Current Members:
Bryan Erickson (a.k.a. Hexfix93, Disease Factory) - lead vocals, composition, guitar, lyrics, mixing, production, various
Early projects, early changes, and first albums (1990–1995)
In the early 1990s, Erickson and Grigory, both residents of Colorado, brought together their shared interest in creating music to record a series of demos. With the addition of Gary Slaughter and Chris Workman, the group attempted several bands, including Disease Disco Factory, a parody of then-popular Dance group C+C Music Factory. Following a turbulent period for Erickson and Slaughter, Workman left the group. Slaughter and Erickson experimented with two new side-projects, Cyber Christ and Vortex. Cyber Christ explored a harsh and melancholy sound that was a sharp contrast to the group's other projects. When Erickson discovered that the term "Cyber Christ" had been used in the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man, he renamed the band Velvet Acid Christ in honor of a bad acid trip. The Vortex project was merged into Velvet Acid Christ to form one body of work.
In 1994, Workman returned to assist with the band's self-produced gothic-styled demo tape, Fate. Given encouraging response from friends, the band followed up with other self-produced albums, 1994's Pestilence, a dance-oriented album, and 1995's Neuralblastoma, a harder-sounding album.
Erickson, along with friends and minor contributors Steve Bird and Dan Olson, started the brief-lived record label Electro Death Trip (EDT) Records to better promote these recordings. In 1995, the three began distributing hand-made CD copies of Fate, Pestilence, and Neuralblastoma for resale in local music shops.
Label interest, touring, and a troubled rise (1996–2000)
Slaughter and Workman temporarily left the band during the first half of 1996 as Erickson continued the project alone, handing out copies of Velvet Acid Christ's recordings to industry representatives, including musician Bill Leeb of industrial pioneer Front Line Assembly. Leeb passed the music to Thorsten Stroht, a media promoter with European label Off-Beat Records. Off-Beat A&R negotiated a deal with the band.
For their first Off-Beat release, the group submitted 1996's Church of Acid, a compilation of selected tracks from Velvet Acid Christ's first three albums with an additional two new tracks, Disflux and Futile. Church of Acid was well received in Europe, and Futile became a regularly played track in many nightclubs across the continent. In 1997, United States label Pendragon Records released Church of Acid in America, though the two new tracks were removed due to a lack of trademark clearance for television samples used in the songs.
The band's next album, Calling Ov the Dead, was rejected by Off-Beat for not sounding edgy enough, prompting Slaughter's permanent departure. With the assistance of Bird and Olson, the band addressed the label's concerns and released Calling Ov the Dead in late 1997, with American distribution following through Pendragon in 1998. In the process, Erickson had accumulated a substantial financial debt.
With a line-up consisting of Erickson, Stroht and German musician Ingo Beitz, the band toured Europe in 1998 with Off-Beat label-mate Suicide Commando, which attracted the attention of Metropolis Records, the largest industrial label in United States. The parent label of Pendragon, Metropolis distributed the album Neuralblastoma, as a partnership that would endure.
Velvet Acid Christ spent the majority of 1999 in the studio, first collaborating with Germany's Funker Vogt on a remix EP entitled Velvet Acid Christ Vs Funker Vogt: The Remix Assault, then shifting to Velvet Acid Christ's next full-length recording, Fun With Knives. With Workman an occasional contributor, Erickson sought production assistance on Fun With Knives from the bands Luxt and 4th New Army. Fun with Knives, released by Metropolis and new Off-Beat sub-label dependent, became the band's best-selling album. Sales were propelled by the singles Decypher and Fun with Drugs, and by the track Slut, which featured vocals from Luxt's Anna Christine.
In spite of the success of the band, stress had led Erickson into depression and increased drug abuse, which channeled into the creation of the band's next album, Twisted Thought Generator. Simultaneously, the band toured Europe with industrial acts Project X and Stromkern and toured the United States and Canada with bands Din_Fiv and Haujobb. The line-up of the band during this period was unstable. Workman, citing a conversion to Christianity, resigned from the band with a request that his name be retracted from all previous albums. The first leg of the European tour consisted of Erickson, Bird and Stroht; the second leg, Erickson and Olson. The North American tour was performed by Erickson, Stroht and drummer Paul Lipman. With various contributors, Erickson completed Twisted Thought Generator. Due to lingering disputes, he withdrew the band from Dependent Records and submitted the album to Metropolis.
A change of pace, new early material, and beyond (2001– present)
Erickson placed Velvet Acid Christ on a short hiatus in 2001, as he abandoned his dependence on drugs in favour of exercise and a vegan raw foodist diet. Newly clean, Erickson created the 2003 album Hex Angel: Utopia/Dystopia. Though critical response was mixed, Hex Angel: Utopia/Dystopia ranked #1 on Germany's Deutsche Alternative Charts (DAC) for four weeks after its release, and the album's single Pretty Toy reached #18 on the Billboard Alternative Chart during the same year. The album also marked the band's short-lived return to Dependent Records.
Erickson spent 2004 releasing and reissuing some of Velvet Acid Christ's earliest material. With the four-volume compilation series Between the Eyes, the band published a collection of its singles and B-sides, then followed with subsequent re-releases of Fate (Vol. 2), Pestilence (Vol. 3), and Neuralblastoma (Vol. 4). The band also offered free MP3 downloads of Dimension 8 and Oblivion Interface on its website until early 2005. Dimension 8, which had been available as a hidden bonus on Twisted Thought Generator, and Oblivion Interface (informally known as Between the Eyes, Vol. 5) provided fans with previously unheard work from the Cyber Christ-Vortex era of 1991–1994.
In 2005, Erickson collaborated with guitarist Todd Loomis on a new album, Lust for Blood, which was released on September 26, 2006. With Lust for Blood, the crew labored intensively to create a new overall sound while maintaining the band's original characteristics. Following its release, Lust for Blood ranked at the top of Germany's DAC for four weeks; the album's single release, Wound, ranked on the DAC's singles chart for eight weeks and held the #1 position for four weeks.
In 2009, Erickson began to create the next LP with minimal input from Loomis this time when he was working on his project The Twilight Garden. The result was The Art of Breaking Apart, released October 27, 2009. This LP was a tribute to bands like Current 93 and Death in June and brought VAC many new fans while making the others angry at the new direction of the music.
In 2010–2011, Bryan Erickson teamed up with William Anderson of Louisiana. William did a ton of sampling, and Bryan made a bunch of VAC B-sides that turned into Toxic Coma tracks. The project had a revolving door of members, again Bryan being the main constant. They released a LP entitled Satan Rising under Toxic Coma on Metropolis Records. It fused the techno sound of Fun With Knives and the brutal black humor of Toxic Coma. Erickson then began to write more music for future VAC LPs.
In October 2012, Velvet Acid Christ released their tenth LP entitled Maldire. The release marked a return to the dark electronic sound. Erickson formed a live band and toured extensively (2012-2014) to support the album. The latest album entitled Subconscious Landscapes was released October 28, 2014. A remastered Greatest Hits compilation was released by Metropolis Records on May 6, 2016.
Discography:
Studio Albums
1994 - Fate
1994 - Pestilence
1995 - Neuralblastoma
1997 - Calling Ov the Dead
1999 - Fun With Knives
2000 - Twisted Thought Generator
2003 - Hex Angel (Utopia/Dystopia)
2006 - Lust for Blood
2009 - The Art of Breaking Apart
2012 - Maldire
2014 - Subconscious Landscapes
Compilations / Demos / EPs / Singles
1992 - Oblivion Interface (demo re-released in 2004)
1993 - Dimension 8 (demo re-released in 2000)
1996 - Church of Acid (1994-1995 compilation)
1998 - Neuralblastoma (1994-1995 compilation)
1999 - Fun With Razors (remix EP)
1999 - Decipher (maxi-single)
1999 - Fun With Drugs (maxi-single)
1999 - The Remix Wars: Strike 4: Funker Vogt vs. Velvet Acid Christ (remix EP)
2001 - Dial 8 (maxi-single)
2003 - Pretty Toy (maxi-single)
2004 - Between the Eyes Vol. 1 (singles compilation)
2004 - Between the Eyes Vol. 2 (re-release of Fate)
2004 - Between the Eyes Vol. 3 (re-release of Pestilence)
2004 - Between the Eyes Vol. 4 (re-release of Neuroblastoma)
2006 - Wound (maxi-single)
2009 - Caustic Disco (maxi-single)
2016 - Greatest Hits (remastered compilation)
Black Rainbows
Velvet Acid Christ Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The eyes that look through all these pages.
The one that's devilishly foolish.
The eyes that make us gray.
Once...
I Iost my foot again.
I slip and fall to you.
I fall dead.
You miss me.
I break my promise to keep.
You owe...
Want black rainbows.
I fail.
I fail.
The ones who call...
You call to find you.
They rest their heads to fake their death.
Once the mines will cover you in dust---dirt.
To make us feel alone again, because you won't let go again.
And I confess with...
You...
You make me bleed again.
You make me maim again.
You make me cry again.
I fall dead.
You miss me.
I break in time.
For you.
You want black rainbows.
I fail.
I fail.
I fail.
The lyrics to Velvet Acid Christ's song "Black Rainbows" seem to speak to a sense of isolation and longing for home. The singer appears to feel like they are lacking something essential, as expressed through the opening line "Home is something you don't have". The repeated mention of "the eyes" suggests a sense of being watched or observed, further emphasizing this feeling of being alone and on the outside.
The second verse brings in some more vivid imagery, with the singer describing losing their footing and falling. The line "I have no light at all" could be interpreted in a few ways, but seems to suggest both a lack of literal light (which could contribute to the singer's falling), as well as a more figurative sense of being lost or uncertain. The repeated refrain "I fall dead, you miss me" adds to the overall impression of loneliness and a sense of being unappreciated or undervalued.
The lines "The ones who call... You call to find you. They rest their heads to fake their death" are particularly intriguing. It's not entirely clear who "the ones who call" are, but their actions suggest a desire to hide or disappear, perhaps out of fear or shame. This could be read as a commentary on societal pressures to conform or fit in, and the toll that can take on one's identity and sense of self.
Overall, the lyrics to "Black Rainbows" paint a picture of someone struggling to find their place in the world, and feeling both isolated and watched. The repeated refrain of "I fail" suggests a sense of hopelessness or despair, as though the singer is resigned to being unable to achieve their goals or find a sense of belonging.
Line by Line Meaning
Home is something you don't have.
The singer doesn't have a place to call home.
The eyes that look through all these pages.
Someone is reading or searching through something.
The one that's devilishly foolish.
Someone is being foolish in a harmful or sinful way.
The eyes that make us gray.
These eyes cause sadness or despair.
Once...
I Iost my foot again.
I slip and fall to you.
I have no light at all.
The artist has fallen down and lost their way; they feel lost and without guidance.
I fall dead.
You miss me.
I break my promise to keep.
You owe...
Want black rainbows.
I fail.
I fail.
The singer feels as though they have failed someone who wanted something impossible, resulting in disappointment and broken promises.
The ones who call...
You call to find you.
They rest their heads to fake their death.
Some people pretend to be dead to avoid being found by someone who is seeking them out.
Once the mines will cover you in dust---dirt.
To make us feel alone again, because you won't let go again.
Someone won't let go of the past, causing them and others to feel isolated and alone.
And I confess with...
You...
You make me bleed again.
You make me maim again.
You make me cry again.
The artist is confessing to someone that they have hurt them physically and emotionally.
I fall dead.
You miss me.
I break in time.
For you.
You want black rainbows.
The artist feels as though they are sacrificing themselves and breaking under the pressure of someone who wants something unattainable.
I fail.
I fail.
I fail.
The singer feels as though they have failed repeatedly in their attempts to please someone.
Contributed by Brayden B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Varg Nox
One off the greatest electro-black metal songs :)I dont like to shuffle music but i love VAC from 20 years
Dependent
you are welcome
Luke Penner
This song is absolutely thrilling! Keep up the good work.
Vern Byberg
Put this song on a loop and escape reality!!! Awesome song
Dependent
you are welcome.
Logan Scott
This is my jam when me and my brother are riding our Harley cross state to state, best song ever🤘🤘🤘😎🖤.
chris urner
totally amazing song. Mixing classic guitar/goth/dance and the lyrics are awesome
Dependent
thank you
Darnell Jackson.
Normaly VAC is so layered and deeply textured. This song, with its mesmerizing beat and guitar riff really adds a flavor of depression, at the prospect that nothing ever changes.
Rich Cool
Totally dig this track!