Brandon the banjo-brigand becomes Brandon the axe-wielding big-band incubus on this ensemble recording, a fussy web of clandestine passageways and confounding wrong turns. Die Trommel Fatale was conceived as a polyrhythmic crypt for nefarious percussive arts, but while the cymbal-less tubs tap into a primal tumult, it's Seabrook himself who sends the shivers. His six-string seems to wriggle like an unctuous larvae pupating beneath rotten floorboards or under a cyborg's synthetic skin, stalking down the ill-fated routes of a deep-beeping R2 unit in slaloms of slime, the little guy bravely running the horror-filled corridors of Frederick Loren's haunted pile. Vocalist Chuck Bettis interjects as the Grand Guignol's devilish ringmaster, equal parts shadowy voyeur and malevolent choir master. Imagine John Zorn writing soundtracks for Argento flicks with Fantômas sessioning the score. Whole heaps of creepy fun.