RSS Feed


VENOM INC.
There’s Only Black

Nuclear Blast (2022)
Rating: 7/10

It’s vitally important that when reviewing albums that one doesn’t compare the music to the original band which the members originally spawned from, in this case Venom. Venom Inc. is very much a separate entity and one which has existed for seven years. Of course, many will know the band because it features former Venom members Jeff “Mantas” Dunn (guitar, M:Pire Of Evil) and Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan (vocals and guitar, Atomkraft / M:Pire Of Evil), who are joined by latest recruit Jeramie “War Machine” Kling (Inhuman Condition / Ribspreader / The Absence / Ex Deo).

Just like the band’s debut 2017 opus Avé, There’s Only Black continues the muscular metal battery which is firmly suited to a label like Nuclear Blast. What you get here are 12 rather rampant tracks delivered in a thrash vein, apparent from the off with the destructive and belligerent hammering of ‘How Many Can Die’. Yeah, some of the lyrics are rather cheesy but one cannot argue with the riffage that Mantas slays the ears with, particularly when they slow to a menacing metallic chug.

For me that opening track is a full-on, crisp thrash workout and this venomous assault continues, dredging the lake of Teutonic force circa contemporary Destruction and Sodom where each song rumbles with extreme force but all too quickly blend in to one barrage. Thankfully, the leads of Mantas keep us on our toes as they fizz and squirm beneath the rubble compromising of Dolan’s gruff approach and his bass is as equally gnarly.

For the hardcore fans there’s still much to savour as the trio delivers some rather tasty, and at times, gloom-laden treats, namely ‘Don’t Feed Me Your Lies’ and ‘Burn Liar Burn’, while ‘Come To Me’, ‘Nine’ and ‘The Dance’ are speeding juggernauts; ‘The Dance’ has a dark, latter day Slayer vibe, more so as it closes with those creeping melodious streaks.

There’s no denying the powerful delivery throughout and I often found myself tapping along to the industrialised Gothic sneers of ‘Inferno’ and the clanking snarls of the title track. However, at times there is a strange dynamic whereby the trio suggests that at any minute the armour could drip with cheese, and maybe that’s through Dolan’s generic snarls and some of the lyrics.

If this album had emerged in the mid-90s it may have been better suited but easily forgotten and drowned due to the plethora of sound-alikes, but in today’s climate it stands as a brutish, jagged composition riddled with some colossal marches and chest-pounding hymns, and that’ll suffice for many of its debris-coated followers.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share