When I was a teenager, I stayed away from groups like Venom,
\nwhose dark, sinister lyrics flew in the face of everything I had
\nbeen brught up to believe, thanks to years of Catholic school
\neducation. Plus, I just didn’t enjoy the music.<\/p>\n
Now, it’s about 15 years later. My own religious views are
\ncemented (one of which is that I do not believe there is a devil –
\nand, please, save your e-mails on this subject). I average a couple
\nof discs in the mail a week which feature groups who walk on the
\ndark side. I’ve since amended my views of what I will listen to;
\nthe Pierce Memorial Archives now contain numerous works from
\nSlayer, Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. (My buddy from that time
\nperiod, who was heavily into such groups, would probably drop his
\nteeth if he read this.) And, yes, I’m now re-discovering Venom,
\nthanks to the latest work from this British trio,
\nResurrection<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake that after two decades together (well,
\non-and-off togetherness), Venom has turned itself into a tight
\nmusical unit. Vocalist\/bassist Cronos, guitarist Mantas and new
\ndrummer Annton pull off 14 solid musical performances on this disc
\n– and don’t think for a minute that their views have softened over
\nthe years.<\/p>\n
If anything, though, their demonic imagery has become – well,
\nstandard. So many other groups have taken what these guys basically
\npioneered that when the grandfathers of black metal roar forth, it
\nalmost takes on a “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt”
\nquality. And this, frankly, isn’t the band’s fault.<\/p>\n
There’s no doubt, though, that even after an influx of artists
\nin this genre,
\nResurrection<\/i> might still cause some people’s eyes to bulge
\nat some of the lyrical imagery. Tracks such as “War Against
\nChrist,” “Black Flame Of Satan” and the title track all serve as
\nproof enough of this. Yet Venom is able to keep your interest not
\nonly through the lyrics but through a controlled delivery of the
\nmusic. They know when to keep the beat down a bit, and they know
\nwhen to turn everything up to 11; that’s something that only comes
\nwith experience, something Venom has by the boatload.<\/p>\n
Yet songs about Satan aren’t all that Venom is about these days.<\/p>\n
Resurrection<\/i>, instead, focuses on a darker side of human
\nexistence, exploring things many bands don’t care to touch on.
\nTracks such as “Vengeance,” “All There Is Fear” and “Control Freak”
\nall paint a different portrait of the human experience, and whether
\nyou agree with Venom’s views or not, it is something which deserves
\nto be brought to the forefront.<\/p>\n
If you didn’t know Venom’s past, you’d swear this particular
\nline-up has been together for ages. But with original drummer
\nAbaddon leaving the band as the album went into pre-production, the
\nchallenge of keeping a tight musical ship became an obstacle for
\nVenom. Fortunately, Annton is more than up to the task, and the
\nband sounds incredibly fresh.<\/p>\n
If
\nResurrection<\/i> is your first taste of Venom, chances are
\nyou’re going to like what you hear. If you’ve followed the band
\nsince the early days, this disc should not let you down. If you’re
\none of those fundamentalist liar – oops, I mean ministers – on
\ntelevision… well, you’re not going to like this disc, and it make
\nyour hairpiece stand up on end. Oh, well. Two out of three ain’t
\nbad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6429],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36782","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-venom","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36782"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36782"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}