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Venom Inc.: There's Only Black
 After the success of their 2017 release Ave', the outfit known as Venom Inc. (not to be confused with Venom, which is still led by founding member Cronos), which features Mantas on guitars, bassist/vocalist Demolition Man, and drummer WarMachine, are back with their latest platter of heavy metal mayhem for Nuclear Blast Records, There's Only Black. Twelve new songs are on offer here, and it's pedal to the metal ferocity as we've come to expect from this group, a dozen headbangers that combine old school heavy metal with an extreme edge, as evident on crushers like "Come to Me", the ferocious title track, the riff-tastic "Tyrant", the manic trash attack of 'Don't Feed Me Your Lies", the blistering "Man as God", and the delightful old school feel of "Nine". Demolition Man's vocals are rough and ready throughout, WarMachine's drums are pummeling, and Mantas, well, he's come a long way over the years and turned into a very fine guitar player, delivering no shortage of crushing riffs here and blazing solos on each track.
There's Only Black is just kick ass old school heavy metal as only members of 'Venom' can deliver. We might have both Venom and Venom Inc. to keep track of these days seeing as Cronos and the rest of the guys just no longer get along, but I'd argue that Mantas' crew are arguably making the better music these days. This is great stuff, don't miss out!
Track Listing
1. How Many Can Die
2. Infinitum
3. Come To Me
4. There's Only Black
5. Tyrant
6. Don't Feed Me Your Lies
7. Man As God
8. Burn Liar Burn
9. Nine
10. Rampant
11. The Dance
12. Inferno
Added: March 28th 2023
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score: 
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 611
Language: english
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Venom Inc.: There's Only Black
Posted by Brandon Miles, SoT Staff Writer on 2023-03-28 23:38:43
My Score:
I wasn't really sure where this one would take me. Anyone who has ever stuck a foot into the proverbial Metal swimming pool has heard of Venom. Often thought of as the original black metal band (disputed), the NWOBHM legends were the most extreme (also disputed), evil (they seem like decent enough guys), and raunchy (in a fun way) band in the land once upon a time. Sure, they couldn't play their instruments worth a crap and their production values seem to be the only thing that the grim and frostbitten northeners decided to use when they effectively "re-invented" black metal in the second wave, but damn it somebody had to cross the line. What line that may or may not be seems to depend on who you ask, but I think most people hold Venom in some degree of reverence for their (at the time) extreme looks and sounds. Like any band that's been around but seen limited mainstream success, Venom had multiple splits and re-unions over the years. Lead vocalist and bassist Cronos bounced from the band in the late 80's to be replaced by Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan, who was pretty well received among the band's die hards and one of the albums he featured on with the band, "Prime Evil", is apparently a deep cut fan favorite. Fast forward a few years and we have more members exit, re-enter, and eventually Venom has one remaining member; the previously mentioned Cronos. The two remaining members of the original trio, Mantas (guitar) and Abbadon (drums) decided to go out on their own and brought Demolition Man along for the ride. This new band was coined "Venom Inc." which gives off band split into two warring factions vibes, but it's admittedly better than "Mantas' Venom" or "Venom of Fire" or "Jack Russell's Venom". Abbadon left again prior to the band's first release "Ave", but on their newest album "There's Only Black" instead of a drum machine they brought in a War Machine. That's his name. This entire spiel sounds like "There's Only Black" is a disaster waiting to happen, but what we have here is a surprisingly engaging and varied album.
Venom of old sounded a lot like Motorhead. Motorhead on speed with Satan as their manager, spiked gauntlets, and less technical chops. Being this is only one of the existing bands to be riding the name "Venom", I expected some degree of monotony and scraping of the barrell. A cynical cash grab, if you would. I'm very happy to be wrong and I feel I owe the boys in Venom Inc. a drink for even thinking that. What we have here is some primo old school metal very much in the vein of their NWOBHM roots with vastly improved musicianship and production. New drummer and man of 1000 bands War Machine gives the band a boost with some impressive and vigorous skin-pounding, Demolition Man sounds pissed off and energetic, and Mantas' riffs are surprisingly spry and headbang worthy.
Tracks like the album opening 1-2 punch of "How Many Can Die" and "Infinitum" are thrash-forward stormers that are closer to what I initially expected from "There's Only Black", albeit of higher quality. Sounding a lot like Lemmy meets Kreator, these kinds of songs are great, but the album really spreads its wings with the next volley of tracks. "Come to Me" is a more lively and bouncy song that gives off Mercyful Fate vibes with it's interesting main riff, and along with the storming title track's octave chord breakdown we have a hell of a 4 song assault to start the record.
"Tyrant" is a standout track on the album, with its stomping and crunchy start and weirdly melodic 90's alternative rockish outro. The album marches on from here, and while the second album isn't as strong as what I've already mentioned, it's still remarkably solid and worth listening to. Of particular note are "Rampant", a fun song with it's turbo charged raunchy sunset strip riffs, and the thrash-tastic "Nine". Really, it's all pretty good here aside from some goofy lyrical choices from time to time.
"There's Only Black" is a surprise to these ears. I admit I went in with some bias due to the whole split line-ups thing and the band's (willfully) sloppy and evil aesthetic obsessed early years. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of that by the way, but it doesn't tend to age terribly well. This album is a mature, but still heretical, album that brings together NWOBHM, thrash, and traditional heavy metal sounds in a really satisfying way and proves that these guys still have it in spades. For what it's worth, this is MUCH better than what Cronos' Venom are putting out there and it would be fair to say that this is the band that deserves to wear the legacy of the legendary act on their shoulders.
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