Style: Thrash metal, Progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Vektor, Voivod, Coroner, Cryptosis
Review by: Francesco
Country: Greece
Release date: 29 July, 2022
Look up from the basin of Athens and you can see the rise of VENUS, a new name in the Greek metal scene, releasing their debut EP Project Lamda. It is an impressive first offering by this double-guitarist outfit that presents a variety of styles, changing moods, and a commitment to a riff-heavy performance that does well to speak of their influences. With a sound leaning towards the technical thrash metal spectrum, VENUS writes pieces that are sharp, aggressive, and complex, though still retaining melody and coherency. The four-track EP, clocking in at just under a half hour, is full of interesting movements and intricate guitar and rhythm work. While the arrangements never shy away from complexity, the ferocity of the thrash metal style usually takes precedence, and at times their sound is even coloured with melodic moments reminiscent of an aggressive, progressive power metal.
The guitar work is technical and full of catchy riffing, the vocals are mixed, with each style provided by one half of the duo – a clean vocal that borders on power metal and a harsh vocal that becomes a dominant force. The clean vocals in particular are a bit unpolished and could use work; within the songs they are an element that definitely works for some of the somber or desperate moods they are trying to express, and although the area of clean vocals within this style is kind of niche, the approach of singer Antonis lacks dynamic and mostly stays within a narrow range. The harsh vocals of Giorgos are visceral and reminiscent of Vektor‘s, a band that VENUS clearly draws inspiration from, and in this release are the more fitting of the two styles. The drums are programmed on this album and done suitably well. I reckon there is some familiarity with writing for drums between the two of them because they’re well done, suiting the style and also creating interesting moments.
Overall, Project Lamda is very consistent; the compositions are laid out in a way where they waste no time catching your interest, particularly the songs “Helios Abandoned” and “Multilingual Monstrosities,” which are heavy, upbeat and intricate thrash pieces that are your best headbangers on this release and well-supplied with catchy riffs and pounding percussion. I draw special attention to the outro of “Multilingual Monstrosities” which is sure to leave you humming and air drumming. The other two tracks, “Art of Illusions,” and the self-titled “Project Lamda,” are a little more experimental and progressive. The former transitions midway into a melancholic clean guitar with heavy delay and blowing wind sound effects before introducing another movement, and the latter’s extended intro features a dark and moody clean guitar passage, with harsh vocal narration and cleanly sung verses echoing the esoteric sci-fi themes of this album. And at nine minutes and change, “Project Lamda” is definitely the centerpiece of this release, really coming into its own at the three-minute mark when the thrash instrumentals kick in, replete with blast beats and murderous abuse of the ride cymbal.
Ultimately, it could be that with the thrash resurgence of late VENUS stand to make a name for themselves if they manage to solidify a full line-up. Maybe a dedicated singer would help as well, if clean vocals are to be a staple of their style (which seems to be the case.) Project Lamda is aggressive, progressive, definitely melodic, and delicately mixes together elements of thrash and progressive metal to create a high-adrenaline cocktail of high-speed technical metal with cosmic themes. I think these guys show promise for the future and I’m looking forward to a full release with a bit more polish.
Recommended tracks: Helios Abandoned, Multilingual Monstrosities
You may also like: Paranorm, Distillator
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
VENUS is:
– Giorgos Verginis (guitars, harsh vocals)
– Antonis Avtzis (guitars, clean vocals)
