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Venom - Cast In Stone review



Reviewer:
6.4

98 users:
7.17
Band: Venom
Album: Cast In Stone
Style: Heavy metal
Release date: 1997


Disc I
01. The Evil One
02. Raised In Hell
03. All Devils Eve
04. Bleeding
05. Destroyed & Damned
06. Domus Mundi
07. Flight Of The Hydra
08. God's Forsaken
09. Mortals
10. Infectious
11. Kings Of Evil
12. You're All Gonna Die
13. Judgement Day
14. Swarm

Disc II
01. Intro
02. Blood Lust
03. Die Hard
04. Acid Queen
05. Bursting Out
06. Warhead
07. Lady Lust
08. Manitou
09. Rip Ride
10. Venom

After a 6 year hiatus, the band who coined the term "Black Metal" reunite for a very underwhelming attempt at an album.

After such a period of time apart, one would think that a band that was once very original and trailblazing would come back with many fresh ideas to make a reunion that much more glorious; this album is anything but glorious. In true Venom fashion the music is your usual bulldozer bass, skull crushing frantic drumming, and one catchy riff repeated throughout the entire album; in other words, the exact same album they've been putting out since "Welcome To Hell" just with better production quality. Part of what attracts me to Venom is the poor recording quality that goes well with the frantic raw sound of the band itself, it had its own charm to it. This album doesn't have the heart that those albums had. The only new material that stood out for me was the industrial like song "Domus Mundi," one of the few songs written by drummer Abbadon, a song that Cronos dismisses as a terrible song in the liner notes.

One can definitely see how this album went astray when reading the liner notes of the special edition, liner notes filled with Cronos blaming the rest of the band for all problems that happened. It seemed like they weren't on the same page from day 1 of the reunion. The only thing that made this a worthy purchase for me was the rerecording of the old songs, putting a new heavier sound to them, which makes you appreciate the original recordings. You can see what they probably had in mind in the first place but didn't have the means to create.

Long story short, this is a great album for those of you who want the same old Venom, there is no great improvements or changes in musicianship or song writing. It's the Venom we've been hearing since 1981, just with better recording quality.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 5
Production: 8

Written by Doc G. | 21.04.2007




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 59 users
21.04.2007 - 21:25
Mindheist
No Longer Human
Good review, It grabbed my intention. You just forgot to mention that this better recording quality is a bad step for Venom's career, It's this poor quality recording that gives Venom's music a blazing effect and gives me the urge to listen to them again, but aside from that, I can just say congratulations. I've always been watching Thedissident, you know, a skilled reviewer here in MS, but now I've two , so remember I'm watching you .Keep on writing good reviews!
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23.04.2007 - 05:40
Rating: 4
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
Written by Mindheist on 21.04.2007 at 21:25

Good review, It grabbed my intention. You just forgot to mention that this better recording quality is a bad step for Venom's career, It's this poor quality recording that gives Venom's music a blazing effect and gives me the urge to listen to them again, but aside from that, I can just say congratulations. I've always been watching Thedissident, you know, a skilled reviewer here in MS, but now I've two , so remember I'm watching you .Keep on writing good reviews!

Thanks man! It means alot, I currently have 5 more reviews going through the system, just gotta wait for them to be proofread, then accepted or possibly denied.
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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