Been awhile since I've picked up a Band Of Pain album; the last actual full length that we got here at C-Blast was 2003's Qu� Amiga?. I'm still waiting to hear something new from this venerable dark ambient outfit, but in the meantime Cold Spring has reissued this sinister soundtrack that BOP's Steve Pittia (also a founding member of cult UK noise rockers Splintered) did for Nigel Wingrove's controversial nun/blasphemy/art-sleaze flick Sacred Flesh in 2000. Sacred Flesh is probably the finest original score to a nunsploitation flick I've heard, as Pittia crafts a series of twelve pitch-black soundscapes that evokes all manner of fleshen debasements, religious/sexual imagery and descents into the bestial nature of the self.

Opening theme "Sacred Flesh" blends ominous orchestral elements with mysterious percussive sounds and sparse rhythmic noises before leading into the lush synth-horror of "Elizabeth, Bride Of Christ", where vast rumbling, buzzing synth drones undulate in the abyss, emitting clouds of Lustmordian dread and cavernous reverberations, where the lusty whispers of "Christ's wives" are buried beneath more demonic-sounding utterances and the thick, slow-drifting sound of symphonic strings being processed into evil drones. The tracks that follow vary in feel and texture while remaining consistently ominous and threatening throughout: "Strength To Resist" features muted, abstract orchestral ambience and blackened electronic drones, while "Submission" conjures bizarre images as the sounds of running water course through orgasmic moans, stretched out organ drones and grim synth/string arrangements. Pounding industrial percussion hammers away relentlessly under "In Media Vita"'s bleak expanse of forlorn-sounding strings, colorless keys and the sound of a crackling bonfire, and the nightmarish ecstasies of "Beat Out Desire" introduce a grinding machine-like rhythm and an infectious grungy bass line that slithers alongside liturgical sounds, the howling of nuns lost in the throes of orgasmic bliss. Most of this soundtrack is made up of massive orchestral nightscapes, though, carrying with them a pervasive atmosphere of spiritual desolation and dread. There's even shades of John Carpenter that appear here, specifically in the black synths of "Sister Ann".

I'm pretty sure this is the most evil-sounding piece of music that Band Of Pain has produced, and fans of Atrium Carceri, later Lustmord and Endvra will dig this for sure.