Murder, death, disease and criminal behavior have long been topics of song in the Western World. The Tiger Lillies, a London-based trio, push that sort of subject matter just about as far as anyone you'll ever hear.

The Lillies play a sort of rock-informed cabaret. Over a rhythm laid down by Adrian Stout on double bass and Adrian Huge (those may possibly be stage names) on an incredible drum-set tricked out with all kinds of found objects, toys and noisemakers, songwriter Martyn Jacques, playing accordion, piano, organ and various string instruments, sings in a learing counter-tenor.

And what songs they are! On two collections not reviewed here, they put to music some of the macabre verses of the late artist/poet Edward Gorey; and an antique book full of gruesome German cautionary tales called "Shockheaded Peter," in which children who do all those things they're told not to do pay the ultimate price.

In the two discs under review, Brothel gives a good overview of the various subjects and styles in the Lillies' repertoire, while The Sea is limited in scope to songs about sailors and the sea.

Brothel has 19 tracks, most of them mercifully short. Jacques sets his theme, paints his horrid lyrical picture, and goes on to the next one. Jaunty circus-like tunes, bouncy waltzes and rocking marches give way to pensive ballads and appalling dirges. A few of the highlights: "Roll Up," the opening track, a rollicking portrait of sideshow freaks accompanied by wailing organ and a trombone that hoots in call-and-response mode on the chorus; "Terrible," a boasting song to a rhumba beat, in which a reprobate separates his days by his horrible deeds -- strangling children, mutilating animals, sodomizing virgins and defecating on church steps -- followed by the chorus, "I'm terrible, terrible, shouldn't be allowed/to sing my songs of filth to a decent crowd"; and "Heaven to Hell," a slow, folky number on fingerpicked guitar, in which the protagonist laments how boring heaven is: St. Peter tells bad jokes, the angels are haughty, the saints are preachy and Jesus is a guitar-playing fop who sings like Joni Mitchell.

If that stops you, then don't read on. Still with me? OK.

I'm not Catholic, but I've read plenty of novels in which Catholic children growing up are told that every time they commit a sin, they're crucifying Jesus all over again. The Tiger Lillies have taken this truly lamentable doctrine and created the absolutely most blasphemous song I've ever heard, "Banging in the Nails," which Jacques sings with particular malice and relish. It's a true show-stopper, and as over-the-top as you'll ever hear.

It's balanced by "Alone With the Moon," a lovely, sad and chilling ballad of existential angst, with Jacques in particularly fine voice on some incredibly high notes. "Searching for sunlight there in your room/trawling for one light there in the gloom/you dream of a better day/alone with the moon/all things and nothing/there in your tomb..."

The album's a bit too long, with a few too many slow songs piled together at the end, but where it's good, it's very, very bad, if you know what I mean.

The Sea is a bit of a disappointment. The idea of a theme is a good one, and this particular theme provides a lot of latitude to the songwriter. This one has songs about a man who braves the consequences of a life of crime rather than go to sea, where he lost all his brothers ("Louis"), another man pressed into the navy, then into a mutiny, and finally hanged as a pirate ("Pressganged"), a lullaby with verses about victims of violence on the portside ("Luis Miller"), a young woman who kills herself and her illegitimate child after a lusty encounter with a sailor ("Devil's Child"), and the successful businesses conducted in all kinds of portside parlours: tattoo, massage and funeral. A particularly nice touch is "Drunken Sailor," a litany of all the nasty things done by the eponymous character, ending with the familiar chorus of "what shall we do..."

The trouble with this album is that it has only two tempos: slow and slower. A bit of up-tempo sea-shanty arrangement would fit many of these songs and lend some interest and variety. I was nodding off like a tar after a double ration of grog about midway through the disc.

If you've got a strong stomach, an open mind and a dark, dark, dark sense of humor, you'll probably find the Tiger Lillies right up your alley. And a filthy, vermin-infested alley it is.

You can find these discs and many more at the Tiger Lillies Web site. Be warned, though. The Web site is as grossly explicit as the music.