For a good while now, there has been a great debate towards the quality of Kataklysm's more recent releases. Typically, many agree that, as of late, the band has been slipping, and when you listen to some of their earlier material compared to what is being churned out now, yes, it's nowhere near as exciting. However, the common issue is that people cannot look at an established act and allow them a chance to either change or mature out of their stereotyped musical approach, or even alter how they play due such things as age and/or physical limitations. Kataklysm, sadly, fell into this as time went on, but most notably around the release of Prevail, which met with mixed approval. Heaven's Venom continues the sound on the last release, coming off more as a straight forward Death Metal album that lacks the intensity and technical aspects of some of their earlier material, but is still an enjoyable album that is a step up from their previous effort, Prevail, though many refuse to look at it that way.
In a sense, Prevail wound up being more of a blue-print release then anything, bridging the gap between their new sound, and their older material. Now, on Heaven's Venom, Kataklysm stay focused on their more straight forward Death Metal ways, toning things down a bit and leaving the random blast beats aside for the most part, but swtill utilizing them at times, such as during "Determined (Vows of Vengeance)", though nowhere near as intense of fast paced as they use to be. The newer vocal style that was incorporated in Prevail carries over into this release, and these higher pitched gutterals wind up suiting this music far better then before, and through many songs wind up sounding very commanding due to the clearly energetic performance that is given. The same can be said about the music on Heaven's Venom. While the music may not come off commanding in any real sense, the performance is very energetic, well structured, and often keeping that catchy enough sound to the music that you're banging your head to the guitar's rhythm sometimes without the song losing any of it's traditional Death Metal edge in the process.
As you go through the album from it's blistering start with "A Soulless God", the material begins to slow down gradually. "Faith Made of Shrapnel" has a slow chorus then the rest of the music, which gives off a very eerie atmosphere to the song that comes off as hit or miss, but for the most part works for the song. Sadly, this is one of those moments that will grow boring the more time spent with it. After that comes the lead single, "Push the Venom", which actually shows a lot of inspiration from the band's mid-career releases, primarily around songs like "Ambassador of Pain" off their Serenity in Fire. The performance here, however, is obviously much slower and tries to bring in a similar commanding feel to the music that the vocals have through the album, but in the end this song doesn't really have much going for it, coming off as a very simple song that becomes repetitive and, during the slower parts, actually sounds pretty bad, coming off as something that winds up just being hard to enjoy when you listen to it as a whole. While these are easily the worst songs on the release, that's not to say they are the last of the poorer tracks.
The rest of Heaven's Venom is pretty standard, and often takes from the more mid-career sound, but incorporating it into this newer traditional Death Metal sound. "Hail the Renegade" starts the flow of tracks that vary between mediocre and entertaining. The only song that really is worth getting hyped over in this latter portion is the song "Numb and Intoxicated" solely in the music and energy behind it. While it matches that of "A Soulless God" and "Determined (Vows of Vengeance)" with presentation, the band seems to push themselves into their more well known mid-career material, creating a much heavier track then anything else on here. "At the Edge of the World" also tries to do this, but ultimately fails. While the song has some great intensity, the guitars can, almost bridge into a more Melodic Death Metal sound in the chorus that just horribly clashes against the much faster paced double bass kicks and the simple, yet heavy, guitars, causing this song to just be flat out frustrating as you jump between rather heavy Death Metal to a chorus that almost needs melody to go on. The track "Blind Saviour" clocks in at six and a half minutes, but the song itself is maybe six. At the end it sounds like haunting ambience being played on a record player while the needle skips sometimes. It's not the greatest song on the release either, but it's still enjoyable, though the outro of the song is rather drawn out.
In the end, Heaven's Venom does feature some great songs that show Kataklysm fitting into their new style well. On the other hand, there's material here that just lacks the same energy others on the album have, and can sometimes come off as pure laziness, or just as a good concept that wasn't really expanded on. Either way, this is honestly not the worst Kataklysm album composed, or that you will probably ever hear, but their new approach does still need some fine tuning, which will hopefully come if the band doesn't take the positive reactions to their lead single to heart and decide to compose more songs, or an entire album, just like it.
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