Venereology (album)

Venereology is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was inspired by death metal and grindcore.

It was the first of five Merzbow albums released by the American heavy metal label Relapse Records, under their Release Entertainment imprint, and as such was responsible for bringing Merzbow's work to a much wider audience in the United States. Venereology has also gained notoriety for the loudness of its mastering, which violated American limitations on the dynamic range allowed on CDs, and for its third track, "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times", which is often cited to be the loudest track created in CD format—having a RMS value of 0.00dB. The liner notes includes an extensive thank you list in the style of many metal releases.

Venereology was reissued on vinyl with a revised track list and bonus tracks by Relapse in March 2019.

Background
"Venereology was my first release on a death metal label. So, my target was "death metal" itself. I used more serious dead visuals than on the usual death metal albums. For me, it's like J. P. Witkin or J. G. Ballard. The rhythm in Venereology was a little slower than in my past releases, but more heavy. Also, the tone of Venereology was lots of overlevels and dirty sound. It's important to know that I made Venereology while drinking lots of beer. These essences are all influenced by death metal. But not musically. I liked something more extreme than the death metal rules."

Akita then explained that his next album for Relapse, Pulse Demon, was back to his normal sound and was recorded sober.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album notes.

Musicians
 * Masami Akita – performer, "decomposition," mixing
 * Kazuyoshi Kimoto – bass guitar on end part of "Klo Ken Phantasie" and on "Outtrack 2"
 * Reiko Azuma – noise on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times"
 * Bara – vocals on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times" and "Slave New Desart"

Technical and visual personnel
 * Mackerel Can Molding Company – live recording on "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times"
 * Antoine Bernhart – atrocity photos research
 * Naomi Hosokawa – photos transformation assistance
 * Abtechtonics – art direction, color
 * David Shirk – mastering [CD]
 * James Plotkin – mastering [LP reissue]
 * Jonathan Canady – additional design [LP reissue]
 * Jacob Speis – layout [LP reissue]
 * Matt Jacobson – executive producer, visual and logo interpretation for production
 * Bill Yurkiewicz – executive producer
 * Masami Akita – remixing and rearrangement from original DAT tapes at Munemihouse, Tokyo in October 2018 (LP reissue)