Death Loves Veronica – Chemical (Album – Cold Transmission Music)
Genre/Influences: Minimal-Electro, Electro-Wave.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: “Chemical” is the third album by American female artist Veronica Campbell. The album has been introduced as a ’perverse, dark-electronic journey infused with themes of nihilism, inhibition, and deception’. She composed the songs during the recovery of a surgery.
Content: Death Loves Veronica is mixing elements of Electro-Wave and pure Electro-Minimalism with Experimental components on top. Analog electronics have been now and then empowered by guitar riffs. The production of the vocals has something cold and pretty sterile, reminiscent of 80s productions.
+ + + : It’s hard to say if it’s because of a ‘female’ touch, but this work has something personal and different from most productions. I like the retro-elements evoking good-old Electro-Wave, which are matching with the production of the vocals. Some vocals are cold and without any emotions while other passages have something icy, sensual-like. The first half of the album reveals great songs carried by deep, resonating bass lines and numerous Electro effects. There’re also a few great songs in the second part of the album; “Death Kiss” is driven by a harder kick and “The Sinner” has something pretty dark-sexy like.
– – – : A few songs in the midst of the album (cf. “There’s Nothing Left”, “Red Leather” and “Abhorrent”) are slower and more Experimental-like, but not exactly the most convincing ones creating a kind of anti-climax.
Conclusion: “Chemical” is a cool piece of music, which will ravish all lovers of Minimal-Electronics.
Best songs: “LIES”, “Burn”, “The Sinner”, “Death Kiss”, “The Darkest Place”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.veronicacampbellofficial.com / www.facebook.com/deathlovesveronica
Label: www.coldtransmission.com / www.facebook.com/coldtransmissionmusic Read the news on ‘Chemical’.
About Death Loves Veronica
Death Loves Veronica is the darkwave and minimal-electronic project of Veronica Campbell, who also records as Veronica Stich and works from San Antonio, Texas. She writes, engineers and mixes her own material with analogue, modular and semi-modular synths alongside guitars. The project debuted with the self-released album “Vampiros Electric” in 2018, followed by the EP “Concept” (2019), the compilation “Three Acts” and the album “Lucid Dreams” (2020), both on Swiss Dark Nights, and a run of self-released digital singles.
“Chemical” was released on 21 May 2021 as a self-released download and on CD and 12″ vinyl through Cold Transmission Music. The twelve tracks are “The Silence”, “Burn”, “Spindeln”, “LIES”, “The Darkest Place”, “There’s Nothing Left”, “Red Leather”, “AbhorrEnt”, “Death Kiss”, “Fiction”, “The Sinner” and “Grimoire”. Campbell wrote, sang, engineered and mixed the album; JD Tucker mastered the CD and digital editions and Pete Burns mastered the vinyl. Side-Line covered the follow-up single in Death Loves Veronica returns with all new 2-track single ‘Deception’ – check it out here and spoke with Campbell in the ‘Click Interview’ with Death Loves Veronica: ‘My Artistic Endeavors Were A Form Of Self-Therapy’ in September 2021.
The self-released album Corruption for The Insidious followed on 5 April 2022 with a guest guitar part by Tim Skold, and in 2023 Campbell teamed up with Kill Shelter for The Sex Tape Sessions on Cold Transmission Music. “Chemical” is the project’s third album and its first Side-Line review.
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