One of the few in advance praised albums, which really caused curiosity: Velvet Acid Christ returns two years after the rather acoustical arranged 'The Fine Art of Breaking Apart'. 'Maldire' - so it was promised - would pick-up again the more Electro-/Industrial-dance oriented phase of Bryan Erickson, comparable to his classic albums 'Fun With Knives', 'Twisted Thought Generator', or 'Hex Angel: (Utopia - Dystopia)'. What shall I say? It turns to be out as such, although one can recognize Bryan's ongoing development regarding synthesizer programming. For all of you who don't know it: Bryan himself writes several reviews on stuff like movies, games, concerts, and of course music at his Hexfix93 blog at www.electricdethtripmedia.com, plus he introduces hard- and software-based synthesizers - several examples with links to software synth plug-ins can be checked out through his web resources. No doubt, Bryan knows every trick in the book and can rely on his experience. His programming skills, as well as the sense for the right 'industrialized' mood has helped him always through the years. 'The Art of Breaking Apart' was in most cases a difficult album. Not for Bryan himself, as he saw the insertion of real guitars and a more Goth-oriented direction as a quite logical evolution for VAC, but the acceptance of fans and reviewers was rather limited. Hardly understandable, that album was a real good one, only the unnecessary EP release 'Caustic Disco' suffered from the lack of artistically valuable ideas. 'Maldire' now brings back that sound which seemingly all love: I wouldn't go that far to call this album a milestone, because Bryan has already produced milestones for the books (see above) but it nevertheless can be called a very good VAC-album. 'Evoke' opens this album and reminds a lot on his rather mid-tempo tunes like 'Pretty Toy', or the often recognized classic 'Phucking Phreak'. With 'Septic Rinse' follows an instrumental track, but a rather unspectacular one, Bryan can provide better. 'Bend The Sky' then is a first favorite with a calm and catchy song progression and also Bryan's voice sounds pretty much relaxed and well integrated. 'Wasted' and 'Ominous Rattle' both are picking-up the traditional Electro-/Trance-driven style, which has made this project that famous. In between we have with 'HyperCurse' a second instrumental tune, but this time better conceived, as it strongly remembers to some tunes out of 'Twisted Thought Generator'. The title-track, 'Christ Whore' and the last one 'Mysteric' are highlighting this album and are ideal tunes to join the dancefloors of the darkest clubs. All of them feature the 'HIT'- factor and won't let you unimpressed. 'Dream Curse' is at least the most unusual, Downtempo-inspired tune with cumbrous and bizarre synthesizer arrangements. Bryan's voice sounds haunting and depressive on here, some relations to Rudy Ratzinger at his darkest moments can be recognized.
A lot of good things are happening on here and this album proves to be an excellent addition to his above mentioned classic recordings. I actually spin it quite often because it is nearly unrivaled with a fair overview of releases during the last 3 months. No retirement in sight for Bryan Erickson, he still sounds that fresh and full of inspiration to continue with his fabulous music-project. Good news also, that he's actually preparing for a new tour.