“The fetid fungi” is the second spoken word album by musical mastermind David Thrussel (Better know as Snog or Black Lung). Following up “The voices of reason” released in 2000 it once again centres around David’s voice accompanied by sinister and weird sounds.

The album kicks of with an instrumental intro. A very dark melody keeps on repeating whilst haunting strings play along in the background. The mood for the things to come is set in a very efficient way. The intro slowly dies out and a female voice takes over for the second track which also starts off the spoken part of the album. In comes the gloomy and crackling voice of David Thrussell, he tells us about evil mushrooms from outer space, chewing on gum of hate, dreams, ears and all other kinds of bizarre tales. David rhymes in a fairytale like rhythm, echoing through a void with nothing but darkness to surround each and every word that comes out of his mouth. It is as if he sits alone in a cold abandoned space telling these stories for no reason other than injecting fear into the heart of the listener. The accompanying music is used in such great harmony with the spoken words that they form a hypnotizing whirlwind of dismal emotions in every track. This is what would have happened if the brothers Grimm where suddenly possessed by devils. Little red riding hood as the leading actress in the Exorcist. Every second of this album oozes utter and complete darkness with such conviction that it almost becomes scary to listen to. The big question then becomes: is this CD something that you will want to listen to and more specifically listen to more than once?

The answer is that “The fetid fungi” is probably not something you will listen to over and over again like “real” music. But that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not worth owning. As this releases also contains the short but intriguing movie “ringtone” and a 52 pages full colour book with illustrations (which I unfortunately didn’t get, but I safely assume that it is of the same quality as the rest of the release) you get a hell lot of entertainment for a small investment of 16 euros. “The fetid fungi” is worth every euro you pay for it even if you only enjoy it once. This is so much more than sound alone; it is a small work of art. In the ever declining music industry the room that there once for these kinds of projects is getting smaller and smaller, so to still release it with such flair and magical presentation deserves nothing but the utmost respect and support.