Reviews: Venom Prison, Necrophobic, Spirit Adrift, Paradise In Flames (Paul S & Matt)

Venom Prison: Primeval (Prosthetic Records) [Paul Scoble]

If you are unaware of Venom Prison, then you have missed out on the best Death Metal band to come out of Great Britain in at least the last 10 years. The 5 piece based in South Wales is made up of Ash Grey on Guitar, Larissa Stupar on Lead Vocals, Mike Jefferies on Bass, Ben Thomas on Guitar and Joe Bills on Drums, and have been making nasty music together since 2014. The band's debut, Animus was released in 2016 and was very well received and hinted at huge potential. The band's second album Samsara came out in 2019 and delivered on the promises made by Animus. 

The first thing I should say about Primeval is that this is not the new Venom Prison album. Primeval is a collection of the bands first 2 Ep’s re-recorded, and 2 new songs. So, we get the bands first EP/Demo Defy The Tyrant and the bands second EP The Primal Chaos, both recorded originally in 2015, plus the new tracks Defiant To The Will Of God and Slayer Of Holofernes. Clearly the band wanted to revisit their first material, and re-record it as I would imagine the original EP’s are now difficult to find and were probably recorded in studios that were considerably cheaper than the studios the band record in now, so this is probably also about having a well recorded record of that early material. The two new tracks give a good idea of the direction the band is heading in now, so this recording is about both looking back to where the band have come from, and it is also looking forward to the bands future. 

The material is in date order so the Defy The Tyrant EP comes first, then The Primal Chaos EP, then the 2 new tracks. The 2 EPs from the beginning of the bands career have a clearly different style to the 2 new tracks. Venom Prison’s original sound was a mix of Grindcore and Death Metal, the fast parts tend to have a D-Beat feel to the percussion. The song lengths are shorter and the songs simpler than their newer material, in most cases there is a mix of Grinding, fast Death Metal and super slow and monumentally heavy parts. The first 9 tracks have nods to early bands like Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower, the energy of these early songs really have to be heard to be believed. 

The final 2 tracks Defiant To The Will Of God, and Slayer Of Holofernes are far closer to the material on Samsara, which is to be expected. They have the same, almost ridiculously intense feel to them, as if they were written and recorded at the heart of a neutron star. Musically the last 2 songs are incredibly impressive, the 2 guitars and bass interlock and work together so well. The songs have lots of layering of riffs, so at times there is a feeling of chaos, but there is definitely control behind the chaos. These 2 tracks are more complex and in many ways show a much more mature songwriting ability than the first 2 EP’s, that's not to say the first 2 EP’s are badly written; Venom Prison are a band that have never released bad material, but in the 5 years between them and these new songs, the band have developed and in many ways blossomed as songwriters. 

Primeval is a great collection. The older material is presented in a really great way, and the newer songs really shine. This is a great album for people who are already fans of the band, but it would also be a very effective introduction to the band as you get to see where they have come from, but also what direction they are heading in, and if the two new tracks are anything to go by, Venom Prison’s future is going to be very bright! 8/10

Necrophobic: Dawn Of The Damned (Century Media Records) [Paul Scoble]

Necrophobic have been making music since 1989. The Swedish five piece who took their name from the Slayer song, have released 8 albums before Dawn Of The Damned. Their first The Nocturnal Silence was released way back in 1993, and the last, Mark Of Necrogasm was released 2 years ago. After 2 years what have the band, who are made up of Joakim Sterner on Drums, Anders Strokirk on Vocals, Sebastian Ramstedt on Guitar, Johan Bergebäck on Guitar and Allan Lundholm on bass, managed to bring to their ninth release?

The album is 9 songs and a short intro track, the 9 tracks are broadly Blackened Death Metal, although the Death Metal isn’t that brutal so maybe Blackened Melodic Death Metal with a healthy dollop of Blackened Thrash in the mix as well, the vocals are harsh throughout the album. So, fast but also dripping with melody and great tunes. Tartarian Winds is a good example of the vast levels of melody and tunefulness that this album contains. The track opens in a savage, ultra fast way before going into a slower and tauter section that has a fantastic melody lead, which continues for most of the song. The slower, melodic sections feel controlled and driving, which is a nice counterpart for the fast and savage sections as they feel chaotic and out of control. 

The energy and inertia that the material on this album has is staggering, if it could be harnessed you could probably power a city with it. Title track Dawn Of The Damned has this massively energised feel to it, the riffs and melody leads feel so full of energy and drive, this is aided by a rhythm section that really excels itself in driving forward and filling the track with exuberance and passion. The only track that doesn’t have the fast and energy packed feel is the longest track on the album The Return Of A Long Lost Soul. The Return Of A Long Lost Soul is slower, never moving faster than mid-paced. The track has an epic sense to it, it feels huge, this is helped by a softer and more minimalist section that gives the track a lot of depth, before it builds back up to a climactic ending. In my opinion the standout track on the album is The Shadows. It’s mainly mid-paced, but feels full of energy and unstoppable. The track is packed with great riffs and melody leads that stick in your head and are eminently hummable, every time I listened to it I had the urge to skip back and listen to it a second time. 

Dawn Of The Damned is a great fairly melodic Blackened Death Metal album. The album is all about energy, inertia and melody, and these are the things that it really excels at. It’s an album that relies on great songwriting rather than anything more gimmicky; this is an album full of great songs that have been developed and realised in a very impressive way. 8/10

Spirit Adrift: Enlightened By Eternity (Century Media Records) [Matt Bladen]

Divided By Darkness the previous release from Spirit Adrift saw them achieving a new level of success. It was their classic metal-meets-stoner doom sound that nabbed them a record deal with Century Media records. Previous albums were re-released on the label making way for this fourth album to be their 'debut' on the label. Enlightened By Eternity is an album that takes Spirit Adrift further in the direction of focussing a 'retro' sound into a more modern edge. Astral Levitation displays this really well starting out with some groovy riffs and echoed vocals that sit between Grand Magus and The Sword, it shifts towards the climax into some glorious Maiden-like twin guitar harmonies cramming it all into a 6 minute run time for maximum effect. What's always so impressive about Spirit Adrift is that like their musical soulmates Haunt, everything you hear on the record is the result of one man, except the drumming which comes from Marcus Bryant, Nate Garrett is the multi-instrumentalist leader of the band, it's evolved from being a mere solo project (outside of Gatecreeper) to being his mothership. 

This is obvious by the scope of this record, taking his musical endeavours into realms that have only been alluded to on earlier outings. A menagerie of traditional and modern metal vibes come together on this record tracks such as the Cosmic Conquest having a bass and drum driven classic rock (very Lizzy) grunt making you raise that fist and yell, Harmony Of Spheres adds some proto-thrash, along with a sexy left-right speaker effect, while numbers such as the closing Reunited In The Void sneak in some swirling psych doom notes and Screaming From Beyond is a slow burning anthem really accentuating how good Garret is a vocalist and Bryant is a drummer deftly giving the track the space to hit home. Enlightened By Eternity feels like Spirit Adrift with a new focus, the songs here are the best the Garret has written, the performances at the highest level and it's Spirit Adrift stamping their authority as one of the best bands around today. 9/10

Paradise In Flames: Devil's Collection (Blood Blast Records) [Matt Bladen]

Released on Blood Blast (the new distribution service for extreme music from Nuclear Blast and Believe), Devil's Collection is the third record from Paradise In Flames. The band's ethos has been always to disturb the status quo eschewing the traditional Brazilian sounds of thrash/death and power metal in favour of a symphonic black metal approach, that has also been fiercely anti-Christian The band cite Belphegor and Dimmu Borgir as influences, with Dimmu being the most obvious due the Paradise In Flames' extensive use of orchestral elements, however in the place of ICS Vortex they have the soaring soprano of O. Mortis (who joined the band in 2019) working in conjunction with A. Damien's guttural roars. 

Paradise In Flames' history is a little potted seeing as they have had numerous hiatus' A. Damien the only consistent/original member. It's his evil vocal roars and blistering guitar playing that drive the extreme metal assault of songs such as It's All Wrong or Hell's Now where you can hear bands such as Behemoth as well, drummer W. Adrian battering the unholy crap out of his kit as R. Aender's bass has the gallop of a horse of the apocalypse. Along with the more traditional black metal approach featured on It's All Wrong Paradise In Flames' real showpiece is when they incorporate the symphonic elements on the dramatic The Tepes. For some it may not be cvlt enough due to the symphonic elements but Devil's Collection is the album that will surely give them a bigger following. 7/10