Review: Kataklysm - Heaven's Venom (2010)

Review published by Legion on 2010-09-01

Kataklysm - Heaven's Venom I first heard Kataklysm around 1993 while listening to CKUT’s metal radio program broadcasted from the McGill university campus every Saturday night. They were playing Mystical Plane of Evil from The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation album or was it from their first demo The Death Gate Cycle of Reincarnation? Anyway, even though the production was that of a demo, I really liked what I heard and since then I have been one of their fans. So, you can imagine how happy I was last week when I got their latest album Heaven’s Venom through mail! You know you’ve been a good boy when the mail man leaves you the brand new Kataklysm album under the tree. Oh yes, the Montreal death metallers have just released what I consider to be a pretty good death metal album in the same vein as their last two efforts, In the Arms of Devastation (2006) and Prevail (2008). The good part is that they even managed to surpass themselves with this new release!

Without being very different from their latest works, Heaven’s Venom still distinguishes itself with the production quality that we hear at every level (Except maybe for the bass line… What is it with metal and bass??). The sound is pretty heavy yet very clean and clear which helps to appreciate every dimension of the songs. Whether it’s the vocals, where you can easily decipher the lyrics without losing the aggressiveness, or the guitar riffs, which are un-repetitive, melodic and very catchy, or the constant pounding of the drums hyperblasting it all at different tempos. As mentioned before, my only complaint would be about the bass, which is very discreet and shy if you exclude the bass solo in Hail the Renegade. I know I’m repeating myself, but I like to hear some bass, what can I say?

There are many killer songs on this album like the opener, A Soulless God, with a tough guy intro made by none other than Rocky Balboa! This song is very intense and has some nice riffs (i.e. around 1:26) which are reminiscent of Edge of Sanity. On a slightly slower scale, Numb and Intoxicated is another great track. I like the vibe in the first part and how it slows down to a mid tempo with lots of double kicks and great guitar strumming. I don’t know if the guys did it on purpose as a tribute or what but, like A Soulless God, I definitely hear some influences from bands such as Hypocrisy ( Solar Empire) in Determined (Vows of Vengeance) and even early Cannibal Corpse-era in Push the Venom. Whether it was done on purpose or not, it still sounds great to my ears!

In short, Heaven’s Venom is a great album and example of a band who mastered its art of creating quality death metal using the talent, experience, professionalism and dedication to the genre of its musicians. This album gets even better with each listening!

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