VENOM INC - There's Only Black review

 

VENOM INC - There's Only Black

Nuclear Blast 

So I have to admit that I never really invested much into VENOM past the Possessed album. I've got a compilation CD as well as the Prime Evil full length. That's the one which brought in Demolition Man (aka: Anthony Dolan) on bass and vocals to replace Cronos for a short stint. Then of course I got the Cast in Stone album which was the reunion of the original line-up. 

But that didn't last and eventually Cronos reclaimed the band and put his own people on guitar and drums. But in 2015 Mantas and Demolition Man got back together as VENOM INC. In 2017 they released Ave which was to me Prime Evil 2. And hell yeah that was a decent album. So here we are half a decade later and the second VENOM INC. album is out. 

Ya know I was figuring There's Only Black would be something decent along the lines of their past efforts. Ah no, in fact this album is fuckin amazing. The key here is to break away from the whole VENOM ideal and look at this as a stand up alone band. Off course the line-up is key. 

First off this is probably the best Mantas guitar performance ever in his musical career. He's gone crazy with the riff package, the solos and of course the overall song writing. Add to that there's War Machine (aka: Jeramie Kling) on drums who's pretty much a monster on the kit. Finally there's Demolition Man who's bass work damm good on here. Hell he was always better than Cronos as a bass player. And once again on here it's his best vocal performance ever.

Song wise hey you've got twelve cuts and they're all good. You've got plenty of thrash style cuts that are pounding speed metal crazy head-banging mania. Add to that there's touches of death metal and doom. Plus some straight up metal. The bottom line is clear, VENOM INC have produced a perfect modern metal album. Forget about the past because there's nothing on here which is gonna remind ya of that. This is the new and it's damm great. Probably the best album of 2022.

https://www.nuclearblast.com/eu/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_HrXluHbQA