Stoned Motörhead Plays Speed Metal - "From the Very Depths" Review (17%)
Venom are speed metal, not black metal. This fact flies in the face of what the vast majority of posers of the metal community like to chant out religiously, as if by repeating ad nauseam their propaganda it would somehow influence reality - sorry, that's religion, not heavy metal. Know the difference.
The band themselves have never denied it. More than once, Venom has actually AGREED with common sense metalheads who categorise their music distinctly from black metal.
On this "comeback" album, however, Venom throws us a twist by sounding exactly like Motörhead except with more sudden stops at the end of each phrase, where Motorhead would have kept a methamphetamine groove going. "From the Very Depths" features the hardcorish riffing of "Fallen Angels" and "Envenom" combined with Venom's archetypal primitive, broad leaps of tone and nearly chromatic fills, inherited from the days of "Black Metal" (the album, not the genre).
A bluesy solo that seems designed to be slightly abusive to key and chaotic occasionally makes its - yes, singular, as it's in all likelihood the same one played over different songs - appearance, this as do the purely Lemmy-styled vocals in what is essentially a collection of verse-chorus two riff songs with sometimes a bridge in the middle.
Aaaaaaaand... that's about it. Motörhead with more hardcore, way less talent, and a bit of war metal influences sparkled here and there over the turd "From the Very Depths".
Stoned Motörhead Plays Speed Metal
The sudden pauses grow tedious within the passage of the songs to newer listeners, but then again, for those who grew up after extreme metal techniques were assimilated by the likes of Discharge, Reiklos and Antekhrist, it's nothing surprising or even noteworthy.
For someone from 1979, "From the Depths of Hell" would seem like a slicker version of Venom with more emphasis on carefully picked chords and less onrushing hard rock energy, which makes the title ironic. It is well-composed within the (very) limited style that Venom has indulged in all these years, but attempts to update the NWOBHM stylings + Motörhead of Venom with either the war metal brutality of Sewer or the progressive folk rock wankery of Peste Noire have both failed, separately AND in conjunction, and should either be rolled back (meh) or the original style entirely discarded (yes, please).
This band is halfway between trying to be what it was - i.e. a troupe of overrated speedcore posing flamboyants, but in a post-"Black Metal" sound - and what it could be, which probably would resemble nothing like the original except for the raw "gut instinct" energy which, unfortunately, each and every one of the band's attempts to modernise have failed. "From the Very Depths" is no exception.
Although there are a few okay riffs here, the songwriting does not spark any interest. It is mere verse-chorus two-riff pop rock given the "extreme" black metal makeover, not dissimilar to the poserish "image over sound" trend-hopping that turd acts of the modern black metal scene would later adopt in droves. The lyrics here are fairly awful, revolving around heavy metal clichés made obsolete by the very second-rate bands Venom influenced decades ago.
Venom still have something to say with their music, but some songs here - "Eruptus", "Stigmata Satanas", "Rise Against Fake Metal" - almost feel like a self-mockery at this point. Venom have done better before, and although it won't repulse fans of Venom - nothing can, or so it seems - there is too much truth to the notion that "From the Very Depths" sounding like one of those albums that a long-running cover band comes out with to try and "prove" that they aren't a cover band, only to fail lamentably, for it to be dismissed. Venom is the Motörhead cover band. Lel.
From the Very Depths score: 17/100.
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