Venereology (album)

Untitled

Venereology is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was inspired by death metal and grindcore.

It was the first of five Merzbow albums released by the American heavy metal label Relapse Records, under their Release Entertainment imprint, and as such was responsible for bringing Merzbow's work to a much wider audience in the United States.

The liner notes includes an extensive thank you list in the style of many metal releases.

Background

Venereology was my first release on a death metal label. So, my target was "death metal" itself. I used more serious dead visuals than on the usual death metal albums. For me, it's like J. P. Witkin or J. G. Ballard. The rhythm in Venereology was a little slower than in my past releases, but more heavy. Also, the tone of Venereology was lots of overlevels and dirty sound. It's important to know that I made Venereology while drinking lots of beer. These essences are all influenced by death metal. But not musically. I liked something more extreme than the death metal rules.

— x, x, Masami Akita

Akita then explained that his next album for Relapse, Pulse Demon, was back to his normal sound and was recorded sober.

Track listing

All music is composed by Masami Akita

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ananga-Ranga"	29:02
2.	"Klo Ken Phantasie"	9:22
3.	"I Lead You Towards Glorious Times" (excerpt)	5:29
4.	"Slave New Desart"	6:22

Notes

• "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times" is an excerpt of a live performance at Yaneura II on February 5, 1994
• Thanks for Matt Jacobson and Relapse, Reiko Azuma, Bara, Kazuyoshi Kimoto, Fumiyoshi Suzuki (MCMC), Naomi Hosokawa, Antoine Bernhart
• Merzbow would like to greetings for followings: Alchemy Records, Vanilla Records, RRRecords, Charnel House Productions, Way Out Sound, Verticle Records, Banned Productions, V2, Extreme, Cheeses International, Zero Cabal, Nihilist Recordings, Cinemagic, Cold Spring, Lusetti Guido, Kinbiken, Rightbrain, Hijokaidan, MB, Violent Onsen Geisha, Pain Jerk, Incapacitants, Solmania, Masonna, Monde Bruits, Aube, C.C.C.C., Controlled Bleeding, Anal Cunt, Macronympha, Selektion, Artware, Laughing Eskimo, Borbetomagus, Emil Beaulieu, Kapotte Muziek, TH20, John Duncan, Smell & Quim, New Blockaders, Boredoms, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Due Process, Achim Wollscheid, Animal Art, Anomalous Records, Seikyu-sha, S&M Sniper, DIA Press, Sanwa Publishing, The Haters, Sounds For Consciousness Rape, Hanayo Nakajima, Bizarre Magazine, Susei Sha, Asmus Tietchens, Silent Records, Giancarlo Toniutti, etc...
• Fuck! for Artdirecte

Personnel

Merzbow

• Masami Akita – decomposition, mixing
• Kazuyoshi Kimoto – bass guitar on end part of "Klo Ken Phantasie"
• Reiko Azuma – noise on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times"
• Bara – vocals on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times"

Visuals and production

• Mackerel Can Molding Company – live recording on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times"
• Antoine Bernhart – atrocity photos research
• Naomi Hosokawa – photos transformation assistance
• Abtechtonics – art direction, color
• David Shirk – mastering
• Matt Jacobson – executive producer, visual & logo interpretation for production
• Bill Yurkiewicz – executive producer