📅 Release Date: 9 September 2026
💿 Record Company: Ipecac
🏷️ Record Label: Ipecac Recordings
💿 Taken From: The Pulse Of Atoms
If you thought putting dark ambient pioneer Lustmord in a room with legendary former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo might produce something slightly unusual, congratulations — you were absolutely bloody right.
Operating together as LUSTMORD LOMBARDO, the pair have released their second single, “The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence”, another deeply atmospheric glimpse into their forthcoming collaborative album, The Pulse Of Atoms.
The album arrives on 2 October 2026 through Ipecac Recordings, and if you’re expecting Lombardo to simply unleash a barrage of Slayer-style thrash drumming over some spooky background noises, think again.
This is something considerably stranger.
Darker.
More cinematic.
And very, very far away from conventional rock ’n’ roll. 🌑🥁
🌊 “The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence”
Clocking in at nearly nine minutes, “The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence” isn’t interested in rushing towards an enormous chorus or delivering a neat three-minute blast of instant gratification.
This is about atmosphere.
Lombardo describes the piece as a meditative landscape and a gradual descent into an abyss, with shifting rhythms creating the sensation that the ground itself is constantly moving underneath you.
And that gives you a pretty good indication of what sort of journey LUSTMORD LOMBARDO are inviting us on.
Rather than following traditional song structures, this collaboration is built around evolving soundscapes, enormous walls of sound, percussion, electronics and textures designed to pull the listener deeper into its world.
It’s less “here comes the chorus” and more “where the hell has the floor gone?”
Lovely stuff. 😈
🥁 Dave Lombardo Like You’ve Rarely Heard Him Before
Of course, Dave Lombardo needs very little introduction around these parts.
As a founding member of Slayer, his ferocious playing helped shape some of the most influential thrash and extreme metal ever recorded.
But Lombardo has never been content simply sitting behind a kit and playing one particular style for the rest of his career.
His CV stretches far beyond Slayer, including work with Fantômas, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Mr. Bungle and Misfits, alongside numerous experimental collaborations.
His 2023 solo album Rites Of Percussion also demonstrated just how far his fascination with rhythm and percussion extends beyond conventional metal drumming.
LUSTMORD LOMBARDO pushes that experimental streak even further.
On The Pulse Of Atoms, Lombardo contributes drums, percussion, synthesised elements and editing, becoming part of the surrounding atmosphere rather than simply providing a beat underneath it.
For anyone who primarily knows Lombardo as the bloke responsible for some of thrash metal’s most devastating drumming, this is another opportunity to hear a completely different side of him.
🌑 Enter Lustmord
Then we have Lustmord, aka Brian Williams.
A hugely influential figure within dark ambient and industrial music, Lustmord has spent decades exploring the deepest, bleakest corners of sound.
His work incorporates drones, field recordings, enormous low frequencies and cinematic sound design, creating music that often feels less like a collection of songs and more like stepping inside another environment.
His career has also included collaborations with artists including Melvins, Tool, Nurse With Wound and Wes Borland, while his work has extended into film, television and video games.
Put that approach alongside Lombardo’s instinctive relationship with percussion and rhythm and suddenly this peculiar collaboration starts making a lot of sense.
These are two musicians fascinated by sound itself.
Not simply riffs.
Not simply beats.
Sound.
And what happens when you push it somewhere uncomfortable.
🤘 Nearly Two Decades In The Making
The origins of LUSTMORD LOMBARDO stretch back much further than 2026.
Lustmord and Lombardo originally met backstage at a Fantômas show after being introduced by mutual friend Buzz Osborne of Melvins.
Nearly two decades later, the pair finally came together creatively.
Rather than approaching the project like a conventional band, Lustmord constructed evolving sonic environments before Lombardo added percussion and synthesizer layers.
The material was then shaped, arranged, mixed and mastered into what became The Pulse Of Atoms.
The result promises to combine Lustmord’s industrial and dark ambient foundations with a side of Lombardo that even longtime metal fans may not have encountered before.
And Lombardo himself has spoken enthusiastically about how different the project is from anything else he’s created.
When somebody with Dave Lombardo’s CV says a record feels unlike anything else he’s done, our ears immediately start twitching. 👀
🔥 Second Taste Of The Pulse Of Atoms
“The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence” follows the previously released “Paleomagnetic Resonance”, an almost eight-minute composition that offered the first proper glimpse into this collaboration.
Now the second single pushes listeners further into the strange world surrounding The Pulse Of Atoms.
And there’s more to “The Desolate Shore” than this first instalment.
The forthcoming album immediately follows “Submergence” with “The Desolate Shore Part II: Emergence”, suggesting the two pieces form part of a much larger sonic journey.
Judging by the titles alone, we’re apparently being dragged into the abyss before eventually being allowed back out.
Hopefully.
No promises. 😂
💿 The Pulse Of Atoms Is Coming
LUSTMORD LOMBARDO’s debut collaborative album, The Pulse Of Atoms, arrives on 2 October 2026 via Ipecac Recordings.
The seven-track record was written, recorded and produced by Lustmord and Lombardo, with Lustmord handling sonics, mixing and mastering while Lombardo contributed drums, percussion, synthetics and editing.
The album will be available digitally alongside physical editions including CD and limited vinyl variants.
💿 The Pulse Of Atoms – Tracklist
- An Eternal Presence Part I: Unknown
- An Eternal Presence Part II: Relentless
- Paleomagnetic Resonance
- Beyond The Vast Cold Waste
- The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence
- The Desolate Shore Part II: Emergence
- The Abyssal Deep
🎸 The Riff Report Says…
This is exactly the sort of wonderfully strange project we love seeing musicians tackle.
Dave Lombardo could quite comfortably spend the rest of his career smashing seven shades of hell out of a drum kit while crowds scream his name, and nobody would complain.
Instead, he keeps wandering down increasingly interesting musical rabbit holes.
Pairing him with Lustmord feels less like forming another conventional band and more like conducting some sort of gigantic sonic experiment in a darkened underground laboratory.
“The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence” isn’t trying to become your new gym playlist anthem.
It wants headphones.
It wants darkness.
It wants volume.
And preferably it wants the neighbours wondering whether something enormous has awakened underneath the bloody house.
With The Pulse Of Atoms arriving in October, LUSTMORD LOMBARDO are shaping up to deliver one of 2026’s more fascinating heavy-music curveballs.
Two musical worlds have collided.
The shoreline is disappearing.
And Dave Lombardo is apparently drumming us directly into the abyss.
Geronimo. 🤘🌊🥁
🎵 Single Details
Artist: LUSTMORD LOMBARDO
Single: “The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence”
Release Date: 9 September 2026
Record Company: Ipecac
Record Label: Ipecac Recordings
Genre: Dark Ambient / Industrial / Experimental
Taken From: The Pulse Of Atoms
Album Release Date: 2 October 2026
Written & Produced By: Lustmord & Dave Lombardo
🎸 The Riff Report – Supporting rock, metal and the glorious racket in between.
