Search - Velvet Acid Christ :: Neuroblastoma

Best VAC cd ever made

Music Fan | 08/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Metropolis released this as a limited 2500 copies. This was my first album of VAC. It is a compilation of remastered songs from his first three albums: Fate, Pestilence, and Neuroblastoma. The songs are more industrial than the gothy-techno music with too many movie samples he makes now. The songs are more reclusive and layered. He actually uses some noise along with more creative samples in these tracks. The last track Sadder Still is amazing and unlike the others. I love the lyrics to Revolution 101 and Intussusception."

You Worship Your Death on a Cross

TastyBabySyndrome | "Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Lit | 02/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Its really hard to limit the praises you give a band that takes darkwave with a message, adds in songs about "hearing the flesh rip" and "putting you in a garbage disposal and ripping you into a million pieces" while spitting in the face of garbled noise that outlets like the 700 Club call "thinking," and that's because "loathing with meaning" is hard to find. You can get a little hatred and a few lines about meathooks from other mediums, true, but when can you really say you've found a source that revels in drug-culture, depravity, political messages that scream REVOLT, and that writes murder beats at the same time? That's one thing I like about VAC, because they always keep their constants; rage and the granting of deathwishes for a myriad of reasons, and they keep building on this through sampling and evolvng sounds sounds. Added to this is the fact that they also take stands where you expect them socially and politically, speaking out about right-wing hatreds and religious bigotry and reacting with violence against mouthpieces that spout violence. Instead of rolling over and playing dead, they scream MURDER and tell you to REVOLT- and that's such a pretty sound when pressed into the soul.



When looking through the array of VAC albums that have been pressed, I'm not sure I can say that I like one more than the other. They all have a flair of their own, a little gift for lifetaking all to themselves, and I'm partial to quite a few flavors. That said, I have to say that Neuroblastoma is one of the better ones out there and that the 2500 original pressings seemed quite shocking when taken into account. The shock is because a lot of classical pinpointing of bigotry comes from this album, ranging from Serial Killer 101 (being re-released on Between the Eyes Volume - something) and Satan Complex #42 to Intrussusception and Masked Illusion. Different songs have different meanings too, with some simply "beating the murder drum" and some deeper within their concepts.



Satan Complex # 42 is perhaps a great fusion of both, working as both an angry ballad and a great example of thinking inside the politically-charged killing box. With statements like "governments tool to keep you a passivist, yeah right like the governments cover up scams" working up a flurry of denouncements for this system and then a soundclip coming in that says "Do you renounce Satan and all of his works?" and the lovely mouthpiece replying "F-no, I worship the devil too" right before adding in "subversive, collective, overthrow the establishment." You have to love the attitude driving ideas like that, because the seethe. Revolution 101 also hits this medium with its "johnny take your gun to the corner, to the square, raise hell bring it all down, revolution 101" message that actually talks about building a worker state, as does Intrussusception (and it spits on the 700 Club -not difficult to do but fun) in a more spiritually-oriented fashion.



These pieces listed, I have to add that I'm partial to the entirety of the album because it works as a whole. Songs like "Planck's Constant" are entertaining hybrids that combine religious loathing with electro/latin hybridization, and "The Hopeless" is such a lovely place to play in. I'd personally like to see a lot of this album retouched to add a little oomph to the sounds, it maybe benefiting from newer means of touching up the audio, but I'll stay with this as a whole because the songs are simply addictive. As I said before, this is one of VACs better albums, ranking pretty highly on the "scorn and the retaliation" meter.

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