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)
Hullucinagene
Velvet Acid Christ Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I watch you die, I won't deny
I pull the leg, I copulate
You know the time is waiting
From the start, until the end
You broke my heart, I don't need you
I don't need you
I don't need you
And your brain will fall out on the floor
Push it round, kick it down
Never mind the bullshit
Let's get this show on the road
You'll see what you want to see
You'll dream what you want to dream
Just follow me, and take some lsd
You soar, you feel the time fly by like a rock
Into my brain, into the sun, it's the plight
You got my heart and the vision of the sacred cow
Bleeding eyeballs, and bleeding stumpy legs
Pushed in the middle of this vision
That you hold onto your brain
See a man at a kitchen table with a knife
He's gonna fucking kill his wife
With the twelve-gauge knife
Don't you know it's time to run away
From the crazy game of life?
Don't you know how to get away?
It don't always play so fair
So the knife will cut you down
What you do is on your time
This is the shitty life
You talk about no compromise
Drive a car it's sexy like that
Don't you know you're fucking fat?
All day, you crushed a million faces
You crush, you crushed a million faces
They seep through the wall
They cross you, your call
To the door, and open up inside, back into my head
I can't take this
You never took the time
To see the light then wonder why
The chemical reaction in your head is so insane
Don't delay, don't delay, don't fake
You'll see what you want to see
We both know how it goes, so just pretend
Pushed in the face, in the disgrace
It's all over the place, it's the vision
It's the government, it's the drug
It's the nightmare of the dea
'cause your children don't care anymore
The children don't care anymore
They fake it on tv, you'll fake it on tv
You'll fake it on tv, you fake it on tv
The lyrics to Velvet Acid Christ's song "Hallucinagene" appear to be a haunting and disturbing commentary on the destructive power of drugs, particularly LSD. The opening lines, "I steal the night, I hope to live, I watch you die, I won't deny," suggest that the singer is willing to do whatever it takes to experience the intense high of hallucinogenic drugs, even at the risk of their own life or the lives of others. The refrain of "I don't need you," repeated several times throughout the song, may be a defiant statement of independence from society or a lament about the isolation and alienation that can result from drug abuse.
The imagery in the song is vivid and surreal, with references to bleeding cows, broken hearts, and a man planning to kill his wife with a knife. The singer seems to be caught in a nightmare world where reality and fantasy blend together, and where the only escape is through drugs. However, the song doesn't glamorize drug use, instead presenting it as a destructive force that leads to madness and despair.
Overall, "Hallucinagene" is a powerful song that presents a bleak view of drug culture and its impact on individuals and society.
Line by Line Meaning
I steal the night, I hope the live
I take advantage of the night and hope for life
I watch you die, I won't deny
I witness your death and won't deny it
I pull the leg, I copulate
I manipulate and have sex with someone
You know the time is waiting
You are aware that time is passing
From the start, until the end
From the beginning to the end
You broke my heart, I don't need you
You hurt me emotionally, and I don't need you
I don't need you
I do not require your presence in my life
I don't need you
I have previously stated that I don't need you
Now steal the time of your life
Exploit the time you have available in your life
And your brain will fall out on the floor
Your mind will be overwhelmed and you won't be able to handle it
Push it round, kick it down
Continuously push and destroy your own mental state
Never mind the bullshit
Disregard irrelevant matters
Let's get this show on the road
Let's begin and start the process
You'll see what you want to see
You'll interpret and perceive things based on your own desires
You'll dream what you want to dream
Your dreams will reflect your own ambitions
Just follow me, and take some lsd
Come with me and take the drug LSD
You soar, you feel the time fly by like a rock
You'll experience euphoria and time will seem to pass quickly
Into my brain, into the sun, it's the plight
The drug affects my brain and it feels like I'm in the sun
You got my heart and the vision of the sacred cow
You took my heart and the hallucination of a sacred animal
Bleeding eyeballs, and bleeding stumpy legs
Visuals of eyes and legs that are bleeding
Pushed in the middle of this vision
Engulfed in the midst of this hallucination
That you hold onto your brain
Grasping onto your own sanity
See a man at a kitchen table with a knife
Witness a man holding a knife in the kitchen
He's gonna fucking kill his wife
He intends to murder his spouse
With the twelve-gauge knife
Using a specific type of knife
Don't you know it's time to run away
Don't you realize it's time to leave
From the crazy game of life?
From the madness of reality?
Don't you know how to get away?
Don't you have the knowledge to escape?
It don't always play so fair
Life isn't always just or fair
So the knife will cut you down
The weapon will harm you
What you do is on your time
You are responsible for your actions
This is the shitty life
This is a poor quality life
You talk about no compromise
You discuss not making concessions
Drive a car it's sexy like that
Driving a car is perceived to be attractive
Don't you know you're fucking fat?
Don't you realize you're overweight?
All day, you crushed a million faces
Every day, you metaphorically hurt countless individuals
You crush, you crushed a million faces
You harm others and did so repeatedly
They seep through the wall
They slowly pass through the wall
They cross you, your call
They interrupt and interrupt your decision making
To the door, and open up inside, back into my head
Go to the door, open it and peek into my own thoughts
I can't take this
I can't handle the situation
You never took the time
You never invested any time
To see the light then wonder why
To see the truth and then question your actions
The chemical reaction in your head is so insane
The biological response in your mind is incredibly disturbed
Don't delay, don't delay, don't fake
Don't waste time, don't pretend like you are something you are not
You'll see what you want to see
You'll interpret things according to your desires
We both know how it goes, so just pretend
We both understand how it works, so just feign
Pushed in the face, in the disgrace
Physically assaulted and disrespected
It's all over the place, it's the vision
It's everywhere and it's the hallucination
It's the government, it's the drug
The government and drugs are to blame
It's the nightmare of the dea
The DEA's worst nightmare
'cause your children don't care anymore
Because your offspring no longer have any interest
The children don't care anymore
The offspring no longer have concern
They fake it on tv, you'll fake it on tv
They pretend on TV, and you'll exhibit the same behavior
You'll fake it on tv, you fake it on tv
You pretend on TV
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
fierce137
This is hands-down the best music video for any Velvet Acid Christ song I've seen. The scenes used are all perfect for their timing with the song. Great stuff!
robertmurphy1985
Good work, on getting the audio synchronized with the video, at the right moments Love the song + video!
john shaw
Phucking Amazing! This deserves more views.
Nathan Edward
john shaw hell yes it does
Nathan Edward
"•hell yea it does*
Joel Maher
@Nathan Edward GREN9
Damara Dana
The best video that could ever be possibly given to one of the best songs ever written from
VAC thank you for doing it such beautiful justice .🖤 I have no words. 🖤
Draka SixtySeven
Monochrome.
A work that is timeless. Timeless, the word used here speaks volumes as you so stated 5 years ago that this work be imperfect. Well, it just so happens that there is...perfection in imperfection. This piece is timeless in that it requires no more time.
A fan
Damara Dana
🖤
LappyMc
This song is damn near as awesome as the movie. Thanks for posting it.