Vision of Disorder

Nineteen days… that’s all it took for Vision of Disorder to get all their music on tape and make it sound like five guys going totally berserk in a small space. They wound up making a record that exceeded all expectations: harder and more melodic, ringing with a newfound depth and individuality, a record that’s sure to set V.O.D.’s second Roadrunner full-length apart from those of the rest of the pack. That’s Imprint. Some records are easy to walk away from unscathed. From the caustic start-up anthem; “What You Are” to the haunting melodies of closer, “Jada Bloom,” Imprint leaves a lasting mark.

Cut to the first week of April, 1998. Producer, Barkmarket mainman and Rick Rubin alumnus, Dave (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Helmet) Sardy is hunched over the board at Sear Sound, one of three Manhattan Studios the band will use to record and mix the album. Sardy’s bringing his characteristic friendly gruffness and “go-for-it” verve to the music from a band that’s been grinding down a set of eleven songs since October. The combination of intensity and work ethic is audibly explosive. “The drums were done in TWELVE HOURS!” exclaims guitarist Matt Baumbach, still dumbfounded many weeks later from the experience. “The first few days of basic tracks felt like a band practice.”

Compared to the tumultuous process that became V.O.D.’s 1996 debut Roadrunner full-length, the band describes the making of Imprint as “relaxed.” That statement seems strange, given recorded moments like the labyrinth-like sonic swath of “Landslide” or the twisted opus, “Colorblind.” The resultant noise is anything but: a complex yet coherent growl from start to finish. “It makes sense to us,” shrugs guitarist Mike Kennedy. The truth is, since getting together just outside Manhattan on New York’s Long Island in 1992, Vision of Disorder has always been its own complex animal. Forget tags like “Hardcore”: though the band gained national prominence by way of the Striving For Togetherness label on the Still EP as well as two tracks on the first New York’s Hardest compilation. Forget “Metal”: though tours with luminaries like Machine Head or spending the Summer of ’97 on the inaugural Ozzfest tour brought V.O.D. to another level. The twisting, churning racket that is Vision of Disorder is brutally unique.

So is the blood-in-the-eyes viewpoint that spews from tattooed shriek-messiah, Tim Williams. He’s the eye of a brutal hurricane when V.O.D. take the stage, leading the crowd through a twisted maelstrom of pain and power. Check, for instance, the odd poetics of “Rebirth of Tragedy” “Collision of the blue lights, the drag. Deeper comes the rings in my eyes. I think I’m seeping out of my skin…” “By The River,” a duet in-extremis with Ozzfest tourmate and Pantera frontman, Philip Anselmo, done in Anselmo’s hometown of New Orleans, LA., finds Williams going toe-to-toe with the titan and holding his ground. “It was a great experience,” says Williams. “Watching him work in his own element and realizing Phil still has his feet on the ground. I learned a lot.”

“Imprint represents taking a negative and turning it into a positive,” says Williams of the album’s title and intrinsic theme. “There’s things that have happened to me, to the band in the past two years that have definitely left their mark. Situations that make you step out of yourself. Things that kick you down, that make you stronger and smarter the next time.” The frontman’s twisted lyrical script bleeds raw world-weariness and the determination to rise above it. V.O.D.’s rise over the past two years hasn’t been without incident: a general dissatisfaction with the first album, bassist Fleischmann temporarily quitting to go back to college; a variety of personal experiences that would have broken five less disciplined people. “I think we all stepped up to the edge and saw the things that made us take a step back,” states Tim. “Growth. Experience. Strength. That’s what pulls you through.”

Imprint rings with those emotions: five individuals meshed musically, emotionally and mentally. “We’re five of the most different people you could imagine, yet this band couldn’t exist without any of us,” states Matt on the importance of being V.O.D. They also realize that no one’s taking the easy way out, relying on costumes, makeup, fancy sneakers and gimmicks with this band. “We’re five normal guys playing music with no bullshit about it whatsoever,” says Matt. “It doesn’t matter what your image is – look at Pantera, look at Black Sabbath!”

“We’re bringing a whole different viewpoint to the heavy music scene,” finishes Kennedy. “We’re bringing the East Coast. Everything that’s coming out now has that West Coast-Korn feel. I think it’s time for something a little more edgy and in-your-face.”

Imprint. A hardened, eleven-song scar of a record… don’t expect this one to fade.