Fun with Knives
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 Knivesseems 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 Knivesis a solid 74 minutes of industrial dance music that should please fans but won't do much to advance the genre.--Steve Landau