Reviews: Venom Prison, The Air Turned To Acid, Transients, Xeria (Paul S & Paul H)

So, there is a lot riding on this new album Samsara. Have the band lived up to the promise that Animus suggested? The album gets under way with a huge blast of feedback before Matriphagy blasts into its first riff. The track is blasting death metal right up there with masters of the genre Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus. The album sounds fantastic, great drum sound, guitar and bass thick and full bodied, and the mix is perfect. The track has some great guitar work, the constant touring has clearly got these guys chops to godlike proportions. Megillus & Leana is another blast of death metal energy. The tempo is slower than the previous track, but the intensity is right up there. Vocally, Larissa Stupar has excelled herself with this album, and it really shines through on this song. Low, harsh, screaming, high register, there seems to be nothing she can’t do. 

Two tracks in and I’m already battered and bloodied. Uterine Industrialisation, is another absolute stormer. Really fast, but my god the intensity and power of this track has to be heard to be believed. In the second part of the song it takes on a slightly more grindcore feel; more simple, but also with more inertia and directness. Self Inflicted Violence is less intense but more musical, it starts fast, but most of the track is mid-paced and powerful. The track has a relentless quality that I’ve really enjoyed, the fact that the band are just as comfortable at this sort of mid-paced nastiness as they are with insanely fast blasting shows how the band have matured during the 3 years that separate the two albums. Deva’s Energy is a short dissonant soundscape, a short break from the blasting. Asura’s Realm also shows us how much this band has increased their musical chops. The intro sounds a little like Heartwork Era Carcass. Ash Grey and Ben Thomas’s guitar work is stunning on this track, it’s really good all through the album, but on this track it’s sublime. The technicality of this song is verging on technical death metal, although the other elements on this track make it too extreme to be classed in that way. 

Sadistic Rituals starts in a mid paced, slightly dissonant way. The song is very interesting rhythmically, it feels slightly lurchy, as if the band do not want the audience to feel comfortable. This track feels as if the band want to go beyond death metal into less structured viscousness. Implementing The Metaphysics Of Morals, the longest track on the album, the pace is slower than a lot on this album, but still with a neck breaking intensity that feels like this albums calling card. At points on this song the pacing and heaviness is more like sludge. Dukkha starts with foreboding drums before a slow nasty riff, with a disturbing sample playing under it. The track then goes into some simple blasting Death/Grind. It is simpler than a lot of the material here, but that just blasts the listener into the ground. The complexity is brought back with a fantastically fluid guitar solo. Final track Naraka has a slightly softer feel to it, mid-paced with some very good guitar work. The tempo does increase, and when it does the vehemence increases with it. 

Samsara is a fantastic album. It will probably be one of the best Death Metal releases this year, in fact it’ll be one of the best metal releases full stop. The album feels like it has had a massive amount of work put in to it. There was a huge amount of expectation associated with this album, Venom Prison have exceeded that expectation massively. The album is extreme, brutal, vicious, crushingly heavy, and just about the most intense album I’ve heard in a very long time. Animus had a huge amount of promise, Venom Prison clearly keep their promises. This album is stunning! 9/10 

The Air Turned To Acid - Black Zen Instruction (Hibernacula Records) [Paul S]

This is the first album from The Air Turned To Acid, the band have been going since 2011, and have released a demo and a split before this. The band is a 5 piece and they are based in Salisbury. The style on offer here is a particularly nasty brand of sludge that is intense and aggressive, at some points verging on death or grind-core. The album starts with a short intro called 4 Combined. This then goes into the first track Hounds. Hounds is a very angry piece of hardcory sludge. The track is dissonant and in the second half a little drone-like. Pinstripe Grey With Party Welts has a beautifully off-putting lurching tempo, it feels out of kilter but at the same time is perfect for head-banging. The track is also quite short, it turns up kicks you in the knackers and immediately fucks off. Anketell Brewer is slow and very heavy, again there is a lurching tempo to the track, and the riffs are dissonant and pounding. 

Vocally this as as intense and aggressive as any death metal vocals. It’s A Long Walk To Coney Island has a pounding and relentless quality that is very pleasing. The track is aggressive and combative, lovely. Gutter Punk is huge and staggering, the aggressiveness and intensity of this album has to be heard to be believed. The second half of the song has a huge groove to it, but at the same time is no less viscous. The album is brought to an end by the longest track on the album The Tent Murders. In some ways the band has left the nastiest track for last, the song has an impenetrable, dark aspect to it, it is brooding and evil sounding. The track ends up feeling so huge and monolithic, it is the perfect way to end a particularly nasty album. Black Zen Instruction is a beautifully nasty album. It reminds me a little of the current albums by Mastiff, Leeched and Minors. This is sludge done in an overtly viscous nasty way, and if that is a style of sludge that you like then you need this album in your life. Horrific in all the best ways. 8/10

Transients: Enemies Within (Self Released) [Paul H]

This is a six-track EP rammed to the gills with pumping metalcore that slams, punches and kicks its way in lively fashion until the final track, Legacies (The Path I Lead), which is destroyed by some awful opening vocals. For the majority of this 25-minute EP, the Reading based five-piece deliver standard metalcore in an energetic manner. I don’t really understand the attraction of this style of metal, with the constant variation between clean vocals and cookie monster growls over the top of a djent style backing beat. Full of crunching riffs, insistent barrage of drumming and the soaring vocals which are mirrored by many bands, Transients do nothing wrong. It’s solid, well delivered but completely devoid of any originality. Add them to a list of metalcore bands that continues to expand every week. 6/10

Xeria: Tierra (Self Released) [Paul H]

Little information to give you about this one. Xeria is a Spanish symphonic metal outfit who sing in their native tongue. Tierra which means Earth is an 11 track album. I can’t understand a bloody word but that doesn’t detract in the slightest from the music, which is at best Eurovision in style and delivery. The emotionally charged En Ti (In You), a hideous skin crawling ballad. I’m not a huge fan of symphonic metal at the best of times, be it fronted by female singers (Marina Sweet here) or male singers and whilst this is confidently delivered and at times quite emphatically heavy, two plays were more than enough to sit through. If you fancy a bit of Eurovision soft rock, then you may well enjoy this. I’m off for a lie down in a dark room with some Slayer!! 4/10