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After Cronos's departure in 1987, the British band Venom continued throughout the years to churn out works hoping not to be forgotten; everything they had inspired had become much bigger than them. Albums like "Temples Of Ice" went almost unnoticed at the time of their release and are almost unknown today. This is not so much due to the musicians' technique, or the recording, or the mixing, all vastly superior to the '80 - '83 Venom (the real Venom), but to the fact that their style strayed too far from what they once were, from what made them a quintessential classic.
"Temples Of Ice" was released in 1991 under Under One Flag Records, with Mantas and Al Barnes on guitars, Tony "The Demolition Risk" Dolan on vocals and bass, Abaddon on drums. The presence of the two historic members does not curb the incredible stylistic and thematic departure from their origins. From this point of view, this is a continuation of the path started with "Prime Evil" in 1989, but with a lack of inspiration that cannot raise the album beyond the threshold of pleasant and uncommitted.
The thrash sound blends with pseudo-power arpeggios and atmospheres, often fantasy-inspired lyrics, and little remains of the satanism (as fictitious as theatrical) and grit of the past. Dolan's voice doesn't come close to matching Cronos's, whose absence is felt. Good words should be said for the two guitarists, who bring a strength to the album in the solo sections and the dynamic, tight rhythms. Parodic tracks aren't missing, the energy isn't lacking, but the listening experience flows sterile and insipid throughout its 40-minute length.
The opener is "Tribes", energetic, sustained, and enriched by Dolan's lively bass lines, which at times stand out over the guitars. A good track, with a good melodic solo more Heavy than Thrash. "Even In Heaven" stumbles indecisively between monochromatic arpeggios and guitar strikes that fail to convince; one of the album's (many) fillers. "Trinity MCMXLV" is another hybrid track, which again mixes arpeggios, a midtempo with epic/power tones, culminating in speed verses shouted haphazardly. Mantas's solo saves the song from the deepest mediocrity, at least in part. Next is "In Memory Of (Paul Miller 1964 - 1990)", endowed with a bit more verve than the two previous boring ones, thanks to the subject matter and the more classic structure.
What follows is a dose of worthless fillers: "Faerie Tale", which again presents the banal and overused mixture of arpeggio/guitar gallops, "Playtime", whose start mimics Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" with grotesque results, "Acid". A bit of energy is provided by the less diluted speed/trash of "Arachnid", but we're still immersed in mediocrity and déjà vu. Entertaining, however, is the cover of Deep Purple's "Speed King", performed with a certain enthusiastic dynamism; obviously, it also lacks any value. The title track "Temples Of Ice" closes by presenting the nauseating formula of mixing melody with violence, letting the former even become predominant. It sounds like an Epic band in its infancy that at times remembers it's supposed to do thrash or something like that. Dismal.
Even though this album doesn't merit too much praise, I recommend it to the deranged, like myself, fans of flops from famous bands, and to those who want to delight their ears with a Mantas in great shape, albeit terribly out of place.
Tracklist and Lyrics
05 Faerie Tale (04:21)
Gahter round and listen to
the tales i have to tell
Of demons,death and misery
In this wonderland called hell
The things that children dream of
Are present in this land
Look in my eyes and trust me
Come take my hand
The looking glass doth break
Revealing all inside
A land of joy and misery
No place for you to hide
We are your darkest fears
Faerie tale,nightmare fantasy
Keeper or souls,stealer or breath
the legions.Revel in ecstacy
The nightmares that awake you
Believe that they are real
The demons laugh and feast upon
The children's hearts they steal
Tempted into darkness
By those who would be true
Lured and deceived
by the evil that we do
Sugar and spice
and everything nice
fortune favours the chosen few
Laughter and tears
Heartache and tears
Emotional torture inside of you
Sing a song of sixpence
Mummy's going to die
Daddy is the devil
And baby's going to cry
Yu're safe with me
you wait with bated breath
the pied piper plays his song
Come follow to your death
08 Arachnid (02:42)
The thought of you has plagued my years
I see you now
Crawling all over me
Symptom of my darkest fears
With me now
Living inside of me
In the night
As you sleep
the web begins to form
Across your face to suffocate
And kill before the dawn
Arachnid
Strangely drawn towards her lair certain death
she wants to be part of you
Lie in wait my choice of mate
I can't resist she
Bites and devours you
Lift your body
From the ground
Strech octapoidal limbs
Leave the web
Without a sound
The fantasy begins
Come into the parlour said the spider to the fly
Not really knowing that the end is drawing nigh
Making love in ecstacy, the venom she injects
Death is swift, limbs entwined amid arachnid sex
The scent you spread I know so well
could leave me dead
Hopelessly mesmerised
Your bite will mean the end to me
Can you see I'm
Helplessly hypnotised
Panic stricken
Terrified
Cocooned within the web
Arachnophobic
Misery
Release me from this living nightmare
If I stalk you must forgive me
For this dance is my chemistry
09 Speed King (03:33)
Good golly said little Miss Molly
Whe she was rockin in the house
of the blue light
Tooty Fruity was oh so rotty
Rockin to the east and west
Loucile was oh so real
When she didn't do her daddy's will
Come on baby,drive me crazy
You can do it,you can do it
I'm a speed king,hear me sing
Yes,i'm a speed king,see me fly
Sat night and i just got paid
Gonna fool about now aint gonna save
People gonna rock,people gonna roll
Gonna have a party to save my soul
Heard headed woman,soft heart man
they been causin trouble since it all began
Take a little rice,take a little beans
gonna rock and roll down to
New Orleans
Cause i'm a speed king
hear me sing,speed king,see me fly
Good golly said little Miss Molly
Whe she was rockin in the house
of the blue light
Tooty Fruity was oh so rotty
Rockin to the east and west
Heard headed woman,soft heart man
they been causin trouble since it all began
Take a little rice,take a little beans gonna rock and roll down to
New Orleans
10 Temples of Ice (06:43)
Questioning the future with flaming intent
i kneel before the temples of ice
Crystalised walls rise to 10,000 feet
Behind lies th answers to life
a)My cold breathless pain,makes me
hunger for fire
Must forge on,must remain and fulfil
my desire
Inside temples of
Running the tunnels,the icy walls scaled
I strech for the welfare of heat
Staring through clouds of my own fog-soaked breath
The challenge that i must defeat
b)My heart sinks in fear,as i seek but can't tell
I feel death drawing near,as i reach into hell
Here,in temples of ice
Here now,in my mind's esy
Lost my sight,my soul i find decaying into dust
ICE --- Temples Of
ICE --- Temples Of (repeat to fade)
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