Review Of The New Venom Album "Into Oblivion".
Band Name: Venom
Album Title: Into Oblivion
Tracklist:
Into Oblivion
Lay Down Your Soul
Nevermore
Man & Beast
Death The Leveller
As Above, So Below
Kicked Outta Hell
Legend
Live Loud
Metal Bloody Metal
Dogs Of War
Deathwitch
Unholy Mother
Running Time: 43:47
Release Date: May 1, 2026
Label: Noise/BMG
Rating: 9/10
Band Members:
Cronos - Bass Guitar And Lead Vocals
Rage - Guitars And Backing Vocals
Dante - Drums And Backing Vocals
Additional Album Credits:
All Lyrics By Conrad T. Lant
Produced By Conrad T. Lant
Recorded At Black Quay Studios
Engineered By Raed Farquhar
Mixed At Abbey Road Studios
Engineered By Oli Morgan And Nick Watson
Back in the mid 80’s I went to a little Record Store in Arkansas and asked the proprietor to give me the heaviest thing he had in stock. He handed me Venom’s “Possessed” and when I got it back to my cousin’s house and listened to it I was floored. It was the evilest sounding thing I had ever heard, and I became a fan right then. When I got back to Michigan, I went to Heavy Metal Unlimited in Saginaw and bought the first three Venom albums as well as a 45 or two they had and some other Venom merch. After hearing those first three albums Venom became my favorite band, and it still is to this day. In high school I was the lone Venom fan among people that were more into Metallica and Slayer. Both were also great bands back then, but nothing topped Venom for me. I remember I went out with a girl in Jr. High who was more of a glam metal girl, but I’d take my “Possessed” cassette over to her place and when her younger sister came into my girlfriend’s bedroom and bugged us, my girlfriend would show her that cassette and off her sister would run because the cover scared her and we’d be left alone to do what teenagers do. Venom has had a long and storied career and here we are at their sixteen full length and newest album “Into Oblivion”.
“Into Oblivion” reminds me of a mix of the first four albums and some of their later albums. There’s more of an early Venom vibe here than on their last albums with some riffs that would have been at home on “Welcome To Hell”. Yeah, that galloping Venom sound is here in full force. Tons of bass, dirty sounding guitars, catchy melodies with Cronos’s trademark insanely evil vocals layered over the top of it all. The lyrics are… Well, hey. This is Venom. Satan, evil, anti-Christian. You know the drill. The production is a bit raw and I’m sure the band did this on purpose. While not as low-fi as say “Welcome To Hell”, it definitely is raw. A lot of bands try to ape Venom’s trademark sound and some of them are really good but give me the original any day. Cronos fucking rules. Always has, always will. End of story.
The cover art is a newfangled image of the demon head thing that has adorned Venom merchandise since the beginning. It really looks cool and the logo used for the cover is my favorite Venom logo of all. Inside the eight-page booklet there’s some more kickass artwork as well as all of the band and album information and a nice dedication to Poe.
Venom has been a band that’s given evil pleasure to me for over four decades now. The band doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. Literally! “Into Oblivion” will appeal to any fan of the band no matter what era of Venom you find the most appealing. Hail Satan! Hail Venom!
As always, I like to ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums you love or by going to the Bandcamp and/or Facebook pages and supporting them there.
Blasted By Britton Facebook Group.
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