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)
Serial Killer 101
Velvet Acid Christ Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Acid eats through my skin
We broke away the time
Just to live a life of sin
So give in, so give in
So give in, give in
My mind is broken
My mind is broken
Your time is broken
It's all wire you're down to one
You're dead
You give me the answer, so simple
It's here in your dream
Pull out your eyes, pull out your mind
Pull at your head, watch it die again
Again, again, again, again
So pretty, so pretty, pretty
So feel my fist
Shoot the force, shit it down
Time for play is coming down
See your face, say your prayers
Then a pain, you're falling dead
Then I go into your eyes
It's your fucking religion
Look so far, you don't say
You know what the fuck you don't play
Shut the fuck up
Shut the fuck up, I said
Shut the fuck up, I said
Shut the fuck up, I said
So kill, in this room
You close your eyes
And then pretend, that you're dead
To make all the pain go away
To make all your pain go away
Make it disappear, make it disappear
I push the nail against your head
Make it better, make it bleed
Turn around kill me
Oh go ahead whack my head off
You know the rules, so finish me off
You killed me ten times before
You shouldn't let this stop you
You shouldn't let this stop you
You shouldn't let this stop you
You shouldn't let this stop you
Just go ahead and finish me off
I want me dead
You want me dead
So kill me
The lyrics of Velvet Acid Christ's "Serial Killer 101" are dark and disturbing, invoking imagery of violence, pain, and death. The opening lines indicate that the singer is in a state of distress, with "four tears in [their] eyes" and acid eating through their skin. The reference to sin suggests that they have given in to some sort of vice or temptation, leading to their current predicament. The repeated refrain, "So give in, so give in," could be seen as a command to others to follow their lead and abandon themselves to their desires.
The middle section of the song is filled with violent imagery, including references to pulling out eyes, minds, and heads. The repetition of the word "again" suggests a cycle of violence that the singer and/or the listener is trapped in. Later on, the lyrics shift from violent imagery to a desire for death. The line "To make all the pain go away / Make it disappear, make it disappear" seems to express a wish for release from the singer's suffering. The final lines, "You killed me ten times before / You shouldn't let this stop you / You shouldn't let this stop you / Just go ahead and finish me off / I want me dead / You want me dead / So kill me," further reinforce this desire for death and the sense of the singer being trapped in a cycle of violence.
Overall, the lyrics of "Serial Killer 101" are a disturbing exploration of violence, pain, and death, touching on themes of sin, temptation, and the desire for release from suffering.
Line by Line Meaning
Four tears in my eyes
I'm crying so hard that there are four tears in each of my eyes
Acid eats through my skin
The acid is burning through my skin
We broke away the time / Just to live a life of sin
We escaped from the constraints of time to live a life of sin
So give in, so give in / So give in, give in
Give in to your impulses and desires
My mind is broken / Your mind is broken
Our minds are damaged and unstable
Your time is broken / It's all wire you're down to one / You're dead
Your perception of time is warped and you're close to death
You give me the answer, so simple / It's here in your dream
The solution is straightforward and present in your dreams
Pull out your eyes, pull out your mind / Pull at your head, watch it die again / Again, again, again, again
Torture and inflict pain upon yourself repeatedly
So pretty, so pretty, pretty
The act of killing is aesthetically pleasing
So feel my fist / Shoot the force, shit it down / Time for play is coming down / See your face, say your prayers / Then a pain, you're falling dead
Use physical force to overpower and kill your victim, then watch them die
Then I go into your eyes / It's your fucking religion
Killing is a religious experience for me
Look so far, you don't say / You know what the fuck you don't play / Shut the fuck up / Shut the fuck up, I said / Shut the fuck up, I said / Shut the fuck up, I said
Don't try to reason with me, I know what you're thinking and I don't want to hear it
So kill, in this room / You close your eyes / And then pretend, that you're dead / To make all the pain go away / To make all your pain go away / Make it disappear, make it disappear
Kill someone in this room, and if you can't handle the trauma, pretend to be dead to make the pain go away
I push the nail against your head / Make it better, make it bleed
I put a nail to your head and cause it to bleed, thinking it will somehow make things better
Turn around kill me / Oh go ahead whack my head off / You know the rules, so finish me off / You killed me ten times before / You shouldn't let this stop you / Just go ahead and finish me off / I want me dead / You want me dead / So kill me
Kill me, I'm already dead on the inside and I want you to help me end my life
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Julian Cennamo
on Pain
This is a song about coping with failed relationships and a broken home. The lyricist has been triggered by a life event- most likely a breakup. The event is particularly tragic because it brings back haunting memories of fear and abandonment experienced in childhood.