### Venom: Hell

#### 02/07/08 || Euthanatos

Venom have, literally, gone to hell and back, and since they are the forefathers of all things satanic, I can’t think of a more fitting name for their new piece than “Hell”. They influenced a shit load of bands to make extreme metal, they went gay (like so many did), they disappeared, they came back, and they even inverted their classic “Black Metal” into “Metal Black”, much like one would invert a cross, ha ha! So, yeah, they’ve been around. Now while most of their catalog after “Possessed” completely failed to impress me, and that includes the infamous “Metal Black” and the revered “Resurrection”, “Hell” shows a rejuvenated, grittier, thrashier Venom, which pleases me a lot.

Naturally the members of Venom compose a completely different band nowadays, for starters, even though they aren’t as innovative as 20 years ago, they finally know how to play their instruments. Well, Cronos, actually, since the other two are newcomers and do their jobs accordingly, particularly guitarist Rage, who had some big shoes to fill. I like the more aggressive, faster songs on this album, like “Straight to Hell”, “Evil Perfection” and “Kill The Music”, even though it has a retarded name. That last one is very reminiscent of Motörhead, to me anyways. That’s not to say the slower moments are bad; they can actually get pretty brutal, as can be evidenced in “Armageddon”. My favorite of all is “USA for Satan”, though. It not only has that ingenious name, it’s also a great song, with a catchy as fuck chorus.

I think what Venom has found out is that you don’t necessarily need to innovate to capture the hearts and minds of listeners world over. You can keep it simple, as long as you write songs which have attitude, are aggressive and don’t try to emulate the past. It’s not that complex of a concept, really.

The cover: I don’t know what this is. Devilish imagery, I suppose. That’s another thing Venom is similar to Motörhead, their album covers all seem to be the same.

7 lay down your souls for the gods’ rock’n‘roll! out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Universal
- Website: www.venomslegions.com
- Band
- Conrad “Cronos” Lant: bass, vocals
- Rage: guitar
- Antony “Antton” Lant: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Straight To Hell
- 02. The Power & The Glory
- 03. Hand Of God
- 04. Fall From Grace
- 05. Hell
- 06. Evil Perfection
- 07. Stab U In The Back
- 08. Armageddon
- 09. Kill The Music
- 10. Evilution Devilution
- 11. Blood Sky
- 12. USA For Satan
- 13. Dirge / Awakening