I Went into this one with bated breath, Venom’s last few albums have been a little on the ordinary side to say the least, would Venom Into Oblivion be any different? Let’s see. I make no secret of the fact that Venom have been a huge influence on both myself and my playing style. They also influnenced half the extreme metal scene. If you’ll notice the album cover, you’ll notice its basically a different version of their “Black Metal” album cover. Venom’s early albums are a brand and the band know this. Their playing their cards accordingly. It’s important to state at this point Venom consists of Singer Chronos from the early records and a guitar player Stuart “Rage” Dixon who’s probably been with the band 10 years and a drummer of similar tenure. They’ve had time now to get the chemistry and develop their own style so lets see how this goes.
The album starts out quite strongly with the title track “Into Oblivion” some good riffage and Chronos’ voice is still still sounding quite good. I wouldn’t say stand out, but definitely solid. “Lay Down Your Souls” (Whilst nodding to their old school material and building on familiarity) is up next and I have to say basically rips your face off. YES!!!! This is what I wanted to hear! Furious razor sharp guitar riffs and a chorus that succeeds in bringing back their old school spirit. This track is definitely a winner! “Nevermore” is a half attempt at intellectualism referencing the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Not bad, but not sold on this track. I did quite liked the solo and some great old school riffs on this track. “Man and Beast” is again pretty cool but “Death the Leveller” bings the energy levels up a bit, with a great old school “Witching Hour” type riff. So far I’m thinking this is the best venom record in a fair while. “As Above So Below“, as again pleasingly solid and some interesting vocal tricks with a slower more hypnotic riff. So far I have to say I’m very pleaseantly suprised by this album.
“Kicked Outta Hell“… Ooooooh Yeah! Great riff and classic Chronos vocals. This is the band in top flight mode, Great Stuff! The album continues with some solid material, but at this point there’s been enough really cool songs on this to justify purchase. Overall I think Venom have kept their thing going rather well, and moved with the times enough not to become a cartoon of themselves. Some of this album I have to say is a little generic as further into the record the songs sound a little same-ish and formulaic. That’s been a complaint of mine for the last few Venom records but on this album album its not as obvious, so I’m thankful for that.
Overall I have to say I did enjoy this. It’s not perfect, there’s maybe a couple too many songs on this and leaving out a couple may have increased the “Punch” this album came with. But again great to see these legends still kickin’ it to this day!
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