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Rating: Venom are not just any band; indeed, their career is quite unusual. Founded in Newcastle in 1979, after two seminal albums crucial for the formation of numerous metal subgenres such as thrash, death, and black metal, which influenced two decades of extreme music, they began a descending phase following the excellent third album "At War With Satan." This led to various lineup changes and decidedly mediocre albums. But let's reflect, Cronos is the only one carrying on a First Wave of Black Metal band, despite momentarily leaving the band between the '80s and '90s; while Mercyful Fate have not been active for years, Celtic Frost have decidedly changed their stylistic directions, and Bathory are now just history. Yet Cronos is still here, even though he's the only one left from the original lineup, to show us his aggressive and evil drive.
Thus, after disappointments like the mediocre "Metal Black" and "Hell," where ideas were visibly lacking starting with the overly predictable titles, "Fallen Angels" was already a step forward towards a partially successful return to the old sulfurous sounds. The work has been completed and perfected with the aforementioned "From the Very Depths." The sound is evil, dark, raw, and aggressive like in the early albums, but obviously modernized.
After the intro "Eruptus," we immediately find the title track, probably the compositional peak of the album. The song is fast, Cronos's voice is evil (even if it doesn't reach the glories of "Black Metal" or "At War With Satan," age spares no one); Dante beats the skins fiercely, and Rage adds color to the whole with blazing solos. Following the title track, we find excellent songs like the following "The Death of Rock 'n' Roll," "Smoke," a granite mid-tempo with wah-wah, which preceded the album's release with a lyric video, and the very tight "Crucified" and "Stigmata Satanas." The album flows smoothly and doesn't tire, even if there are some slight dips like "Evil Law" and "Mephistopheles."
Absolute censorship on the lyrics, which for rebellious kids like the Venom of the past could pass despite their simplicity and predictability, but which are not suitable for those over fifty.
Obviously, there will always be those who say that for them Venom ends with "At War With Satan" or that they could have stopped after "Black Metal," but Cronos with this album proves that after over 30 years Venom are still alive and capable of playing like they used to. In conclusion, an album that does not claim to revolutionize anything but merely seeks to evoke the atmospheres of the early (master)works with a touch more experience and modernity, and it has thus succeeded in its intent.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
13 Crucified (04:06)
Chain him jail him judge and crucify find him bind him nail him crucify
Raised boy the virgin is pure and good father to the race
Sinful in sodom with cold blind luster praying to the golden calf
Walking the land with twelve good men that follow talking the hand of one whose blind
Curing the lame causing mutes to speak miracles prevail to the open mind
Chain him jail him judge and crucify find him bind him nail him crucify
Saved for forty days and nights he roamed the desert sand
No food to nourish only faith temptations close at hand
Evil abounds in every footstep that he takes in the sand he must stay true
All this in vain because he'll die for sure saving the frame of all that's good
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
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