There’s Only Black
NUCLEAR BLAST
Newcastle’s foundational metal renegades steady the ship
WITH CRONOS’S VENOM still soldiering onwards, original guitarist Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn’s incarnation of the band has also returned with their second full-length under the Venom Inc. name. Having re-enlisted Prime Evil-era frontman Tony Dolan ‘Demolition Man’ in 2015 to tour some Venom classics again, the trio attempted to prove they were powered by more than mere nostalgia with 2017’s patchy Avé, a muddled collection of songs ranging from solid to awful. There’s Only Black, by contrast, is much more consistent; its highs may not match the vintage Venom riffery of Avé’s Forged In Hell, for example, but there’s also nothing as toe-curlingly embarrassing as Dein Fleisch here either.
Despite the more subtle, minimalist cover art, the band’s sound is still as brash andis still here, especially on chuggier cuts such as and but Mantas’s iconic riffing style shines through on sleazier numbers like and the thrashy title
