The Violet Burning

Violet Burning | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Domo Records
• ASIN: B000005WNE
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,761 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Pour Yourself Like Water Over Me...", May 8, 2003

By 

benjamin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Violet Burning (Audio CD)

If I were stuck on a desert island and could only take 10 CDs with me, I would take this one without a second thought. Sonically, it is one of the most incredible albums I have ever heard. It falls in the same genre as the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen with its post-punk flavor; the sheer beauty of songs such as "Silver" and "Goldmine" easily equals the best material of either of those bands.

Unlike both bands, however, the Violet Burning surpasses them with the sheer depth of their music. These songs are genuinely deep; they are genuinely spiritual. Michael Pritzl, the lead singer, knows how to write a song that melds perfectly with the lyrics that he mostly sings, sometimes yells, and sometimes mumbles. The album starts with the emotional "Crush" before continuing with "Arabic Tremolo Radio," a song whose beauty I will always marvel at. The solo at the end of "Arabic..." - and I can only say this about a few songs, such as U2's LiveAid version of "Bad" - left me (and leaves me) with goosebumps and a silence that is rarely evoked by most songs, let alone most bands. The Violet Burning, for lack of a better word, "forces" the listener to truly listen: "Underwater" and the rocking "Low" are, like the rest of album, songs that you have to pay attention to. The CD ends with "Feel"; after finishing the CD some 65 minutes later, the listener feels as if s/he has been on an emotional-spiritual journey with Pritzl and the rest of the band. It begins with pain, traverses dark Psalm-like territory, reaches its darkest point with "Low", reminisces with "Silver" and "Goldmine", and ends open-ended with "Feel". However, this open-ended-ness should not be taken as being despair; rather, there is a type of hope that undergirds the entire album and asks itself at the end of the CD.

The songs are heavy on dynamics. They range between quiet and loud; the dynamics play off of each other to give the songs genuine contrast. Different effects are also employed throughout the song - it isn't the same distortion or lead guitar effect that you hear on every chorus. The result is music that comes across as refeshingly fresh. It's new; it's different. The songs flow as they desire; as lead guitarist Andy Prickett once said, their philosophy is that "the song is boss." Such a philosophy genuinely shows.

This album impresses. If you can get it, then do, as it will be worth your money. Hopefully they will get signed to a major label again at some point and release more CDs with the same stunning, sonic and spiritual force as this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Album Saved My Life, October 19, 2011

By 

Bookwormwood "JohnnE" (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Violet Burning (Audio CD)

You will either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground here. If you don't have patience to allow sonic landscapes to develop, go listen to something else. This album will require tons of patience. It is an exercise in subtlety. From the angry opening track to the dreamy closing track and everything in between the listener will be challanged to wait for the land mass to rise from the murky depths of feedback guitars before going for a climb along the craggy shoreline of Mike's lyrics. This is the Violet Burnings best album ever, and I own them all. It is personal to the point of painful and that's the power behind The Violet's music. In many ways this album is like a psalter for the modern man. It has accompanied me through the darkest time of my life and has saved my life. The song Goldmine is exactly that, a goldmine, as is the entire CD. This album is a worthy companion to not just your musical library, but to your life.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest, August 1, 2009

By 

Canuck Monk (VanCity) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Violet Burning (Audio CD)

The self-titled release by The Violet Burning (aka "Lipstick and Dynamite Wonder" is a terrific album. Michael J. Pritzl has an uncanny ability to sound strong yet fragile at the same time. The music deviates from distorted rock in the opener "Crush" to softer, more reflective tracks such as "Underwater". Andy Prickett (The Prayer Chain), a mainstay in the alternative Christian music industry, also adds his talent to this album. The album is well worth your time and money and it is a perfect introduction to one of the greatest underground bands of all time.