Artist: Velvet Acid Christ (VAC)
Album: The Art of Breaking Apart
Release Date: August 2009
Label: Metropolis Records
Genre: Alternative, Electro-Industrial, Techno

I am a longtime fan of Bryan Erickson’s Velvet Acid Christ. Over the years, VAC has put out some solid, dark electro industrial music. If you have heard Bryan’s music before, keep in mind that The Art of Breaking Apart is not like his other releases. There are some tracks that still have that “electro-evil” feel of prior albums, but Bryan made a sharp departure from some of his other work and I’m glad he did.

Take the pulsing ‘Vaporized’ to the gritty ‘Phucked Up Phreak’, and add ‘Caustic Disco’ with ‘Killed in Space’ and you have plenty of beat to stomp to death even the largest smurf. Now take the ominous, moody sounds of ‘Black Rainbows’, ‘Killing A Stranger’, ‘Silver’, ‘Amnesia’ and the title track and you have the sweet sounds of a lurking doom.

If you are looking for a purely EBM, electro-industrial album, this ain’t it. This is an album of darkness and reaches both the throbbing beats of the dance floor as well as depths found only while lost in thought. This is no cheery ride people, but in my opinion, it’s a good one. 3 out of 5 stars.