| CD REVIEW Venom |
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Band: Venom There’s not one single band that has influenced the current Metal scene as strongly as Venom, I guess (all right, along with some others, of course). Nevertheless, the importance of Venom on the scene nowadays can, and may, not be ignored. They were one of the first bands that sort of ‘invented’ the Black Metal scene, and many artists name them as an important source of inspiration. Or at least you can say that this band made many people interested in the heavier stuff. Or am I just getting old? Anyway, the history of this band is too long to even start with it, yet it is known that the resurrection of the band a few years ago was an important event. Their Metal Black album (2006) got often compared to a ‘back-to-the-roots’-album, and who am I to disobey? Personally I rather think, when listening to Metal Black and this new album, Hell (what a name can tell…), about Quorthon’s Bathory-era Requiem / Octagon (end of the first half of the nineties - got also considered as a back to the roots era). Not because they sound the same, because they do not. But the compositions feel the same way. Hell lasts for sixty four minutes (the two bonus tracks included) and can be considered a logical successor of Metal Black. Remaining original member Cronos (v, b) nowadays works with La Rage (g) and Antton (d) and the result is more than satisfying. I’m not going to start about ‘they will never reach the status of the old days’, because it is impossible to equal recordings as Welcome To Hell or Black Metal. The importance right here is the quality of this album. And this quality is high! First of all, the sound and the production (Conrad Lant) are filthy, dirty. That’s nice, because it certainly does give the whole an old school-feeling. And what’s more, the songs do not sound too flat; the mix (Townhouse Studios) has been done very decently. Second of all, the compositions are very convincing. The rough tracks are very rhythmic, yet with a pure basics-oriented undertone. This also defines the atmosphere: grim, merciless, blaspheme. The members’ performance is splendid too. Their collaboration gives the album an organic sound. Drums, bass and guitar lines, along with the raw vocals, were clearly recorded with pride and battle lust. A few shredding guitar solos (like the beasty one in Evil Perfection) and some tempo-changes stand for the brutal side of the band, while a few slower parts define their colder side. Sometimes a pretty uncompromising part heathens the whole with glorious pleasure, other times I cannot deny a touch of earlier Slayer, Metallica or Hellhammer. And finally, the lyrics. Here do follow some titles -and think about the album’s title- so it’s easy to figure it out: Straight To Hell, USA For Satan (nice lyrics, guys!), Stab U In The Back, Evilution Devilution, Evil Perfection, Armageddon, Blood Sky… The bonus tracks are fantastic live versions of In League With Satan and Burn In Hell. 89/100 Ivan Tibos. |