This album confirmed something that I'd previously been suspicious of... something that I'd been throwing around for awhile, trying to pinpoint... something bold, daring and extreme. Yes, it is true, Chris Corsano is a friggin genius. Having heard him in various ensembles in the past, both on disc and live, he quickly became one of my favorite drummers, past or present. However, this album my feelings on Corsano as a musician really kicked into overdrive. I'm totally gaga over this fella.

With that out the way, Vampire Can't pretty much sound exactly like you'd expect them to: the almost Harry Pussy-esque free noise/rock of Vampire Belt (aka Bill Nace and Chris Corsano) colliding with the circuit bent head frying noise of Can't (aka Jessica Rylan). Second track "Wax Lips" sums up the sound quit succinctly, with it's spastic, almost jazzy drumming and screeeechy guitar jabs being supplied by the Vampires, and Rylan adding huge layers of crackle on top of the proceedings. This is most definitely a collaborative effort, in the best sense of the word. No thru the mail, lo-fi recordings here. For nutzoid sounds of this ilk, a cleanly produced studio album might not sound like the best idea, since 4 or 8 track recordings oftentimes only add to the sheer insanity at hand, but damn, this album sounds incredible. Every tiny element of sound can be distinctly isolated from each other; every cymbal, guitar string or flipped switch can heard within this incredibly dense mix.

Some of the songs even cross the line into total noisecore, at least to these ears. I'm not sure if these fellas have been brushing up on their Seven Minutes of Nausea, (very old) Meat Shits or Genital Masticator, but tracks like "Soft Canary" and "Five Eyes," with their short blasts of "everyone do everything at the same time" destructiveness, could easily fit into the late 80s/early 90s noisecore sound of those bands. Throughout the album, Rylan occasionally gets some real time to shine, such as on "Glass Lion," the entirety of which consists of low, throbbing bass tones, spasmodic and extremely wet sounding pitched electronics and what sounds like somewhat having a really good time with a micro cassette recorder. Yeah, this is a pretty cool album. 7/10 -- Jed Bindeman (11 December, 2006)