Band:	Venom
Album:	Hell
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	June 2008

01. Straight To Hell
02. The Power And The Glory
03. Hand Of God
04. Fall From Grace
05. Hell
06. Evil Perfection
07. Stab U In The Back
08. Armageddon
09. Kill The Music
10. Evilution Devilution
11. Blood Sky
12. USA For Satan
13. Dirge / The Awakening

Venom is a really controversial band, a real love or hate combo. The thing is that they're able to produce great things like super crappy ones. Their come back in 2006 with Metal Black was not so bad (without being wonderful too) but unfortunately, the new release "Hell" will not differ. One more time, this is average, not terrible but not good too and only the first fans of the British combo will seriously be attracted by the album. Too bad but Venom simply suffers one more time of its generic compositions?

The problem with "Hell" is that the album is just boring as hell. I cannot say that the songs are the most terrible things that we've heard lately but damn, if you know Venom discography, it's sure that you've already heard it before. Ok, a fast song like "Straight To Hell" with a good catchy riff is not so bad but still this is really repetitive and unoriginal as hell. On the other hand, songs like "The Power And The Glory" or "Hand Of God" are so basic and uninspired that they will bore you to hell after only one listening. That's the recurrent problem of Venom, they can do good songs like "Armageddon" which uses a really old but school Metal spirit but all in all the general level of their compositions is average and really deceiving. You really have to be a strong and loyal old fan to fully enjoy the music that you'll listen to on "Hell". As I say this is not horrible but too generic and basic to be really attractive and sadly this is just boring in the end.

"Hell" is not particularly well produced but it's ok here because it perfectly fits to the music of Venom (and I suppose that it was a wish of the band anyway). The new guitarist, Rage, is not a bad musician and is able to play good and honest thrashy guitar soli but as you can understand, this is not this point which will save the album. "Hell" is just a so-so album of dark Thrash Metal which is too out-dated to be enjoyed by the new metalheads? Some modernity could be a good things in my opinion.

If you're a fan of the British combo I think that you can have a look on "Hell". This is not the worst album in the discography of Venom but this is not a revelation too. Try to listen to the release before that you buy it if you want to avoid bad surprises (and I can tell you that we had bad surprise at Hellfest this year).On the other hand if you like their previous releases, don't worry you should be happy with this new album.