Band:	Venom
Album:	Fallen Angels
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	November 28, 2011
Guest review by:	Mattybu

01. Hammerhead
02. Nemesis
03. Pedal To The Metal
04. Lap Of The Gods
05. Damnation Of Souls
06. Beggerman
07. Hail Satanas
08. Sin
09. Punk's Not Dead
10. Death Be Thy Name
11. Lest We Forget
12. Valley Of The Kings
13. Fallen Angels
14. Annunaki Legacy [limited edition bonus]
15. Blackened Blues [limited edition bonus]

When it comes to thrash, 2011 treated us quite nicely. Bands like Warbringer, Havok, and Toxic Holocaust were a few on the list that gave my neck a workout. And then there was Venom. I didn't have my hopes or expectations very high, but Fallen Angels was really a disappointing album.

To be up front about it, this album is a mess. Venom put out such a basic album this time around. The guitar riffs are the definition of serviceable, bland, and free of the sharp impact which can make them hit so hard when structured in a more interesting manner. None of them really stuck with me. There weren't any of those "damn, that was so awesome I have to listen to it again" moments that happen every 5 seconds when I'm listening to Warbringer.

So that facet of the performance wasn't impressive, now on to the others: the drums were again nothing more than serviceable, often just a simple backdrop for the rest of the music. Last and certainly least, the vocal performance was bad to the point of being embarrassing. The lyrics being spewed out are inane and have very little substance to them, and the vocal delivery is a dull and uninspired. If this album was a meal, it would be a piece of bread, crackers on the side, and water that somehow had less taste than water. Not very tasty.

So it's musically boring. Does it get worse? You bet! You have to wonder why Venom thinks it's acceptable to release a sorry album like this. It seems like even after 30 years, they haven't figured out how to come close to what other bands have accomplished. Without being incredibly talented musicians, you can still write a good album if the song structure is there. This album didn't build up any tension the whole time I listened to it, the songs didn't grab me and pull me in. The songwriting just didn't cut it.

It's also too long. 15 songs clocking in at over an hour is a recipe for boredom. Top this off with some thin and sparse-sounding production and this album does not hit very hard at all.

All in all, Fallen Angels is bad. It doesn't get much simpler than that for me. It was boring, unoriginal (see "Hammerhead" for stupid lyrics 101), and failed to invoke any sort of worthwhile emotion for me. I wouldn't even recommend this to a Venom fan. You might as well just give your old copy of Welcome to Hell another spin and use the money you saved to pick up the latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. It's got 100 sex tips you can't live without!