Lustmord first emerged as an associate of SPK in the early '80s, before embarking on a solo career that has yielded such classics as Heresy (1990), The Place Where the Black Stars Hang (1994) and (with Robert Rich) Stalker (1995). Lustmord has also contributed to numerous Hollywood films as music and sound designer, and collaborated with the likes of Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Geir Jenssen, The Melvins, Tool, Aaron Turner, Monte Cazazza, and Coil's Jhon Balance. Sometimes described as "dark ambient," his work simply goes deeper and further than conventional ambient dares to. Half a decade in the making, The Word as Power is his new studio album and an exploration of ritual music without dogma. For the first time in his 33-year career, Lustmord places vocals at the center of his abyssal ambient creations, coaxing incantatory performances out of Aina Skinnes Olsen, Jarboe (ex-Swans), Maynard James Keenan (Tool), and Soriah. Sonically, The Word as Power is even more detailed, expansive and consuming than Lustmord's followers have come to expect, with voices, electronics, immense sub-bass, field recordings, and other acoustic phenomena harnessed and arranged to stimulate feelings of dread and desolation, certainly, but also escape, renewal and rebirth.