Vision of Disorder - From Bliss To Devastation: Demos

 

Vision of Disorder (V.O.D) for short, is a band that needs no introductions. One of my personal favorite bands - prolly like top 7 of all time, top 5 definitely if we're talking hardcore. Hailing from Long Island and formed in 1992, VOD are true trailblazers in their craft. Ever since the beginning of their career they never abided by the typical "hardcore tropes" and opted to always push the boundaries sonically. One of the earliest hardcore / metalcore bands to incorporate clean singing in their music as early as 1995ish. As a band VOD released 6 albums (One is a comp technically), numerous EP's and Splits and 4 demos. The release getting highlighted in this post are the demos that emerged from their fourth and final album as a band in their initial run, From Bliss to Devastation (2001). Prior to this release VOD had been on a few different labels such as the acclaimed, Roadrunner Records as well as Go-Kart Records for the, For the Bleeders album / comp. With a desire for a musical change / evolution VOD turned to TVT Records to release the From Bliss record. This release would prove to be controversial within the VOD fanbase as many core fans disliked the musical path taken on this record. From Bliss while no explicitly a Nu Metal record, definitely falls in line with that category. The album has way less of an emphasis on Hardcore like their previous releases, and tends to gravitate much more towards the Alt Metal / Alt Rock / Nu Metal territory. By this time VOD were already on Ozzfests and shared the stages with bands such as Coal Chamber and Machine Head, a vast difference from the days of their Self Titled 1996 release where they would play tiny clubs in the North East with Hardcore bands like 25 Ta Life and Candiria. The failure of this record as earlier mentioned marked the end of the road for VOD as a band and while they have reunited now and then and dropped two records since, they would never achieve the same previous momentum. Immediately after the failure of this record, Tim, the vocalist and guitarist Kennedy would start the Alt Metal / Alt Rock band Bloodsimple with only about a month or so of space between the release of From Bliss and the creation of the first Bloodsimple demos

Personally, I really enjoy the From Bliss to Devastation record. Is it the worst from their initial 4 records? probably... But when ur a band like VOD who has so many banger records I mean sum cant always be as good as the others, but I love every VOD record so in my opinion this album is still really high quality. Tim also seems to still stand by this record which I also respect. Also personally again, some of my favorite bands are those who have ties in Hardcore but end up going in the more Alt Metal / Rock route like Glassjaw, Candiria, Eighteen Visions, Far, Skycamefalling. Hell this evolution even reminds me of how bands like Faith No More, U2, Incubus and Deftones are always evolving record to record and never want to be put in a box. Tim mentioned in a recent podcast that he was listening to hella U2 during the making of this record and its definitely evident, the title track its almost uncanny in the similarity of the voices in parts. I've always been a U2 fan but recently I've really gotten into their 90's material its so far out. Overall I think From Bliss was a casualty of its time, while fitting perfectly with the landscape of music at that time, it appears it was a record that their core fans didnt want and one that the mainstream audience looked over since records in a similar space such as Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory and Deftones' White Pony were released just a year prior. I honestly think it was the perfect time to release an album like this since Nu Metal was still at it's peak, it would be another thing if this album dropped in 2006 or something but its a damn shame.

The demos found here are two tracks found on the record as well as a bonus track found on the record that's not on streaming. Pretty cool too, I burned the two demos myself from my own personal CD copy of the demo since I wanted them in Lossless audio quality. The demos are exactly as described but the bonus track is definitely a pleasant surprise, it definitely could've been on the record but it's cool to see a B-Side / Bonus material from that era. Misunderstood and overlooked...

From Bliss to Devastation lineup was:

Vocals - Tim Williams

Guitars - Mike Kennedy & Matt Baumbach

Bass - Mike Fleischmann

Drums - Brendon Cohen

From Bliss To Devastation: Demos (2001)

1. On the Table (Demo Verson)

2. Itchin' to Bleed (Demo Version)

3. Blacktoned Child (Bonus Track)

get it, got it, good, get it done...