Band: Kataklysm
Title: Heaven’s Venom
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Distribution: PIAS
Release date: September 30th 2010
Review: CD

Next year, Canadian formation Kataklysm will celebrate its twentieth anniversary (!). Will I be the first?: congratulations, guys!
Herewith…

As from the band’s first official release 1) (The Mystical Gate Of Reincarnation, EP 1994 – the 1992-demo had the same name, by the way), Kataklysm work with Nuclear Blast and this partnership seems to be everlasting because all ten former recordings were released through probably one of the biggest labels within the extreme Metal scene.

As from the band’s first official release 2) Kataklysm are possibly the major Death Metal formation from Canada. I don’t think there are many Canadian Death Metal formations that are as influential as Kataklysm are (except for a few, of course – a list too long and too much beside the point), and personally I do appreciate the grandiose evolution the band went through. Even though their nineties-recordings were of a high quality, this millennium did show the band’s peak. So what about Heaven’s Venom? Heaven’s Venom was produced, of course, by founding member Jean-Francois Dagenais, who also produces / produced albums by, for example, Neuraxis (absolutely one of those bands that appears on that higher-mentioned list of Canadian top acts!), Misery Index, Malevolent Creation, Despised Icon or Man Must Die, and mixed by Danish Über-mix Meister Tue Madsen (Hatesphere, Aborted, Witchery, Cataract, Disbelief and hundreds of others). And like expected, Heaven’s Venom stands as a blood-knuckled fist. It is remarkable how easy it seems to combine aggression with melody, blasting parts with mid-tempo oriented ones, and catchy groove with poisonous obscurity. Also remarkable is the fact that Heaven’s Venom is the most ‘Scandinavian-oriented’ album to date: epic melodies and blackish persuasion, hail!

Kataklysm have always been one of my preferred Death Metal formations from Canada, and this effort only strengthens my opinion about them. Heaven’s Venom might be the band’s strongest album to date, so: highly recommended!

88/100

Ivan Tibos.