Album Review: "From The Very Depths" by Venom

From The Very Depths

It's fun to think of my favorite bands and then picture them when they were very young. Many times when I do this, the picture contains them wearing other bands' t-shits.

When I picture Metallica from way back when, they're wearing Venom Welcome To Hell shirts with pentagrams as big as life on the front.

In those days, Metallica often spoke of the NWOBHM. Not many of those bands became more than someone who influenced thrash metal.

It's unfortunate. Venom is one of those bands that could not escape that movement and join the wider world.

Though they are often credited with coining the term "Black Metal," they didn't create it, but had they played black metal, would they have been pigeonholed there too?

Most likely.

Venom 2015

Though Venom has never called it quits per se, they're now in a stage where there are bigger gaps and it's been four years since the last album, Fallen Angels.

From The Very Depths starts off heavy and continues with the heavy, until some very surprising melodic breaks towards the end.

Vocally, it's gritty and angry. Defying convention, Cronus's vocals have improved tenfold over the years.

The perfect amount of grit for the music they're playing, but not shrill like certain thrashers' first records....

His bass playing has also improved by leaps and bounds. There's a proper groove in a spectacular rhythm section.

The other half, Dante's drumming is just jawdropping. On a dime he turns the band into the Nine Ring Wraiths chasing down the ring. The pounding is as beautiful as it is brutal.

Rage, the guitarist, fills the rest of the space with thrash guitar perfection. His tone, his phrasing, his use of modern techniques, and his writing just create guitarwork that I could never properly describe.

All in all this record is a perfect cacophony of metal. It's extreme, full on, metal played by masters.

Release: 1/27/15
Genre: Metal
Label: Spinefarm Records
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