### Virus: The agent that shapes the desert

#### 29/03/11 || The Duff

I was alone this year’s Valentine’s for the 27th consecutive year, there was no making love whilst thinking of myself to delay ejaculation. I didn’t even feel like masturbating; so intense were my woes. But then the next day, the new Virus album “The Agent that Shapes the Desert” arrived, and let me tell you I’ve never achieved such a well-lubricated, air-tight grasp, for split seconds thinking “oooh, yeah, I’m inside myself dirty little whore, no, NO!”, towing the line between self-love and self-loathing the finest of which we must repeatedly cross to mature like fine wine. That sums up “The Agent that Shapes the Desert” nicely: the sweet sickliness of inner peace, the tumult of paths crossed and the resilience, hardened sensibilities such brings. And the fucking of self.

Most should know that I’m attempting to chuck all degrees of pretentious writing your way so as to accentuate this album’s strengths; not much has changed since the absolutely spell-binding “The Black Flux”, Virus are still a quirky bunch filled with the bloating hot air of the most prestigious yet self-indulgent of arteests. And I promise you I’m not writing this out of spite for their turning me down on an interview for GD, victims of our own low-brow modesty (we would put the world to rights if we gave a fuck); these guys appear to love what they do, one aspect of which being to toy with and mock the listener with their avant-garde proficiencies, twisting and turning however they please with all-fine rounded dexterities.

That isn’t to say that they’ve released an album that betters or is on par with what preceded it; this album unfortunately is more of a mixed bag in terms of quality. The music is richer and more straightforward, sparsity unfortunately something that greatly enhanced “The Black Flux” but finds itself largely abandoned on this new opus. Instead we find a Virus that is leaning towards its black metal meets dense atmosphere, all with a clean, rich production, and in so doing they’ve lost the swirling energy of the one past effort I’ve heard with the sporadic pattering of a mind lost to reality – the weak little notes that would unsettle and bring one to the pained, maddened and otherworldly.

“The Agent that Shapes the Desert” is a self-recorded, self-produced and self-released effort if I’m to trust my sources which involve researching with dick in hand, splicing between screens for when the braces-clad pornstar stops giving head and gets on all fours so as to enable an adequate finish (if we gave a fuck…). There is no doubt that their savvy musical abilities transfer just as well when confronting other studio responsibilities; they know exactly what they’re striving towards. It is an album that ages well, with a refined vocal styling that again loses the cutting edge so closely associated with their before masterpiece. Still, I can’t say that this is a disappointing effort; far from it, one that grows tremendously with time, sinking its subtleties imperceptibly in a manner only the most schooled provision. Recommended but not as your first foray into the magic of Virus, the minor evolution is welcome while keeping the record quite the sister-piece to an album that will probably never be improved upon anyhows.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Self-released
- Website: Virus MySpace
- Band
- Czral: vocals, guitar
- Bjeima: bass
- Esso: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Agent That Shapes The Desert
- 02. Continental Drift
- 03. Chromium Sun
- 04. Red Desert Sand
- 05. Intermission: Furnace Creek
- 06. Dead Cities Of Syria
- 07. Where The Flame Resides
- 08. Parched Rapids
- 09. Call Of The Tuskers