Perversion (album)

Perversion
Studio album by Gravity Kills
Released June 9, 1998
September 6, 1998
Recorded Mr. Blood, Upper Room Studios, St. Louis
Genre Industrial rock
Industrial metal
Electronic rock
Alternative rock
Length 40:45 (U.S.)
40:50 (UK)
Label TVT (U.S.)
Dragnet Records (Germany)
Producer Roli Mosimann, Gravity Kills
Gravity Kills chronology

Manipulated
(1997)		 Perversion
(1998)		 Superstarved
(2002)
Singles from Perversion
  1. "Alive"
    Released: 1998
  2. "Falling"
    Released: 1998
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
eMusic [2]
The US packaging for meat image was used in album's artwork.

"Perversion" is a 1998 album by Industrial Rock act Gravity Kills. On the 17 April 2000 Online chat session, one of the band members disclosed that the title of the album was going to be named "Whore", but their record label TVT Records threw a fit and thought it was not a good idea to use the title, so 2 days before they would go to manufacturing the CDs, the band came up with name 'Perversion', so it was titled Perversion.

On the front cover of the album, there is writing that says "Safe Handling Instructions" and information, protection and instructions on how to keep clean and alive written underneath. Possibly the songs and graphic designs references the signs of meat or poultry, viruses or bacteria and illness or diseases. Inside the case (where there are two pictures split up in half), on the left is a picture of Jeff Scheel tied to a chair and rapidly moving his head back and forth. On the right, there is the band members Doug Firley, Matt Dudenhoeffer and Kurt Kerns near the right corner listening to something with headphones. There are pigs in both pictures.

Song Information

Drown

TVT Records wanted "Drown" to be one of the singles from Perversion but was rejected and refused by band and the band told them we would never play it live, but went top 10 in one of Germany's charts in 1998.

Disintegrate

"Disintegrate" was going to be a single, but the band refused to play the song live so the label changed singles on the album. And the lyrics "I'm still making love to it" sometimes get confused with the words "I'm still making love too wet".

If

"If" was actually supposed to be the first single from Perversion as picked by the band but the record label forced a different song. The song was actually written in response to a local St. Louis music journalist that hated the band.

Crashing

In Kurt Kerns's opinion, He thought that Crashing had the best bass line ever.

Release and Reception

Before Perversion was released, a promotional CD was released under the name 'Perversion' in 1998, which contained all of the album's songs and had "Drown" titled as "Drowned" (or sometimes as "Drowning"), this song was renamed before official album release. It was once said on a website that Perversion was originally going to be released on June 6, 1998, but at one point it was shifted back a couple of days to June 9, due to some unknown reason. Perversion has been met with mixed reviews and ratings. Allmusic gave the album 2.5/5, eMusic gave it a 4/5 and MOG gave it a 3/5. On June 27, 1998, Gravity Kills's Perversion album reach #107 on the Billboard 200 and one of the reviewers describe the album's music as "A Bullet bouncing in a can" or "More golden angst-driven hits" or "Very similar to NIN". A critic of Spin named, Joshua Westlund commented that he felt like the band was recreating NIN's song "Head Like a Hole" and said "Gravity Kills songs have no subjects because pronouns don't matter to singer Jeff Scheel; the charges against "you" in the first verse always come back as revelations about "me" in the second. Lust, disgust, and ennui sound like the same numb sensation in GK's music. Which might explain why "darkness" has seldom sounded so gray."[3]

Errors

Misprinted track name

In an online chat session on April 17, 2000, the band disclosed that the actual title of Track 10 is "Belief" and claimed that there was a misprint during the cover production process in 1998.

Alive (CD single) production error

Some copies of the Alive CD singles only contain one track. As the Record label has the listing for both tracks, it is possibly assumed that this was a production error.

Chart positions

Album

Country Chart (1998) Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 107

Singles

Country Chart (1998) Title Peak position
U.S. Mainstream Rock Falling 35

Others songs

Country Chart (1998) Title Peak position
Germany - Drown 3

Complication-promo appearances

Some of the songs appeared in some complication volumes and promos:

Year Song Complications/promos
1999 Drown Crossing All Over, Vol. 9
Alive (Hurricane Mix) Offroad Tracks Vol.16
If (Compound Remix) TVT Warped '99
Alive Creed on (CD Sampler)
- Falling Virtually Alternative 92

Game appearances

Both "Drown" and "Alive" were featured in Test Drive: Off Road 2. "Falling" was featured in Test Drive 5.

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Falling"   4:02
2. "If"   4:06
3. "Crashing"   3:40
4. "Drown"   3:40
5. "Alive"   3:52
6. "Wanted"   4:04
7. "Always"   4:44
8. "One"   3:46
9. "Disintegrate"   4:40
10. "Belief (To Rust)"   4:16

Personnel

Gravity Kills
Production

References

  1. ↑ "Perversion - Gravity Kills". Allmusic.
  2. ↑ "Perversion by Gravity Kills". eMusic.
  3. ↑ Spin magazine October 1998 Reviews - Gravity Kills - Perversion. Spin.