{"id":5095,"date":"2019-04-27T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=5095"},"modified":"2019-04-27T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T07:16:23","slug":"venom-storm-the-gates-spinefarm-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=5095","title":{"rendered":"Venom – \u2018Storm The Gates\u2019 (Spinefarm Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With 2019 being the 40th<\/sup> anniversary of Venom, it\u2019s well worth noting that it\u2019s also the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the band\u2019s current line-up of Cronos (vocals and bass), Rage (guitar) and Dante (drums). Their recently released \u2018Storm The Gates\u2019 album is the band\u2019s fifteenth to be bursting out with metal of the non-more black variety and thanks to a huge (very limited edition) Venom LP box set and 2 disc career retrospective being on the fire stoked horizon Spinefarm Records are giving this 13 tracker another push right now, which is great for me as this release somehow totally passed me by when it originally hit the shelves back in January of this year.<\/p>\n

Which is something I can\u2019t help but feel a bit annoyed with myself about really, simply because Venom are a band that not only reinvented heavy metal but also birthed a bazillion other subgenres, so why aren\u2019t they lauded as all-conquering heroes and afforded multiple page tributes by the metal press like Motorhead always were every time they release a new record…and I then don’t end up missing them?”<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s some food for thought eh?<\/p>\n

In fact that Motorhead parallel is even more prevalent once you get to hear \u2018Storm The Gates\u2019 because just like what Lemmy did with the Mikkey and Phil line up, Cronos and Venom are doing pretty much the same here, by making some of the best full throttle black metal rackets they have made since their early to mid \u201880s heyday.<\/p>\n

Opener \u2018Bring Out Your Dead\u2019 is an absolute barnstormer of a track with Cronos rattling his r\u2019s over a pounding rhythm designed to get the heads banging and which seamlessly sets up the full on metal grind of \u2018Notorious\u2019 a track that sees Rage out Mantasing the band\u2019s former guitar ninja with his use of the divebombing whammy bar, and the goodies don\u2019t stop there either. \u2018Dark Night (Of The Soul)\u2019 is a fierce metal fist to the face as is the album\u2019s title track \u2018Storm The Gates\u2019 a track that I can just see a pumped up Cronos stood arms folded 50 hole Dr Martins akimbo commanding his Legions to do his bidding in the live setting.<\/p>\n

As a long-time fan of the band I have to admit I do find the flat out and nowt else approach the band take to their songwriting these days more than just a little relentless at times. So, for those of us who might still long an all new \u2018At War With Satan\u2019 or perhaps even a 21st<\/sup> century \u2018Buried Alive\u2019 you will not find anything remotely like that on \u2018Storm The Gates\u2019. In fact, tracks like \u2018Over My Dead Body\u2019 and \u2018The Mighty Have Fallen\u2019 are perhaps the most brutal the band have ever sounded, largely thanks to the superb almost out of control freight train drumming of Dante and the razor-sharp riffing of Rage.<\/p>\n

\u2018Storm The Gates\u2019 then is the sound of Venom heavier and angrier than ever before, I just hope that with this being such a special year for the band they finally get the credit and recognition they so rightly deserve as a truly ground-breaking metal band especially here in the UK where late-afternoon slots at Bloodstock aside we\u2019re lucky to get to see them live at all.<\/p>\n

C\u2019MAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!<\/p>\n

Buy Storm The Gates Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: John Hayward<\/p>\n