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Album Reviews : Bullet For My Valentine – Venom

By on August 19, 2015

adfaWelsh metal outfit Bullet For My Valentine are back with their new album entitled Venom, they’ll be performing on next year’s Soundwave Festival across Australia,  and this is the band’s first release since the departure of long time bassist Jason James; he is replaced by Jamie Matthias.

I fell in love with Bullet For My Valentine back when I was an angsty teenager. The Poison was one of the records that got me into metal and I have a lot to thank BFMV for. As time went on the quality of the albums dropped release after release, and in 2013 the Bullet For My Valentine that I used to know was pretty much gone. I forgot about the band completely, until earlier this year when “No Way Out” was released.

I immediately felt that this was something completely different to what the band had created on Temper Temper. It felt fresh, it felt like old school BFMV, and more importantly, it felt like the band had found a way back to the band that I and many others fell in love with all those years ago.

Needless to say, my expectations for this album were high. It is safe to say that Matt Tuck and the rest of the band haven’t disappointed. The overall aggressive and dirty feeling of this album is astonishing.

Venom is a high-octane powerhouse, or The Poison on steroids if you will. “No Way Out” is a perfect representation as a whole, and it simply has to be one of the new Bullet live anthems. The second track on the album is “Army of Noise”, and this is the first time that my mind is truly blown. Moose’s drumming is thunderous, Matt’s vocals are better than they have been in years and overall it just feels like Bullet decided to say “fuck you” to some people involved with the band’s latest release, while going back to their old ways. It really feels like there is an underlying anger, a force that drives the entire record.

“You Want A Battle? (Here’s A War)” was released as a single back in June. There’s something about the gang style vocals in the intro that just makes my brain melt. I just can’t help but wondering how anyone will be left standing after hearing this one live. And as if that wasn’t enough, after “You Want A Battle?” We are greeted by the most headbang friendly song of them all in “Broken”. The title track serves as a nice little break with a ballad, showing the wide range of Matt Tuck’s song writing abilities.

We’re not allowed to rest for too long though, as straight after “Venom” we’re back to the bone breaking heavy stuff. We’re on the homestretch now with “The Harder The Heart (The Harder It Beats)”, “Skin” and “Hell Or High Water” all serving as an incredibly strong finish. The last song, “Pariah”, might very well be the best one on the album. It just serves as a testament to this band’s abilities. They’ve put out a record that completely dominates in every way possible, from start to finish. There are no weak tracks on this album whatsoever.

I am just in complete awe over how Bullet managed to put out an album like this now. Venom will without a doubt feature on my top 10 albums of the year list, and seeing them on Soundwave next year will be one of the highlights of 2016.

Venom is out now through JB HiFi, Sanity and all the usual outlets, iTunes and Google Play.

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.