Venom have been doing their thing for quite some time. They formed in Newcastle, England, way back in 1979, and are widely credited with paving the way for my favorite subgenre with their second full-length, Black Metal, back in 1982. Since then, they’ve released 11 more studio albums, making it abundantly clear what constitutes the “Venom sound”—a unique blend of thrash, groove, speed, and black metal…with the occasional punk flair added for good measure. Thirty-six years into their career, they’re back with a new album, From The Very Depths, and still sounding very much like, well…Venom.
Let me be clear: at this point Venom is not a black metal band, and this album is not a black metal album—at least not by current definitions of the genre. In From The Very Depths, Venom becomes immersed in a punk rock song structure fueled by a high-paced thrash feel from start to finish. Three- to four-minute long tracks are hurled at us one after another, all with a very similar feel and very similar level of aggression. They do manage to entertain us with the occasional stoner doom elements (weird, right?) on “Smoke” and “Evil Law”, which actually serves an interesting touch. However, these deviations are definitely few and far-between, as the band generally opts to stick more with their thrash-inspired guns.
And that’s a shame. Early on in the album, Cronos captivated me quite easily with his blasphemous lyrical content wonderfully layered over this thrash-punk feel. Looking at tracks like “The Death of Rock N Roll” and “Long Haired Punks”, you can’t help but chuckle at how ridiculous they are when combined with the lyrical themes throughout this album. It really does add a nice layer of amusement. It’s just the right amount of energy and pace mixed with the perfect amount of absurdity—which we can all appreciate.
But while guitarist La Rage offers up some great riffage and solo work, this aspect of the album unfortunately becomes a bit repetitive in sound and feel, making it all seem a bit emotionless and without direction. There are moments where it seems as though many of the main riffs are simply carbon copies from preceding tracks. Yes, there are opportunities to have fun with this album, but those entertaining aspects become incredibly watered down over 10-plus tracks.
Early on, Venom were known early on as a band that pushed the limits of extreme metal, and paved the way for a number of bands that I consider the foundation of my musical catalog. Over time, their role in the scene has diminished. They developed their own blend of styles and consistently pushed that “Venom sound,” but frankly, enough is enough. From the Very Depths has its moments, but becomes exceptionally mundane and tiresome; at over 51 minutes, there are certainly times where you think you’ve heard the same track two or three times. Sure it’s a solid, straight-forward listen that’s occasionally a bit of fun, but, it’s also one that feels factory-produced—and certainly not something that’ll go down as one of Venom’s stronger efforts.
“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– Corey
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