Band:	Dekadent
Album:	Venera: Trial & Tribulation
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Symphonic black metal
Release date:	February 25, 2011
Guest review by:	theFIST

01. The Wound
02. Thralldom Decree
03. Raided
04. Paramours In Vain
05. Beautiful Fire
06. Craven
07. False Endearment
08. Providential Love
09. Sunday's Lament
10. In Pulchritude Adorned
11. Trial & Tribulation
12. Day Of Solace

When I first found the song "Thralldom Decree" while randomly searching through YouTube, it was something I considered nice sounding. At the time it came as a surprise considering how melodic it is, and something to add to my collection, but not something I"d often come back to. Soon after, with the summer approaching, this completely changed. The uplifting sound now fit perfectly, and it quickly became my most listened-to album. Repeatedly coming back, for a while even daily through most of the album, the details started revealing themselves.

It stopped being merely a melodic album, which is unusual for me to enjoy, but showed thought out guitar rhythmics and tempo variations backed by the drums ranging from blast to slow beats including multiple fills and fitting cymbal work, and the slight keyboard accentuations that, looking back at the rest of the discography, are far more in the background than in any of their previous efforts.

While the vocals are mostly some form of scream, they are varied in pitch to fit the guitar melodies ranging down to a rough low, with cleans appearing on the slower tracks "Paramours In Vein" and "In Pulchritude Adorned". Yet Venera still manages to be black metal even with all the elements that would suggest otherwise.

Some may disagree with the choice of making this a collection of multiple tracks instead of a continuous album, but few bands can as convincingly as Dekadent claim that it was a deliberate decision, after their previous effort was not only flowing as one piece, but also had a music video made for the entire album.

By the time the 2011 Metal Storm Awards came around it was already clear this, an album that had not worn out by getting listened to so regularly, would be my write in for the melodic black category, a decision I fully stand behind now as it remains one of my dearest favourites to this day with "Raided", inexplicably the song they chose for their music video, being the only weak point.