Venomous Maximus – No Warning

Band – Venomous Maximus

Album – No Warning

Country of Origin – USA

Genre – Heavy/Doom Metal

Release Date – July 28th, 2017

Label – Shadow Kingdom Records  

Reviewer – Credible

Venomous Maximus provides a heavy album for us to enjoy with No Warning.  They are said to have intense, unabashed metal riffing, heavy rock grooves, interjected dual leads, and a dark atmosphere.  No Warning gives us all of this and a really good sound.  The album has a darkness that classifies them as doom, but their heavy elements add to their whole atmosphere of dark and doom.  Needless to say, they make a very good album here for the listeners.

To begin the album, their 47 second intro reminds me of an old 8-bit video game.  Not one of the ones that were all about saving the princess, but more of a Castlevania feel.  This song sets the tone for the rest of the album to become dark and filled with doom.  The music that follows are filled with wonderful heavy tones that bring out a doom aspect.  Repeated distorted low riffs, combined with varying hard rock grooves make for a great setting of a void.  The leads play well off of each other and are able to make a great harmony in their sounds.  What I enjoyed most about their sound is how they were able to take their heavy metal roots and really bring them out to the sounds of doom metal.  Most of their heavy metal sounds are present in their riffs and solos which makes for a really smooth listening experience for those maybe just wanting to transition into doom metal. But the undertones of doom are very heavily present, which will satisfy someone who listens to doom all the time (like me for example).

Within the riffs, melodies, and solos, we are presented with a good vocal presence.  There is a good mixture of clean vocals for us to hear and understand the pain and almost ritualistic feel to the music.  These are accompanied by growls and even some screams in the tracks.  You are able to really get the feelings and context of each of the songs through the vocals as well as the music.  I feel like the vocals also lend to their heavy feel as well.  Like in most heavy metal bands, there are clean feels to the lyrics, sustained words, and echos of epic feel.  These are welcomed by the music and actually enhance their doom feel, which was nice to hear.

Overall, the album is very good.  I feel that this is an album that you can listen to multiple times and still enjoy every song on the album. They make a good doom feel and great for a person who is looking to transition from heavy to doom.  I would say that it is worth a good listen.

Rating:  3.5/5