Fun with Knives

Velvet Acid Christ | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 8, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Metropolis Records
• ASIN: B00000ID37
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,821 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Decypher

2. The Dark Inside Me

3. There Is No God

4. Icon

5. Fun With Drugs

6. Speedball O.D.

7. Psycho

8. Slut

9. Apflux

10. Fun With Knives

11. Caught

12. Track 12

13. Track 13

14. Track 14

15. Track 15

16. Track 16

17. Track 17

18. Track 18

19. Track 19

20. Track 20

See all 66 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun with Acid, August 12, 2004

By 

Stephanie Travitsky "Keeper of the Zoo" (brooklyn, new york United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fun with Knives (Audio CD)

When I told a friend of mine that I just bought Fun with Knives, he told me that The Velvet Acid Christ is cool but weird. He is right. Bryan Erikkson has a really odd sense of humor. I like his style. Influenced by Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails, he creates angry but powerful industrial dance floor music that just makes you want to go crazy. He even adds in samples of movies,ie-Fun with Drugs has Johnny Depps begining monologue from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Speedball is a song you can listen to when you are just really pissed off at your boss. Go out and get this album!

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay and obvious, February 25, 2004

By 

N. P. Stathoulopoulos "nick9155" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fun with Knives (Audio CD)

More than many other industrial albums, or whatever genre or sub-sub genre you want to throw this in, Fun With Knives seems almost too obvious, providing exactly what you would expect from the cover art and track titles.

Providing exactly what you advertise is not wrong, in fact, it's admirable in some way. But the problem is there's nothing really spectacular here, and I'm left wondering why this should be seen as any better than a good portion of Skinny Puppy or some of FLA's better work.

The biggest gripe is the sampling, of course. Sampling can be great, but working an entire piece around a big chunk of the drug speech from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is beyond obvious. C'mon. Good sampling can leave you with a quote in your head that means nothing alone but has bee given weight in the song. You don't want to know the samples already, especially on an overly cliched drug song.

The dark, industrial sound is all there. Select certain synths over a 4/4 beat, and it's industrial, select different synths, and it's another sub-genre...etc. There's a good energy, there's mischief and some demented thoughts, it's basically a pretty good album, but not very distinguished in the end--it won't hold up.

Recommended if you like VAC, or music of a similar vein. But you may find yourself thinking you had the same ideas before you played the album...

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overused sampling and slightly FLA wannabee-ish, July 12, 2005

By 

meh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fun with Knives (Audio CD)

I bought Fun With Knives yesterday when I had not even heard anything by VAC, I'd heard they were good, and it was 10$... so I was like "what the hell" and went with it. I do not regret the decision, but I'm not overjoyed by it. The album is a very solid industrial album, bleak, deep, slightly dancy and overall very dark and angry. Fans of "The Downward Spiral"/"Broken" era Nine Inch Nails, "The Mind is a Terrible thing to Taste" era Ministry, Skinny Puppy or Front Line Assembly can not really go wrong here. Sadly, this is more similar to Front Line Assembly's Implode than basically anything, even other FLA albums. It is good, but takes the genre in no new directions, and considering the possibilities that electronica has, it is somewhat disapointing.

My only other gripe is the sampling, there is way too much of it. The "this place is a tomb" or "are we dealing with an epidemic??" on FLA's Implode stuck in my head for a full day after hearing them. Fun With Knives is so overloaded with samples, and they were powerful when I heard them, but minutes later all I would remember was something about violence, killing people or drugs and not much else. Sometimes things are better when used with restraint.

Despite this, it is a good goth/industrial electronica album that will not leave you disapointed. Be warned - I doubt you will be blown away with it either.