ALBUM REVIEW: Erebos – Venom Prison

Across their initial EPs and first two albums, VENOM PRISON defined their angular, often technical death metal that raged against injustices and societal ills of all kinds. When the pandemic afforded them the opportunity, they re-recorded those first EPs and teased a new direction with songs Slayer Of Holofernes and Defiant To The Will Of God on 2020’s Primeval. Enter 2022 and their third full-length Erebos, which takes cues from those two songs but fleshes them out and pushes the band’s sound into brand new territories. This is VENOM PRISON as you’ve never heard them, but at the same time they’ve never sounded more like themselves.

When the band debuted lead single Judges Of The Underworld, they took the metal world by storm with its far groovier yet no less vicious indictment of the judicial and penal systems that oppress and dehumanise people and featured the soon-to-be-iconic cry of “guilty as charged”. The collective whiplash when they then dropped Pain Of Oizys was something else; introducing Larissa Stupar’s first foray into clean vocals as well as minimalist pianos, it marked an even greater departure for more melodic and grandiose territories, examining Stupar‘s own depression and PTSD in what’s arguably their most incisive and emotionally affecting song to date. 

Throughout its runtime, Erebos simply stuns. Nemesis, the third and final single, opens with roars of “I am the damaged one/You deserve all the damage done” in a damning indictment of narcissistic abuse and how victims are left to pick up the shattered pieces afterwards. It’s unpredictable, churning out grooving riff after grooving riff with even ARCH ENEMY-esque flourishes in the lead guitars. Castigated In Steel And Concrete is all jagged edges and sheer aggression with a titanic chorus, while closing song Technologies Of Death viciously tears down capital punishment, seething at the unfairness and inhumanity of it all with lines like “state killing ritualised”. 

A standout element throughout Erebos is how poetic it is; with the album taking its name from Greek mythology meaning “one borne from chaos”, and song titles like Pain Of Oizys, Golden Apples Of The Hesperides and Gorgon Sisters. While Pain of Oizys is a deeply personal song, the narrative also follows the story of the titular character, the goddess of misery and grief. Similarly, Gorgon Sisters is rooted in real-world horrors and, rather than solely telling the story of its title, deals in the abhorrent forced sterilisation of immigrants, while Golden Apples… looks at how media and the news can be used to manipulate with relative ease. 

There’s simply not a bad song on Erebos. The band have elevated and refined their craft, resulting in an album that, though born from the isolation and indeed chaos of the pandemic that’s ravaged the world, transcends it. This is not a lockdown album by any stretch of the imagination; what it is, instead, is the album that VENOM PRISON needed to make. Having no distractions from touring, nor outside influences, has forced them into examining what it is that has not only defined their sound so far, but what they want it to sound like as a collective without sacrificing the political and societal criticism they’ve also become known for. Erebos is VENOM PRISON at their most “them”; it’s a definitive statement that, while a sonic departure from earlier work in many ways, is a masterclass in how to progress and evolve without compromise and is an early contender for one of the year’s best albums. 

Rating: 9/10

Erebos is set for release on February 4th via Century Media Records.

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