Venom

Metal Black

[1/5] Leaving aside the fact that they coined the term “black metal” and inadvertently spurned the legacies of countless poker-faced, corpse-painted church-burners, Venom aren’t literally evil at all–though with a 25-year-long biography that reads like extended notes from This Is Spinal Tap, they are a total riot. Originally titled Maleficarvm until they feared people wouldn’t be able to pronounce it, Venom’s 11th proper album, Metal Black, finds the trio (the only original member of which is bassist/vocalist Cronos) falling victim to other people’s accounts of their own legacy, minus the sort of self-aware humor that’d normally make such a move okay. The goat’s-head image on the cover recycles a signifier they’ve used at least twice before; and, as if in denial of the decently produced, not-embarrassing “comeback” vibe of their last album, 2000’s Resurrection, the production here exists almost in spite of the songs. Ah, yes–the songs: While it may be funny to imagine some aging, beer-bellied hair farmer headbanging to the tuneless, overlong, over-the-top satanic dirges here, it’s also sad to think you’re the only one who gets the joke.
(SANCTUARY) Aaron Burgess