I love some songs on this album, and don't understand some.

In other words, some songs carry a great beat, and others are just ranting with weird noises, essentially.

The whole album is undoubtedly creative and unique - but demo it first.

Count me among the ones who think this album is awesome. It's kind of like APC, Zappa, Ween, Deep Forest, and Rob Zombie got together to make a trance album. Of course, it doesn't sound exactly like any of them. It has it's own charm, and like those other bands I mentioned, is completely unique. Many of the songs seem to be taking a similar approach as Lovage, Mike Patton's foray into R&B electronica, but it's much more complex and challenging.

There are also a handful of songs that seem to take a more serious point of view than the others. Dozo, The Undertaker, and Rev. 2:20 are just great, great songs by any standards.

I've seen people saying that nobody would care about this album if it weren't Maynard Keenan making it. I think the opposite might be true. If this music had a different name attached, it may not be as well known, but for those who knew about it, it would likely be a very treasured album. I know I'm going to listen to it for a long time to come. I love every song on it.

This album is not necessary what you can expect from Puscifer (specially considering the Underworld and Underworld Evolution soundtracks songs).

Maynard experiments with multiple layers and techniques but not necesary gets somewhere...

Definitelly not the best thing you can listen from James Keenan.

A very differnt sound, wise not to try and compare this album to Tool or Perfect Circle. Very much Maynard's own. I enjoy is a lot and listen to it often. I would recommend this album.

This is one of the worst albums I've ever listened to in my life. I know you Tool and APC fans may be upset by this, but let me say this. I am a huge TOOL and APC fan, and it pains me to say this about this CD. Let me pose this question. Maynard is one of the best singers in Hard Rock and Progressive Rock today. Why does he not sing on this album? He basically talks in monotone the whole way through. Annoying as HELL!!!!The music is mediocre to say the least and I can't understand who is giving this album good reviews. Please do not put out another Puscifer CD.

Well, Maynard James Keenan is back with a new sound and new psychedelic presentation. Puscifer is basicly an electro-industrial rock project....absolutely nothing like Tool in any way whatsoever. I liked the album and I think that thier is potential for this band...but some of the songs are just to cartoonish sounding, and I wish that it was a little less funky and a little more dark. Anyways if your a fan of bands like SNOG, OHGR, or KMFDM, you may enjoy this.

Well i'm certainly not the first to say this but I must ask what in the world MJK was thinking when he released this. This is the same guy who's the singer for the godly Tool and the almost equally godly APC... So at first you would think this CD will be awesome, right? Very wrong. This is a very offputting release and had I already not known it was Keenan's project, I would probably never guess it was him. His voice is very unique and recognizable in every other song he's done.. but not here. I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish here but I surely don't like it. The first song I heard by Puscifer was the Renholder remix of Undertaker from 2006 and his voice is very normal in that track and i thought thats what this album would be like... i was wrong

what can i say about a band like puscifer other than amazing. maynard james keenan's voice stands out in this band like it did in a perfect circle and unlike tool, doesnt get lost in the industrial background. the cd has the feeling of a concept album; their songs are haunting, sexual, daemonic and sound like something out of a cult ritual in a movie - which i lve.
songs like "vagina mine" with haunting chants that have a rhythmic call to them that will suck you into the bottle of the cd player, or "sour grapes" that mimics a preacher's sermon about the lord and god and damnation - an amazing rip of the religious world. if you like a perfect circle, tiamat, the soundtracks from the queen of the damned and the underworld series, this cd is a must. it will have you from the queen of the damned-like beginning of "queen b" to the well-known "REV 22:20" from the underworld:evolution soundtrack - a different mix here that features more of an accapella - cant spell, sorry - style from keenan and a dry piano.
if you're a fan of clean lyrics or are afriad of things that go daemonic in the night, well, this cd wouldn't be for you. this is a goth-lver's must.

The first reviewer wrote "this release was not as dense or as challenging as Tool, nor as emotional and cathartic as A Perfect Circle." But the minute a challenging and mind expanding artist like Mr. Keenan DOES step out of his "Tool-box" (SOME pun intended) he gets run through the ringer over it. Would people be happier if he did something that sounded as dark and aggressive as Tool..yet called it something different? What do we expect from our high priests the minute they dare to walk the plank of creativity? I for one, remember walking around a record convention in Daytona Beach back in 1992, and buying an obscure disc called "Undertow" by an unknown band at that time called Tool. Then, NO ONE knew who they were. And I really dug my $4.00 purchase. (I guess they had no idea who or what they'd become.) But after a year or so, when "Sober" began saturating the airwaves, I slowly began to lose interest. Then, when being bumped into at local malls by 14 year olds wearing Tool shirts, I finally threw in the towel. I CAN recognize a band for it's accomplishments and feel they deserve every bit of notoriety they got. But personally, a band loses it's spark to me, once it becomes SO mainstream that 14 year olds become their unappointed spokepeople. What the reviewer and probably MOST people don't realize, is that when someone like Mr. Keenan plays what he normally plays with Tool, THIS becomes a HUGE stretch and VERY challenging. Why would he WANT to stick to the "tried and true" as he described above. If it's already been done before, then it's probably not worth re-doing. I think what Mr. Keenan attempted with Puscifer, was an awakening. An artist can only grow, if he is willing to take risks. And risk he did. I haven't even HEARD the entire disc yet. But just from the samples given here, I can tell I'll already LOVE it. As a drummer/keyboardist/musician myself, I can recognize Tool for it's demanding and rather offbeat percussive rhythm patterns. But what you also have to realize, is that not ALL people base "good music" on how many drum blasts per song there are..or how many crunch, chug a lug guitar lines hold it all together. Sometimes it's about wanting to branch out away from what you are accustomed to, enabling us all to hear music in a way we never have before by this artist. I commend his efforts, and concur; It's alot like Mr. Patton when he branched from Faith No More, to show us he had Mr. Bungle up his sleeve, and he was crucified by MANY for that move. But for those of us who "got it"..it was the eye opening moment of clarity for us to see the brilliant composer he really was...and could be. Mr. Keenean is just doing the same...and I LIKE the cover art. It seems to fit exactly what's inside the package.

takes a little bit to get used to, and it's definitely not like tool or apc, but it's pretty awesome. maynard's voice is so smooth and awesome, how could you not like anything he sings? very vulgar, but i love it.

December's issue of Spin Magazine (p. 82) on Maynard is revealing...the more he tries to differentiate from tooL the less I care about him. We get it - you're reclusive, observant, sophisticated, educated - and obsessed with pubic hair. He's kind of annoying.

JMK has a very strange mind but I think I like it. The songs and the packaging are obviously intended to be funny in a very twisted slighly juvenile way. Not everyone is going to get the joke. If you liked country boner or enjoyed his April fool pranks you will probably like this album. Regular Tool fans I am not so sure about. I always though Tool was a little too heavy and almost pretentious so I like this better.

I probably cheated myself in the first place by expecting this CD to be brilliant like Maynard's first side project, A Perfect Circle's, first two albums. I can forgive Maynard for the third APC CD, but this left me feeling empty and confused. It's like they are trying to fall into the area where Weird Al Yankovic and The Dead Milkmen are and where, comedy.

He sings in a low monotone voice with no passion at all. The other band member's sound is unimpressinve.

Like someone else stated, stream it on Rhapsody or some other spot on the web before buying this.

Within the first 30 seconds of Queen B, I knew I had to own this album. The deep, Gregorian-chant vocals and bluesy, tribal beats won me over instantly. I liked Tool's Aenima, but the rest of their stuff is too unnecessarily "earnest" for me. Too many time signature changes, too many melody and key changes, and it just isn't that fun to listen to. It's like the difference between Van Gogh and Vargas. The first you like to contemplate from time to time when you're feeling especially deep, but the other is just damn fun to look at nearly all the time. :-)

"V" has a raw, unique and very dark sound to it that separates it from nearly everything else in pop/alternative music. It's weird without being grating like (insert noise-rock band here), or pretentious like Radiohead's later stuff. Personally, I think it's pure genius. Really not a bad song on the album.

I believe Mike Patton and Maynard James Keenan are certainly two of the most versatile, talented, creative and controversial artists in rock music today, and I always look forward to their next venture. I very much enjoyed this album, and I hope it doesn't get overlooked because the packaging isn't "commercial enough." Sheesh. Oh, and I love anything that spits at religious extremism... so there's THAT. :-)

Keep it up, Maynard. Good stuff.

NerveBag

Two seconds of listening to these samples should easily place this album into the context of early industrial groups like: Die Warzau, Foetus, Pig, Thrill Kill Kult, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, Psychic T.V., Pigface, Front 242, etc. Obviously Pucifier does NOT sound exactly like any of those groups, but you can at least draw a context for this work. I'm surprised Raymond Watts hasn't already thought of these song titles, and if someone were to tell me that J.G. Thirwell does not own a copy of "V is for Vagina" then I would say "that's a damn shame!"

How can a person look at a Tool CD cover and then look at this cover art and not realize that obviously this is intentionally cheap and trashy looking on purpose? I would say it's a shout-out to classic industrial, but I would say if you compare Maynard to some of the other industrial artists who are still around, he has brought back the central "metal-jazz-cheese guitar w/ weird drums" sound that united all industrial groups in the 80's. Marilyn Manson is not using that sound, Oghre and Skinny Puppy have abandoned that sound, so have Die Warzau and Front Line Assembly.

So really this just seems like a simple effort by a second (or third) generation industrial artist to explore the roots of his genre openly rather than trying to be so consistently refined like his other groups. It's a wink, if nothing else.

The sound works if you are familiar with 80's industrial.

This album is inspiring. Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle has independently made a bold CD. The music is co written by Tim Alexander of Primus, Danny Lohner and Lustmord and features abstract lyrics and expansive instrumentals. This album should be recommended for the seasoned Tool, Primus, or Nine Inch Nails fan, purveyors of Mr. Show, and listeners with an open mind and humorous nature.

I nice experimental release from JM. A lot of vocal presence throughout the songs. I think he needs to alter the music style up more. The sounds start getting a little tiring at the end. Not that bad. I definitely like the electronic elements he is working with now.

Maynard's new project, Puscifer, has given him an opportunity to show sides of himself we've never seen before. This is just a really fun and eclectic album far removed from anything he's ever done with Tool or A Perfect Circle. From the industrial metal of "The Undertaker", to the smooth hip hop-ish grooves of "Queen B", to the flamenco-tinged pop of "Momma Sed", to the jazzy "Rev. 22:20", to the Zappa-like insanity of "Sour Grapes", there's tons of cool diversity here. Maynard's vocals are more diverse than ever, showing that he's way more of a chameleon than we ever thought. Plus, there's a lot of cool contributions from many talented folks here, like Brad Wilk, Danny Lohner, Tim Commerford, Tim Alexander, even Milla Jovovich. Of course, this isn't a deep, complex, spiritual experience along the lines of Tool or APC, but rather a wacky good time, much like something you might hear from Mike Patton or the aforementioned Frank Zappa. It's fun, original, and downright awesome.

If you love Maynard, you have to buy this. Just come in expecting something different.

Maynard James Keenan proves, once again, that he is a musical genius. For fans of MJK, Pusifer's sound is not like Tool, or Perfect Circle, but the lyrics do not disappoint. It's a cross between ambient/lounge and industrial/EBM, and has a perfect sound that makes me already look forward to a second album.

Have you even really listened much to that Puscifer album? The more I hear it, the more I am awestruck at its perfection & soothing, corrupt beauty. For one the lyrics are the most sardonic, poetic, and deeply hilarious, knotty naughty gnarly lyrics penned by MJK yet.

For another, every song has its own internal structure and design, and unfolds sonically like an alluring deadly flower whose perfume lulls the listener into a feeling of comfort. Hearing the album is like being slowly enveloped back into the womb where you get to suck your thumb and dream erotic nightmares offering succulent opiates to anesthetize.

Truly an album I can never get enough of, and in certain integral ways a welcome relief from the typical fare delivered in such apocalyptic measures as TOOL is used to doing.

If Maynard announced TOOL and APC were both done, and Puscifer was all that remained, I, for one, wouldn't care, in fact I'd be pleased with the prospect of another Puscifer album instead of more of the same we've come to expect from APC and TOOL. There, I said it.

Not sure what to make of this album. It is not a rock album. This is much more like Moby than Keenan's big two bands, atmospheric and electronic for the most part. If you've heard any of Keenan's contributions to the Underworld soundtrack then you should know more of what to expect. The lyrics can be pretty amusing, such as the wonders of a larger lady, or get into pretty deep religious themes, and like the title (Bela Lagosi's Dead reference) they aren't something you should expect your grandmother to like. Musically it is pretty interesting, and you need more than a couple of listens to fully appreciate it. It doesn't sound great on a standard CD player unless you use headphones, otherwise it just fades into the background (although that could be a good or bad thing). Some songs are goth electronica (not too distant from NIN) and others are more quiet moments, and my biggest criticism is that it is a bit dull in places.

Naturally there are two types of whining about this album. The first is from the Tool and APC fans who expected this to sound similar. To those people I say, open up your mind a little bit. Don't get me wrong...I'm the most die-hard Tool fan you will find. I've bought multiple copies of all their albums, DVD's, etc., and I've spent hundreds of dollars seeing them in concert. I've even drummed for a Tool cover band. But I've also been following the development of Puscifer and I can take it for what it is...a comedy project that Maynard made to mess with everyone's head, while simultaneously making political/religious statements and drawing more people into Tool like he did with APC (that's all APC was... a way for Maynard to introduce people to Tool, whether you want to admit it or not).

The second kind of whining is from those people who say "this album sucks, and none of you would like it if Maynard hadn't made it." Guess what? You're right. If anyone else had made this, it would have sucked. But because of Maynard's musical history, his history with fans, and his weird sense of humor, it's actually a great and entertaining album. But I'd also like to point out that nobody else would ever have thought to make an album like this. Nobody is as ballsy as Maynard when it comes to lyrics and music, so the complaint about people liking Puscifer because of Maynard is completely irrelevant, because no one but Maynard would have ever tried something this crazy.

As far as the music goes, it's just really chill and really fun to listen to. It doesn't have the world class technical brillance of Tool, nor the power of APC. I'd say it's right in between the two in an odd and twisted sort of way. You don't have to think or care when listening to it. You can just listen. Maynard's aggressive and pull-no-punches approach to music is still there, but in a different sense. I would say buy this album if you are a fan of Maynard, and not necessarily of Tool or APC. That's what this album is...it's essentially Maynard's personality and sense of humor recorded onto a CD. I happen to really like it, but be warned it is extremely different from anything you have ever heard, no exceptions.

This is nothing like A Perfect Circle or Tool, Maynard's two HUGE hard rock/alternative metal bands. It incorporates some industrial elements, very heavy on synths and drum & bass. And he also distorts his vocals on many of the songs. I enjoyed this album very much because I knew it would be nothing like what he has done before, and therefore was not taken aback by this different approach. The trademark, beautiful voice of Maynard is still evident, but I think he should have done much more straight singing, rather than the distorted stuff. That is my only gripe. While this is normally not a cd I would be attracted to, I have to test out everything that he does, because I think he is a musical genius. A couple of the songs are similar to some of the lighter APC material, but mostly you will find this to be like nothing you have ever heard. Test it out before you buy, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Definetly not like any album Maynard has done before. I've heard some bad reviews, but I thought it was an overall decent album. I was particularly surprised with the song Momma Sed which has Milla Jovovich singing with Maynard. She's quite good.

As much as I love his work in Tool and APC, Maynard just loses me here with this side project that is all his. I understand that this was a joke album, but that doesn't make it good. There were 3 songs on here that I enjoyed, but all the rest were monotonous and boring. There was just never any soul to the music, and it really felt like a kid playing with his new Casio keyboard. I know plenty people will like it just because it's Maynard, and that's fine for them, but I just can't get past the bad music to give him praises this time. This CD goes to prove that Keenan is not a great composer of music, and he should just let the guys in his band keep doing that part for him. MJK needs to stick to the lyrics and singing.

YAWN! that sums up my review. If maynard didnt have his name tied to this project then this would just be another cd bound for the cut out used bin at record stores for a dollar. Can anyone tell me why this "self released" cd has voluntary Parental Advisory stickers on it and the fact that they cover up the name Vagina? Very very strange and odd move from Maynard who is so 'against' the industry & censorship. Guess the bottom line was to get this mediocre cd onto cd shelves to fuel his wine distro business. Guess he gets the last laugh on all of us.

Musical taste is subjective but whatever.

I like APC. It's pretty good music.

Listening to TOOL is for me a spiritual/inspirational activity.

I feel Puscifer is something in between.

Take it for what it's worth.

When Mike Patton was in Faith No More, he branched out and expanded into very interesting projects. He'd been in Mr. Bungle before Faith No More. Anyway, Maynard is doing something quite interesting, and I'm glad it sounds very different than Tool or a Perfect Circle. This is an excellent release.

How suprised I was when i clicked on this album to see the amount of whining because this isnt anything like tool or APC, TOTAL SHOCK THAT MAYNARD MIGHT TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Personally I think after being so serious for so long with his other projects maynard took a seat back and tried something different, this album is good for what it is, an average project recorded in a reletively short period of time. Naturally because of Maynard's involvement this album will do really well with sales, but the reviews will do nothing but bash it cause its not what people expect of him to put out.

No songs really stand out for me, drunk with power and sour grapes probably are the best tracks. Pretty average and I dont think I would have thought about even buying this album (like many others) except for maynard. Not dissapointed but not overly keen to listen to it over and over again.

Not 1/3 as good as anything maynard ever did with Tool and not 1/2 as good as anything he did with A Perfect Circle

Maynard sure knows how to diversify his creative juices. Puscifer is another bold dimension of his musical expression! On VforV, he is unafraid to break artistic conventions and/or appear vulnerable. The result is a genuinely powerful sound which will stand the test of time. Although musically minimalistic, it is in most respects majestic.

Caution: this record may be unaccessible to the bigoted "rock/alt./metal" listener. If you have prejudices of what good music should sound like, then, VforV is not for you.

I bought the record for its title and the potential, considering it's a Maynard record. The only great thing about it is its packaging and the fact that they'd included a little shipping bag for a used cell phone for our soldiers abroad... There isn't anything interesting musically.

I put off buying this CD until just a day ago. I refused to buy another thing that Maynard sells, because I know he's laughing all the way to the bank. When I heard that this CD was nothing like Tool, I couldn't be bothered. I love my Tool, and that's enough for me. Needless to say, I broke down and purchased "V" and I LOVE IT.
Yes, I am a die-hard Tool fan, right down to the "flaming eye" tat on my back. I'd probably buy an album of Christmas songs or nursery rhymes if the Tool boys marketed one. That is not to say I'd enjoy the music, but I believe deeply in supporting my favorite group.
I have numerous friends who bought this CD and were lukewarm about it. Most expected it to be reminiscent of Tool or APC and were disappointed. I went into the purchase expecting nothing good, and I was completely blown away. This album is so different from Maynard's other work, words can't describe. Maynard uses a voicebox for alot of the vocals, but you can often hear him humming, wailing, whatever...in the background. The dirty lyrics are entertaining, and seem to be in direct conflict with the beautifully layered music. This album is candy for the ears.

Buy it! If you don't love it at first listen, give it some time. It'll grow on you. Maynard has indeed stretched his creative wings.

I am kind of biased. I have seen Tool 6 times in America and once in South Korea, so my opinion may not matter to others. Maynard is a great performer and this album is great. It's not Tool but it deffinatly is a good alternative to tide you over till the next Tool album.

Maynard Keenan's alter alter ego has arrived. Puscifer is his latest creation and its good. its so good it'll grow on you and you'll tap your feet to the beats all day and humm the tunes. He's nuts. This album is worth the shake.