AMG Review of Void of Course

Jack Rabid
All Music Guide

Hostile, antagonistic industrial music has gone from underground subcult to recognized commercial form, thanks to Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Consolidated, and others. But there are still new places to go with it for an aspiring singer/performer with venom in her veins such as Jacqueline Van Bierk. Like Trent Reznor's dominant vision in his group, her pawprints are all over this debut, Void of Course, not only writing and singing the songs, but also establishing credits on every instrument played save the drums (she prefers to collaborate on the rampant, schizophrenic samples and drum loops). Her vocals are never quite sinister but always ominous, matching the unrelenting abhorrence and disrelish of nasty songs such as "Fistful of Lies" and the anything-but-hushed "Hush." If Dracula were real, he might not be a goth fan -- he might instead want to daunt and intimate visitors to his infernal lair with this invidious whip-lashing. Brutally uncompromising. (P.O. Box 8198, N. Bergen, NJ 07047; jhod2@aol.com)