Venom is one of the most well known metal band names of all time for many reasons, and all of them justifiable. Aside being one of the early NWOBHM acts, they are also considered one of the pioneers of the Black Metal genre and included in the first wave Black Metal tier. Practically ever Venom album that has been issued was met with arms wide open and are considered great releases from a band that never really fails to impress. Well, sadly, that legacy dies with Metal Black, which is by far one of the worst full-length Venom albums, but, luckily, not one of the worst albums period.
First of all, musically this album could be so much better then it is. Metal Black sounds rather hollow, both in it's production and musically, really lacking any sort of bite that this band use to have, even remotely close to this album. It's hard to stand there and expect this album to compare to the band's earliest albums, but the only thing this album manages to successfully catch of the band's now historical sound would be the great guitar solos and a dark atmosphere that the band has been able to create on plenty of albums. The faster tracks on this release do manage to do a good job at keeping the Venom sound alive, such as "Rage Satanas" and "A Good Day to Die". This is really where the album picks up, as these songs are more then just slow moving tracks that seem to incorporate a modern day Groove sound into the mix while being as simple as possible a good majority of the time. Unfortunately, even though the album does pick up, once you hit "Hours of Darkness" there isn't anything really spectacular and you're back to square one with the same sound as the start of the release with exception to the closing title track, "Metal Black", which is another high speed Black Metal romp that is more enjoyable.
Practically every song on this release follows the same structure too, especially where the chorus is concerned. The chorus to plenty of the songs are typically one of two ways: The first being four lines shouted with often the first and second line being repeated or just slightly altered, or the second method of just the song's title being said repeatedly. Of the latter, "Death & Dying" is one of the more notorious culprits, which is enjoyable to an extent, but when "A Good Day to Die" kicks in, it's almost as if the band seemed to half ass their performance on the other track. Not to mention that the vocals are annoying as hell and often sound off key with the rest of the music, and those without a tin ear will easily pick up on this and suffer the same fate as this reviewer through many tracks thanks to the songs "House of Pain" and "Death & Dying". Admittedly, the album does get better around the time of "Rage Satanas", but there is something interesting that follows on the track "Darkest Realm". If you pay close enough attention to the album, you can actually hear the music drop down into a deeper, yet muffled sound compared to the first few tracks.
If you're a die hard Venom fan then chances are you'll embrace this album happily. However, even for some die hards, this one is gonna be a little hard to swallow. It's clear the band wants to go back to their roots, but this album winds up falling pretty far from their goal of writing an exceptional album in the vain of their first wave Black Metal roots. With a rough start, and an equally rough ending, there's not that many worthwhile songs on here, and even the diamond tracks that can be found in the rough are rather lackluster, and there's a lot of recycling when it comes to the song structures of the album to leave you just wanting more from Venom in the long run.
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