Venom

Cast In Stone

uninspired....

Review Score:

(4/10)
The classic lineup of one the most influential metal bands ever (Abaddon, Mantas, and the outrageous Cronos) reforms and issues their first disc together in over 10 years! It seems though, that the effort wasn't worth the wait. Gone are the days of go for broke playing, outrageous antics and the in your face attitude once "possessed" by this band. What we have here is a a seemingly half hearted effort, with little intensity and worst of all, no identity. This Venom plays it safe; basic 3 chord metal tunes, generic and plodding, which is quite a shock. Understandably all bands mellow out with age and address other parts of musicianship otherwise neglected in their youthful days. But here, Venom commit the worst crime of all and defang themselves. This release can be lumped in with all the other pricecutter bin fodder. While my views may be extreme, remember the glory days of Venom and ask yourself if this release can even cast a shadow on any of their old material. I think you'll come up with the same answer I did. While it's great to them back together as a group, it's a shame they wasted their time recording this disc. As an afterthought, it seems that they too, needed something to pump up this disc, so they went and made this a double cd and re-recorded some of their old classics. Again the results are less than spectacular. 2 stars for value (2 discs for $13!)and for the hope of them recording something special in the future.

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