The vicious maelstrom of conceptual debauchery and drop-tuned whiplash that is VASTUM’s sophomore LP, Patricidal Lust, brandishes the San Franciscan quintet’s most demoralizing hymns to date, the nearly forty-minute duration of Patricidal Lust succumbs the listener to some of the most viscerally haunting imagery amidst its calculated, mid-paced attack the crew is becoming infinitely infamous for. Patricidal Lust has been ripped from the muse’s womb through turmoil and strife, reflected not only in the morbid hyper-realism of the album’s content but in the making of the record itself which presented scenarios of devastating real life tragedy, numerous delays, departed members and a sense of frustration by all involved. It’s an album born in pain, recorded with both Jeff Davis (R.I.P.) and later with Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios. Patricidal Lust has an atmosphere of eerie foreboding enshrouding the doomed death metal husk, while lyrically delving inwardly into subject matter first seen on Carnal Law; the anguish and confusion associated with sexual abuse and incest and the blurry area where eroticism and madness vaporize into an unrecognizable fog of horror, the hellbound heart exposed. Certain to leave a lasting impression, Patricial Lust lies at the core of obscene abominations too real for ordinary bands to pursue. Enter VASTUM’s theatre bizarre. The CD version bears cover artwork by Paolo "Madman" Girardi, while the LP bears alternate artwork by VASTUM vocalist Daniel Butler. [20 Buck Spin]