Album Review: Venom Prison - Primeval
Reviewed by Tim Finch
For those of you who have been under a rock for the last five years, Venom Prison may have passed you by, but for those music fans with their fingers on the pulse of new music, Venom Prison have quickly become the leading light of the next generation of extreme music. Spearheading a new wave of death metal stylised music for the genre’s rabid fans.
Over the course of those five years the band have released two full length albums to critical acclaim. 2016’s ‘Animus’ was followed by the ground breaking ‘Samsara’ in 2019 and that time frame included a win of Metal Hammer’s ‘Best New Band’ at the 2017 Golden Gods awards. But this week the band look back to their roots, prior to those two albums, they released two E.P.’s during their infancy; ‘Defy The Tyrant’ (really a demo in the traditional way of thinking) and ‘The Primal Chaos’. The works on these two albums get a re-release this week under the banner ‘Primeval’ all tracks re-recorded, re-mixed and re-mastered with the addition of two brand new songs.
From the opening minute of first song ‘Userper of the Throne’ you get the feel of just how good these early songs sound. Given the re-recording treatment with producer Tom Dring, the older material feels instantly refreshed, reborn and re-energized. But you also can hear how the band have developed in their song writing over the years, from these early songs through to last years ‘Samsara’. Old school - if you can call 2016 that – Venom Prison takes inspiration from traditional death metal and builds on it, forming the bands early foundations.
‘Life Suffer’ is a dark exploration through the soul, feeling eerily haunting and captivating the listener, whilst ‘Defy The Tyrant’ is a battering ram of brutality pummelling the lister into submission. Throughout this album you can hear the raw energy of a young band, refined in this new recording.
‘Primeval’ is a statement from a band on the cusp of greatness. Not only demonstrating how far they have come over a short period of time, but just how good they were to start with. Venom Prison are heirs to the extreme metal throne and it won’t be long before they take their rightful place atop the genre.
