Album Review: Cage Fight - Exuvia
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
We all know Venom. Formed back in the Seventies over in the great city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, the classic trio of Cronos / Mantas / Abaddon pretty-much wrote the book on extremity in metal from an early stage. Without Venom there would be no Thrash, no Speed, and their influence on the Norwegians who exploded in the second wave of Black Metal of the early nineties cite the band, along with Mercyful Fate and Hellhammer/ Celtic Frost, as major factors in their burgeoning sound.
Venom sound about as much like Emperor, Mayhem or Gorgoroth as punk pioneers The Damned, The Stranglers or Ramones do Discharge, Exploited or GBH, yet it’s the energy and attitude that links the early progenitors with their latter offspring.
No self-respecting metal fan who’s of an age would admit to having a complete record collection without at least Venom’s unholy trinity of Welcome to Hell, Black Metal and At War with Satan, and while those records may be raw, they still have an unbridled energy and passion that comes through every note.
Line-up changes and fallings out could – and probably do – fill a book and are way beyond the scope of this word-limited review. Save to say Venom, in one incarnation or another, have continued to regularly release albums since the 1981 debut, with the last, Storm the Gates coming out in 2018; meaning the gap between it and this new, sixteenth record, Into Oblivion, is the longest pause in the band’s history.
The current line-up of Cronos / Rage / Dante has been together since 2011’s Fallen Angels, so fully understand the mission and the expectation of the fans after an eight-year wait. And, you know what, they pull it off with room to spare.
I’m going to be honest, I found Storm the Gates to be a little lacklustre and, if it were to be, not a fitting conclusion to Venom’s illustrious career; by contrast, Into Oblivion is exactly the album Venom fans have yearned a decade for.
Lead single, Lay Down Your Soul, harkens back to Black Metal, going full on with the speed and thrash, Nevermore proves Venom don’t need to reinvent their own wheel, while Death the Leveller is filled with Motörhead-charged energy.
Album opener, and title-track, makes good on the band’s promise to deliver an album that feels familiar and modernises Venom’s classic sound. You’ll even find some grooving section here, and amid the skipping rhythms and choppy guitars of Metal Bloody Metal’s head-bobbin’ fun.
Also notable when considering Into Oblivion’s approach are As Above So Below, an atmospheric homily to the Dark One which twists and turns but never loses sight of solid percussion and rampaging strings. Unholy Mother ends the album in a cosmic and uplifting manner, overlaying driving riffs with all kinds of accoutrements, until the record ends with a storm, lightning and rumbling thunder.
There’s still plenty of that old school Venom sound to be had across Into Oblivious, just tweaked slightly. Man & Beast goes slow, chugging and a bit caveman for some primitive fist-pumping aggression, Dogs of War has a similar tempo, but with a more spacey-vibe; Kicked Outta Hell goes for the melodic and finds Cronos doing some vocal gymnastics; and Legend, Live Loud and Deathtwitch are very competent versions of the Venom thing.
Promotional material suggests Into Oblivion had something of a difficult gestation, with the band spilling blood, sweat and tears to make the best representation of Venom 2026 as they were able. I would say they have achieved that in spades. Here is a record that shows a legacy band firing on all cylinders and with each component tuned to perfection. Not all tracks are equal here, but the vast majority are ones that should be attracting praise from all quarters.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to cite Venom in the same influential sphere as Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Motörhead; Into Oblivion proves that the creative elements here still burn oh so brightly, and they should be lauded in the same way as their contemporaries. Just my opinion, of course.
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