Music For People＜Serpentine Green Vinyl＞

VAST's Jon Crosby is mysteriously alluring -- the dark's scene artistic poet. And on his sophomore release Music for People, he molds his one man show of elaborate classical orchestration and shadowy industrial layers into another enigmatic piece of cathartic wizardry. Music for People is haunting and vividly edged with heavy metal elements and Crosby's somber vocals. It's cutting with Crosby's use of the Bulgarian Voices, his signature chanting backdrops made famous on his debut Visual Auditory Sensory Theater. "What Else Do I Need" and "Song Without a Name" showcase the dismal impressionistic view in which Crosby has aimed to create: harmonies so lushly sculptured into a new metal sound. It's not raging, yet it's angst-ridden with bittersweet tongues of love and deception. "The One Alive" is reminiscent of goth-rock's Sisters of Mercy, brooding along to the band's 1985 cut "Marian." "Lady of Dreams" and Free" illustrate Crosby's therapeutic nature. He's oddly similar to Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, for his material appears to be an outlet for his mind's distractions and frustrations. But his compositions do not solely reflect him. Music for People is bizarre and beautiful in capturing social apathy. ~ MacKenzie Wilson