[.ca] Hex Angel

Not too bad, but not the best.:
This is the least memorable Velvet Acid Christ album. It isn't that it's poorly done. There just isn't anything outstanding enough to make an impression. It's also a lot more impersonal than previous albums and seems to take influence from ambient and noise- now, i'm into that kind of thing, but it's just not effective here. On the bright side, Bryan does seem to know how to place his samples better- they aren't nearly as distracting as they have been in the past. Highlights for me were "Haunted" and "Collapsed."

Not as good as older VAC:
The fist 6 tracks on this new album sound like left over cuts from TTG. The music is too trancy and there's too much synth. If you liked older VAC albums like Fun with Knives and Calling Ov the Dead, but not groups like VNV Nation, you might want to stay away from this one.

Just a pile of distortion and the same creepy vocals:
I have been a fan of VAC for some time. Their last few albums have been great. This latest CD seems very difficult to listen to as it just sounds like they went overboard with the distortion. The combined exhausting vocals that try so hard to be dark and scary, but are so overdone, end up sounding like static no matter what volume or settings I listen to it at. Shamefully, only one or two songs on this CD stood out to me, compared to their earlier works that all sounded pretty good. The rest just fades away into a noisy hodgepodge of screeching garbage. The vocals are unintelligible, which isn't such a big deal (who pays attention to the words anyway with this music) but the echo effect and guttural ranting gets old way too fast. Add so much distorted noise that you can barely appreciate what music lies beneath the mess, you get a CD that sounds damaged when in fact it is just the noise you just paid for.

It's missing something.:
When I first played this CD, I thought that he had made a pretty good album. But for some reason I don't find myself constantly putting it in my CD player or taking it in my car as much as I did with Neuroblastoma or Calling Of The Dead. This is honestly a good CD and it was well worth my money, but it lacks that feeling you get after playing a good CD that makes you want to hear it again. Maybe it's just because I have so many CDs, I don't know. Bottom line: if you've liked VAC's previous albums, there shouldn't be any reason why you wouldn't like this one. Just don't be surprised if you see it spending more time on your CD rack than in your stereo.

First strong release from VAC:
I have never been much of a fan of Velvet Acid Christ, their programming, sampling and vocals have always been rather boring and nothing new. They were always the one band you could point to as an example of a typical band. With that said Hex Angel is by far better than anything they have ever done before. Its nothing ground breaking but its a good strong release which is something I never thought I would hear from VAC. For the first time I actually like their sampling, normally their sampling is cheesy and just horrid but I enjoyed it on Hex Angel. As a DJ this is a good CD to have, I find myself playing "Pretty Toy" (best track on the CD for a club) a lot, the rest of the CD is strong but is more of a personal liking than anything suited for a club. I know a lot of people who always rag on Velvet Acid Christ, if you were one of those people I would suggest giving this CD a fair listen, you might be surprised, I know I was!

• Haunted
• Collapsed
• Pretty Toy
• Hypoxia
• Misery
• East \oMeaningless Life Mix\c
• Dead Tomorrow
• Convex
• Eva
• Crawl
• Exit (Diseased World)