For nearly four decades, David Thrussell has occupied a singular position within the darker fringes of experimental culture. Whether through SNOG‘s caustic social commentary, Black Lung‘s ritualistic industrial soundscapes, or his many ventures into film, spoken word and sonic storytelling, his work has persistently questioned the narratives that shape our perception of reality. With his latest project, a full adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu created alongside Darrin Verhagen (Shinjuku Thief) and released on 19th June by Metropolis Records, Thrussell enters territory that feels both new and strangely familiar: a universe where hidden forces, forbidden knowledge and existential uncertainty reign supreme. In this conversation, he reflects on cosmic horror, technology as modern occultism, artistic ritual, the enduring power of myth, and why some truths may be too vast for human comprehension.
Chain D.L.K.: Howdy David! You’ve previously explored themes of technology, power, control, paranoia and hidden systems in projects such as SNOG and Black Lung. What drew you specifically to Lovecraft’s vision of cosmic horror, and did it feel like a natural extension of concerns you’ve been examining for years?
David Thrussell: Many moons ago, when I was but a small child of tender years, my father had a cassette of David McCallum reading H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Rats In The Walls’ (I still have that cassette). And I would listen to it over and over again – barely understanding the narrative but in love with the language, the concepts and the menace of a past forgotten and out of reach.
Chain D.L.K.: Why did you choose “The Call of Cthulhu” rather than another Lovecraft story? Was there a particular aspect of that narrative that felt especially relevant in 2026?
David Thrussell: The opening paragraph proper, is truly one of my favourite moments in literature:
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Whatever you may or may not want to say about Lovecraft, he clearly – on some level – understood.
Chain D.L.K.: The release notes suggest that Lovecraft’s work resonates today through feelings of alienation, atomisation and loss of identity. Do you see modern society as becoming more Lovecraftian, or have humans always lived with those anxieties and simply found new names for them?
David Thrussell: Beyond the grim slapstick of geopolitics and the dismal hubbub of media and culture, the world is formed, directed and driven by occult forces that are almost entirely outside of our senses and perception. This has always been so, but the current era might have precipitated an unusually concrete manifestation of spectral influences. Perhaps because the technology that dominates our lives is so violently occult… perhaps for other reasons unknown… but I can’t escape the sensation that the Elder Gods are, in some sense, very real – mocking us, entrapping us and toying with us as we stand caged in our Disneyland Of The Gods.
Chain D.L.K.: You have worked across music, film, spoken word and sound design. When adapting literature, where do you draw the line between faithfully serving the original text and reinterpreting it through your own artistic voice?
David Thrussell: I see Lovecraft as scripture and mythos. The voice of Reality, as it truly is. Naturally, some regard Lovecraft as a mere trifle, an entertainment. But the best artists are prophets and seers – gateways, channels, clairvoyants. Lovecraft was a conduit for eternal truths and we aim to also conduct those same eternal truths through the fragile frequency of our flesh and blood.
Chain D.L.K.: Your narration has often carried a distinctive mix of authority, irony and unease. How did you approach the voice of “The Call of Cthulhu”? Were you performing as a storyteller, a witness, or almost as a character within the nightmare itself?
David Thrussell: I physically prepare myself to give the best, truest reading possible. I fast for a week beforehand and shun the beguiling demons of technology. Psychically, I clear the noise within and without and then aim to channel not Lovecraft himself, but the elemental, primal Voice that surely Howard was also merely a carrier for.
Chain D.L.K.: The project pairs your spoken narration with Darrin Verhagen soundtrack. How did the collaboration develop? Did the music follow the text, or did the text begin responding to the atmosphere created by the music?
David Thrussell: Darrin works in a studio called the Black Box. It is possible to entirely isolate the building so that no sound at all can enter (or leave) and to also render the entire building in complete darkness. We spent many days on end in a pitch black and silent environment, with no external stimuli of any kind. Our aim was to ritualise the composition. I had memorised the text verbatim and Darrin manipulated his machines in complete darkness. It is important to en-magic the process itself beyond mere drudgery… into a sacred realm.
Chain D.L.K.: Shinjuku Thief has long explored psychological and metaphysical darkness through sound. What qualities did Darrin bring to this project that made him the ideal collaborator for a Lovecraft adaptation?
David Thrussell: Darrin has a deep background in metaphysical and paranormal investigations, which I don’t think he has discussed often publicly. As a scholar and academic, he has interrogated the physical and psychic manifestations of sound and frequency in both public and private spaces – sometimes using audiences to conduct notable experiments in audio-psycho-geography (in group and individual situations). I probably shouldn’t say more.
Chain D.L.K.: Cosmic horror is often described as the fear of humanity’s insignificance. Do you find that idea terrifying, liberating, or perhaps even comforting?
David Thrussell: I find the idea both true and false. In the vast cosmic rumble of an incomprehensible universe, our time is fleeting yet quietly miraculous. The Frankensteinian spark of life is the great animator, the lightning bolt that opens the door to the wonderous and mysterious. With all our pains, torments and tribulations – the universe is still as it should be.
Chain D.L.K.: Lovecraft’s imagination remains enormously influential, yet his personal prejudices are also well documented. How do you engage with the work of an artist whose creative legacy and personal worldview sit in such uncomfortable tension?
David Thrussell: As Dave Gahan said, ‘People Are People’. I suspect those who do the most ‘thoughtpolicing’ have the least to offer and the most to hide.
Chain D.L.K.: Many listeners associate SNOG with social and political critique. Do you think horror can sometimes communicate truths about society more effectively than overt political commentary?
David Thrussell: Our dear Gnostic friends consider all life to be a kind of horror pantomime. The product and plaything of a cruel or blind Demiurge. All art says something, even if it says nothing – the very fact of its nothingness illuminates the gaping maw in the soul of the greater mass. The best ‘horror’ art works with symbolism, and in a world of shadows, symbolism is a necessary language.
Chain D.L.K.: Your work frequently examines systems of control, whether corporate, governmental or cultural. In Lovecraft’s universe, however, there isn’t necessarily a mastermind pulling the strings, just vast indifferent forces. Is that a more frightening proposition?
David Thrussell: Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. Lovecraft wielded the ‘unknown’ like a vast promethean brush across the uncaring canvas of eternity. ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. Thus, from our flawed, limited human perspective we witness the echoes of processes we rarely, if ever, understand.
Chain D.L.K.: You’ve spoken in past interviews about maintaining a sense of mystery and skepticism toward accepted narratives. Does cosmic horror appeal to you because it preserves uncertainty rather than resolving it?
David Thrussell: Swirling occult forces surround us like a howling midnight hurricane. The shrill voices of materialism and rationality are like candy-coated robots, reading from a madman’s script written in the bowels of Hell. We live in the era of ‘flooding the zone’ – the deliberate construction of ‘confusion’ as a zeitgeist. Scepticism is the new logic, doubt the new sanity.
Chain D.L.K.: The album follows your 2025 collaboration with Gwenn Tremorin on “Nyarlathotep And Other Tales Of Cosmic Dread”. What did you learn from that project that influenced this new adaptation?
David Thrussell: The recordings made for ‘Nyarlathotep And Other Tales Of Cosmic Dread’ were an intense experience for both myself and Gwenn. Psychically drained, we have both attempted to repair ourselves through patience and silence. For those who truly attempt to make meaningful art, every release is like a piece of your soul scattered to the world. We will never be the same again.
Chain D.L.K.: When creating dark and unsettling work, how do you avoid merely reproducing horror clichs and instead create something genuinely disturbing or thought-provoking?
David Thrussell: Discard the pop-culture detritus, mute the noise of mass madness and groupthink clutter. Through ritual and process, attempt to connect with the original source. Modernity is a monster. A soul-eating kraken. Escape the Now to see it more clearly.
Chain D.L.K.: You have often combined serious ideas with satire, absurdity and dark humour. Is humour compatible with cosmic horror, or does it undermine the spell?
David Thrussell: The universe is laughing at us. Whether you laugh back is entirely up to you. Likewise, the Occult Regents mock us at every turn. Should we not use a dark, gallows humour to break their spells, their incantations of servitude?
Chain D.L.K.: Over the decades you’ve moved between industrial music, ambient soundscapes, techno, film scores and spoken-word works. Do you view these as separate disciplines, or as different tools for exploring the same questions?
David Thrussell: Whether they are the same disciplines, or not… I see them as the same puzzle. The same hurdle to be crossed. The same joust to be won. Whether industrial music or spoken arts, hopefully they all travel toward the same elemental truth or primordial necessity. Do you use a pen or a pencil? Depends on what is required… what is available… and what is possible.
Chain D.L.K.: Many artists become more stylistically predictable with time. Your catalogue seems to move in the opposite direction. What still surprises you creatively after nearly four decades of activity?
David Thrussell: I have, somewhat deliberately, divorced myself from the mainstream and the alternative. The fashion and the anti-fashion. They are clearly not interested in me, and I am certainly not interested in them. The loathing is mutual. What interests me is the hidden, the unspoken, the marginal and the forbidden. Truth is hidden in the cracks.
Chain D.L.K.: A recurring theme in both Lovecraft’s fiction and your own work is the unreliability of official explanations. Do you think contemporary audiences are more skeptical than previous generations, or simply overwhelmed by competing narratives?
David Thrussell: That’s a good question. Both, I would assume. Institutional psychological operations target sanity. The ‘State’ is now, silently, at war against the population. They ‘flood the zone’ to render the search for meaning and comprehension impossible and/or meaningless.
Chain D.L.K.: The physical edition has been presented as a deluxe double LP with striking artwork. In an era of streaming and disposable content, what does the vinyl format allow this project to communicate that a digital release cannot?
David Thrussell: In a world of transience and nano-disposability, a physical artwork is a small revolt against the avalanche of digital debris and mumbling madness. To create dark, yet beautiful, yet meaningful artefacts the lonely howl against the shrieking hunger of the insatiable machine-monster.
Chain D.L.K.: After spending so much time inhabiting Lovecraft’s universe, what aspect of “The Call of Cthulhu” stayed with you personally once the recording was finished?
David Thrussell: He understood.
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