Known for being purveyors of reasonably friendly, non-violent metalcore, it sounds like someone shoved an Exocet missile up the Welsh band’s arse on Venom, Bullet For My Valentine’s fifth album. And it’s done them the world of good.
After an eerie, building intro, the album explodes into opening cut No Way Out. Up next, Army of Noise maintains the fury and frenetic speed. Worthless is more groove based, but still hits like a sledgehammer wielded by Ronda Rousey.
Have BFMV morphed into a melodic thrash band? Well not really, but it takes until track seven, the title track, for the band to loosen the throttle slightly. The Harder the Heart (The Harder it Breaks) is more of a slow burner, but after that the album piledrives once again all the way to the end.
An argument could be made for Venom being this band’s hardest edged record so far. However, traditional fans need not be concerned. This is still very much a Bullet For My Valentine album – there are still plenty of grooves and soaring melodic choruses to keep you happy – they’ve just upped the aggressive ante slightly more. In a nutshell, Venom lives up to its name, and it’s a worthy addition to this band’s growing catalogue that’ll please existing fans while attracting a few new ones.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
