### Vicious Art: Pick up this sick child

#### 23/10/07 || Lord K Philipson

I stab your face… I STAAAAAB YOUR FACE!!!

I have said it before, reviewing music made by close friends is always a tricky thing. Is the fact that you know and love the guys on a personal level making one give them a better score? Does it matter that you are in another band with one of the members of the actual band about to be reviewed?

When it comes to me, not a fucken chance.

And I firmly believe that an honest opinion is what they want from me, or they would have asked someone else to review the album in question. Drummer Rob kindly approached me, stating that he wanted me to cover “Pick up this sick child” for GD. I accepted the request, though it’s, as mentioned, tricky to review music made by fine comrades in arms. If you bash their shit, they’ll be all pissy and start acting like little girls. If you piss on it some more: goodbye friendship. Actually, the last one was an exaggeration. But be sure there will be no more hairy manlove on a steady basis. It’s a thin line to walk, and a task only real men can handle. I am one of those men, so bashing this would be no problem if it deserved it.

But in this case, it can’t happen. It’s easy to dive into the universe that is Vicious Art. As has been with my reviews of bands such as Vomitory, Dark Funeral and Gorefest (to name but a few). All bands we have forums for, all bands who I’m on a personal basis with. It’s easy as fuck to review music made by loveable bastards when it’s as good as the shit these mentioned fuckos put out on a regular basis. So, let’s move on to the deathrashing monster that is “Pick up this sick child”.

Starting off in a relentless manner is “Tombstone grind”. Churning its way thru my speakers with an incredibly heavy and catchy opening riff before turning all blasts and groove and hooks and shit. And other stuff that would make most of today’s bands envious of how to compose catchy as fuck death metal. “Tombstone grind” really sets the tone for the rest of the album. You know what to expect with an opening like this. First grade brutality with tons and tons of passages that leaves no head unbanged. And no penis unmoved.

One thing that really sets Vicious Art apart (hey, I rhymed!) from the majority of today’s bands is the combined use of Jocke’s insanely desperate screams and Jörgen’s world-leading growls. This is as close to the epitome of vocals (you need to incorporate a chick with Jörgen’s throat to get the real epitome. Hence The Project Hate MCMXCIX, bitch!) as you can get. I have seen Jörgen in the studio many times doing vocals, and I have seen Jocke do his thing as well. It’s a sight for sore eyes. And by knowing this, I also get another feel altogether from listening to this, just as I do listening to any of the other VA recordings made. It just grabs me more on a personal level. Not that it’s needed, the grunts’n‘screams here will punch you in the balls either way.

Where the debut, “Fire falls and the waiting waters”, was suffering from an incredibly irritating drumsound, “Pick up this goddamned penis” is anything but. The production is lightyears better than before and everything is crystal and polished as a gigantic, oiled cock in broad sunlight. Jörgen’s distorted bass grounds’n‘pounds in the picture. It could actually have been a little bit louder, though it’s audible, without a doubt. But hey, I always refer to “Saltrubbed eyes” by legends Seance when it comes to bass, so you know I don’t mind a dominating bass.

Matti and Sillyboy (who I still need to severely fucken batter thanx to him almost destroying my flat the last time he was here at my place. But I can’t, I love the fucken guy too much) managed to get a sharp and crisp guitar sound for their axes, perfectly adding brutality to the mix. Their work is some times thrashy, some times deadly, but most of all – it’s always aggressive.

Rob is probably one underrated drummer. He pulls off some mighty fine shit here, and it’s weird he’s not more often talked about coz he’s obviously in-the-know with what the fuck he’s doing. Some nice blasts, some flashy fills and competent playing through and through. And as mentioned, the much more organic drumsound makes Rob sound better than ever.

And the keyboards… ... ... ... ... ...

You didn’t fall for that one, did you, cocknose? I knew it. Vicious Art couldn’t and wouldn’t work a keyboard if their manhoods were on the chopping block. They are doing fucken great with the standard band line up, you know. They obviously have a certain chemistry within this band. The arrangements are clever without ever being pretentious. The lyrics are unique and mind-boggling. The vocal deliveries sometime take you by surprise as for how they were constructed. And in the midst of all these things they completely come across as a full-fledged unit. There are no fillers here. I take a bow.

Let me end this essay (that pretty much wrote itself, that’s what great albums do to you) by stating that Vicious Art is not only a great band in your stereo… If you ever have the chance to catch these guys live – DO IT! Easily one of my fave bands in that category. Vicious Art deserves recognition now. “Pick up this sick child” is a huge, monstrous fucken proof of that.

8,5 penis references in this review out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Mighty Music
- Website: www.viciousart.se
- Band
- Jocke Widfeldt: vocals
- Jörgen Sandström: bass, vocals
- Matti Mäkelä: guitars
- Tobbe Sillman: guitars
- Robert Lundin: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Tombstone grind
- 02. The Paulina paw paintings
- 03. Our family flesh
- 04. Murderer
- 05. We’re both into killing me
- 06. Chewing gunpowder
- 07. Evicting dead tenants
- 08. Dancing Munchhausen
- 09. And bent down for years
- 10. Chain hooks falling
- 11. The topmost violent god