Customer Reviews

Twisted Thought Generator

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a fan of EBM, I would like to say that this CD is an excellent purchase and well worth the money spent on it. The samples are great, the beats range in different speeds making the CD virtually flawless, and most of all it's fun to listen to during good times... (you know).

Velvet Acid Christ continues to put together songs that have multiple layers and a slightly different sound compared to all previous albums. The surprise comes when you put it into your PC and discover that there is an entire "extra" album on the CD in MP3 format with a readme file from Bryan himself telling you that the extra tracks are for his hardcore fans. All the extra tracks are extremely experimental in nature and created in a mind altered state and "well" worth listening too. Overall, I was very impressed with this entire album and look forward to the next offering.

This album is quite good and worth the money. It only as nine tracks, but they are all long and excellant. The first track "Velvet Pill" is awsome. It is very dark, and melodic. It also has amazing pianos and synths. The next song, "Dial 8" is very techno/trance influenced. It as lots of fast beats and melodic interludes which make it very enjoyable. The third track, "Mindphlux" is probably the least good, but still enjoyable. It is instrumental and should not of been. Track 4, "Lysergia" is awsome because of its evil beats and vocals. This is probably my favorite. "Asphixia" is aslo good. It starts out technoish, but then gets melodic with more pianos. "Never Worship" is excellant also. It starts out very dancy with an awsome beat. About half way through the beat changes into something dark and technoish which is very awsome. The next song "Crypsule" has a wierd, but cool synthline. This song actually has something close to a chorus wich is very cool. "Hypersphere" is probably the best instrumental song I have ever heard. It has the coolest beats and synthlines. The synthlines change a lot but are always awsome and very dark. The final track "Diloudid" is brilliant. It has very melodic beats and a female chorus. It is my second favorite track. Definiatly buy the CD if you like electronic music cause it is amazing.

"Twisted Thought Generator" was my first ever VAC disk, and quite frankly I love it. Personally, I prefer a more Dancefloor/EBM/ElectroIndustrial style of music, but this CD blew me away. As where most EBM/Industrial is designed for dancefloors (even Skinny Puppy was!), this is slower, more menacing and more of a listening album.

The album's theme is a drug-tormented suicide spiral that nearly cost Bryan his life, and its expressed well with dark, distorted (although restrained) vocals, very depressing samples, and menacing sequences. However, the sound of the album is not pure Industrial, as it lays off the drums and instead you have an album that is utterly tranced out. Normally I would hate it, but it was an utterly insane version of Trance that would give a Raver a heart attack.

My only complaint about this album is that there are too many samples, but I don't think that it sufficiently damages the album to cost it a star.

Overall, an utterly brilliant and moody piece of Darkwave/Industrial/EBM/Trance. Buy it.

VAC has become a staple with regards to beats involving bleak social outlooks, tipping its hat to both rage and anger and the need to progressively spit into the eye of dogma. Earlier works take a more violent tone with that, the middle works a wider spectrum, and the later works a little bit of everything learned in the motion. As a sonic body that means variety in some ways but in a specific field, and with specific elements in the music. Voxing, darkwave beats and sampling, and negative emotive rainbows; that is the staple holding it all together.

Unlike other VAC albums, this is more of an introspective piece dealing with depression and the needs of the self-destructive. In it Bryan credits this to a few things, saying that he was going to make an album with upbeat lyrics and turned to MDMA (X/E) to craft the piece. The problem was that he had issues in his life and personal problems and that his trip into ecstasy became bleaker as he walked that line. You can see it in the songs themselves, with the songs falling further down and the thoughts coiling and twisting like syllabic nooses.
And that makes good listening.

While I'm partial to the work as a whole, there are specific tunes I pick out when I want to showcase the album. The first of three I normally turn to is Lysergia, because it is a template for a variety of VAC themes and because it shows the direction the album goes. It keeps its beat and grows dark, splinting, with lyrics like "Acid dreams and nicotine, violent screams from a mezzanine" echoing over and over again until it hit that "and to this night there is no end" conclusion.
I also like Dial8 because it has a few elements I'm fond of, and uses the other side of the voxing that Byran works well with. Instead of the mere shadows of lyrics it contains both electronica and darkness, and it grows in its angst.
As a last example I'll pick out Dilaudid, because it changes the course of the album a little more, slowing the sounds but darkening the tempo a little more, and giving something akin to pain to the noise coming form inside. I always liked the lyrics when they're slowed to a crawl, almost human and yet haunting, and this song carries that sound.
(and this, by no means, discounts other tracks because songs like Asphixia are great)

As far as VAC albums go, this is definitely one to pick up because it helps capture the scope of what VAC can do. As I said before, this is an internal slideshow of a person actually beginning to fall apart and recording it, so it has power in it. And I like albums associated with the ugly side of living, because that's oftentimes the place we're running from when we knock on music's door.
"I could have been the parasite chewing holes in this life you so cheaply passed on."

Probably the question Bryan Erickson is asking quietly. Every new album he creates, you can tell he tries new things. New work seems to be a constant blend of experimental electronic music mixed with beautifully engineered sounds. Twisted Thought Generator is another advancement for Bryan. I liked this album alot because it took a large step. Some of his past work has been a little choppy, some of the beats in the song took over the song a little too much. Certain sounds were a little too loud for their own good. On this album, the songs are perfectly created. The beats are soft and easy - yet they still have the VAC gift that drives so many fans to love each song. It sounds a little more like your average commercial industrial in places, BUT... VAC has this gift of making these sounds blend together so perfectly, that the songs are just amazing. Songs like "Lysergia" are just so great that only listening to that song would make up my mind, whether or not to buy this cd. It is worth it to the full extent.

I can't say I heard much of VAC's stuff before I bought this CD, so I can just rate "Twisted Thought Generator" on a stand alone basis.

All I can say is I'm impressed. So many great tunes, some Goa trancey, others very ear candy industrial. The samples were just plain terrific.

"Dial 8" is a great track (love the samples), as are the trancey "Lysergia" and "Mindphlux".

VAC has been one of my faves for a very long time. Twisted Thought Generator is definitely worthy of five stars. I have listened to this CD numerous times and it gets better each and evry time I listen to it. Personally, my two favorite tracks on this CD are Hypersphere and Mindphlux.

this cd is really really good. they lead lines are very diverse, the music is ever changing, its just bliss. Dilaudid sticks out as the best song in my opinion. . . i love the clash of beautiful females vocals with distorted madness.

this is by far VACs best sounding cd in forms of sound quality. it's not as dancable as fun with knives, but that doesn't bother me at all, sometimes there's more to music than an annoying repetitive bass drum beat.

cheers to a great cd!

There are some good tracks on this album, and all of them are excellently engineered. This album, however, doesn't live up to Fun With Knives for me. It almost sounds like he's trying to imitate more than innovate. Like I said, great engineering, that really melds well the psy-trance and electro-industrial styles of music, but it feels clunky, and a little forced. In my opinion, Fun With Knives was a much cleaner, more enjoyable piece of work.