and ”curators” procuring playlists full of samewave bass arps hammering away as background noise for gaming sessions, Lustful Sacraments should serve as an inspiration to aim higher, a lighthouse burning with dark light, a promise that limits can be transcended and true artistry can be reached.

For more Perturbator, visit: perturbator.bandcamp.com