Produced by Conrad Lant
Released: 2006
Venom. The band that virtually single-handedly, and quite inadvertently, invented thrash metal and everything that came after it. Three guys who could barely play their instruments and couldn't afford decent production were somehow responsible for some of the most enduring musical styles of the last 30 years. 25 years on, Venom is back with their 11th studio album, and the first since 2000's Resurrection, an album that either ruled or blew goats, depending upon who you listened to. The irony of that is that it's true for Venom as a whole.
Metal Black sees the return of guitarist Mike Hickey to the Venom fold, whose previous stint in the band was back on 1987's Calm Before the Storm. It also sees Venom turning away from the 90s-style thrash they were going for on Resurrection and making a return to their roots. The problems with this are legion, the most significant of which being that they are now trying to do deliberately what they originally did accidentally. Look at it this way: the only guy still left in Venom from the Welcome to Hell days is Cronos, who still thunders away on the bass and spits out silly lyrics about the Devil like a somewhat inept version of Lemmy. The other two guys, Hickey and Cronos' brother Antton, are actually musicians, trying to recreate something that was made by blokes who barely knew one end of their instrument from the other. The end result is a poor knock off of every significant thrash band that came along in the original Venom's wake. Here they sound like Destruction, there like Exciter. At one point there's even a bit of Slayer about them, a band that Cronos once proudly boasted he could blow off stage, and at every point coming across like a band that should have thrown in the towel ages ago. At nearly an hour, Metal Black is also far too long.
Not only does Metal Black sound recycled, it also sounds forced. It sounds like a band that's reasonably good trying to play badly on purpose, which is exactly what it is, and there's enough genuinely bad bands around as it is without the need for another one to pretend.
- Antechrist
- Burn in Hell
- House of Pain
- Death and Dying
- Rege Satanas
- Darkest Realm
- A Good Day to Die
- Assassin
- Lucifer Rising
- Blessed Dead
- Hours of Darkness
- Sleep When I'm Dead
- Malifecarvm
- Metal Black
Rating: 52%
