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There are moments in life when you need it loud. There are moments in life when you need it dirty. And there are moments in life when you need – Vanessa. Contrary to what the name suggests, Vanessa is not a 0190 call-me-girl, but a Czech men’s group that was founded in 1990 by Daniel Rodný (electronics) and Samir Hauser (lyrics, vocals). Not least through performances that were unheard of at the time and had a masochistic appeal (press release quote), during which the audience was kept at a distance by barbed wire on the one hand, and confronted with pornography and mass murderers on the other, they achieved something of a cult status among industrial music listeners in our neighboring country. In 1995, Rodný and Hauser went their separate ways. Samir Hauser released a new album with Miroslav Papež in 1997, but after that they went off the air. It was not until 2007 that the two protagonists’ paths crossed again and they decided, together with Jakub Horák (operator, producer), Jaroslav Stuchlý (percussions) and the aforementioned Miroslav Papež (analogue, digital instruments, backing vocals), to bring the old lady Vanessa back to life. The result, produced by Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten, is now called Ave Agony and is actually described by Rodný as mainstream. That this is not to be taken too literally becomes clear when you look at the glossy digipack, which is full of severed body parts and similarly delicious photos. The music itself is also likely to put the average mainstream consumer off immediately, because the opener Satanova pomsta takes no prisoners with its fast, brutal beats and Hauser’s singing, which seems to practically spit out the entirely Czech lyrics*). “Chci zmíznet” or “Fízl na speedu” could also blow your ears off if you turn up the volume, but what initially storms out of the speakers in an unbridled and chaotic manner turns out to be a well-structured mix of electronic, industrial and sawing guitars after several listens. Examples of this are the somewhat throttled, EBM-heavy “Ahoj, chcípní”, the straightforward electronic “Zrcadla” and the rocking “Nechténa magíe”, in which Samir Hauser’s voice comes across as more lurking than angry. Vanessa, however, can do much more than just produce brutal sounds. This is evident on the one hand in “Primitive”, whose riffs immediately remind you of a Tarantino film, and on the other hand in the LSD-soaked, psychedelic “Smrad z lídí”, before the finale, “Babylon”, unpacks another nerve-racking, six-stringed disharmony. At this point, opinions will finally be divided, meaning that your finger will immediately go to the repeat button or the CD will fly into the corner never to be seen again. But as I said, there are moments in life whenyou need it loud and dirty and for such moments Vanessa offers exactly the right soundtrack with Ave Agony.