Fun with Knives

Velvet Acid Christ

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 8, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Metropolis Records
• ASIN: B00000ID37
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,120 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
A curiously accessible album from Bryan Erickson, a.k.a. Velvet Acid Christ. Much more listenable than his past efforts (which were burdened with noisy sound effects and sludgy production), Fun with Knives seems to make a play to the dance floor with a cleaner sound that rests squarely on bouncy keyboard lines and sequenced grooves. Even Erickson's vocals, though still distorted and lyrically violent, have been softened a bit. Unfortunately, song titles like "Fun with Drugs," "The Dark Inside Me," and "Psycho" (with its creepy, Illusion of Safety-like samples) won't win him many friends in a post-Columbine High School shooting world, but such are the themes gothic-industrial music traffics in. In the end, Fun with Knives is a solid 74 minutes of industrial dance music that should please fans but won't do much to advance the genre. --Steve Landau

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay and obvious, February 26, 2004

By	N. P. Stathoulopoulos "nick9155" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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...

30 of 30 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)

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!

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	jeffm - See all my reviews

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.