Venom, heralded as the founders of black metal and a crucial influence on countless other sub-genres, are pushing the edges of their own rather extreme parameters on their 16th album, \u201cInto Oblivion,\u201d out this Friday. Stuart \u201cRage\u201d Dixon, the guitarist who has been with the group, fronted by Conrad \u201cCronos\u201d Lant, for 17 years, calls the new record \u201ca lot more dangerous\u201d than its predecessor, \u201cStorm the Gates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more progressiveness,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve sort of moved the goalposts of what Venom can do. There\u2019s a lot of anthemic songs on it. There\u2019s a lot of epic songs on. There\u2019s sort of different avenues of songwriting on this album. There\u2019s a lot more ambient sort of bits, like the spooky bits are spookier, the faster bits are faster. I think we\u2019ve sort of unleashed what we can do as songwriters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Founded in Newcastle, UK, Venom burst onto the scene with its debut album \u201cWelcome To Hell\u201d in 1981 and the following year released \u201cBlack Metal,\u201d which gave the genre its name and ratcheted up the Satanic content was the bane of \u201980s parents and churchgoers the world over. It underwent a series of lineup changes before settling on the current configuration of Cronos (bass and vocals), Rage and Danny \u201cDante\u201d Needham (drums).<\/p>\n
\u201cInto Oblivion\u201d was only announced in March, along with the first single, \u201cLay Down Your Soul,\u201d before the second one, \u201cKicked Outta Hell,\u201d came out in mid-April. It will be less than two months between the announcement and the full album release on May 1, but the LP has been a long time coming. \u201cStorm the Gates\u201d was released seven and a half years ago, before COVID shut down the music industry.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Rage says, \u201cRound about the end of the recording of that, Dante actually ended up having to go and get spinal surgery. So we ended up getting a young gentleman called The Jackal in to fill in and do some gigs that year. So we sort of didn\u2019t get enough time to maybe change things, because obviously [Dante] was incapacitated on the drums.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Dante back in fighting shape, the trio was able to experiment on the new album, both sonically and lyrically. For example, on \u201cNevermore,\u201d the work of Edgar Allan Poe is explored.<\/p>\n
\u201cCronos has been trying for quite a while to try and merge that in without it sounding cheesy and a little bit predictable,\u201d says Rage. \u201cAnd \u2018Legend,\u2019 that song\u2019s about a legendary tale up here in the northeast of England where these two giants who were brothers used to battle each other on the River Tyne. So we\u2019re trying to just expand songwriting, expand lyrics, expand what we can do as players. So it\u2019s a bit night and day really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rage adds with a laugh: \u201cI wrote more songs on this album than I did on the last one. So personally, I obviously enjoy it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, free, pre-release listening parties will be held to celebrate \u201cInto Oblivion,\u201d featuring giveaways, including the chance to take home\u00a0a signed set of test presses at every event. New York City\u2019s heavy metal headquarters, Duff\u2019s, in Brooklyn, will host an event<\/a> at 9 p.m., while the others will be held in London, Milan, Paris, Sao Paolo and Hamburg.<\/p>\n