Kataklysm – Heaven’s Venom (2010)

After listening to the band’s EP “The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation” we were highly impressed by the sheer brutality that oozed from that release. Fast-forward almost two decades, several band member changes and a handful of uninspired releases (mostly everything they did in the 00 decade) and now we get “Heaven’s Venom”, a very inspired release that immediately turned our heads and made us focus 100% on listening to this solid release.

While the band is not as ‘brutal’ as on their earlier days, they have matured enough to be able to pull of Melodic songs with brutal blastbeats and not even break a sweat. During the ten tracks presented in this release, the listener is treated to a rollercoaster ride through melody and brutality unlike another found in an ‘older’ Death Metal band this year.

Kicking things off with “A Soulless God”, the band uses the traditional ‘sample’ to start things off and quickly switched to a powerful riff, all-out screams and hellish blastbeats. This is pretty much the trend you will find through “Heaven’s Venom”, with the exception that you will find amazing melodic guitar sections. Songs like “Faith Made Of Shrapnel” evoke some of their earlier days brutality, but the vocals sound a bit less brutal than back then.

As we mentioned before, the melodic aspect of the bands current sound is outstanding. Songs like “Hail the Renegade” and “As the Wall Collapses” feature intricate melodies that at some points remind us of Amon Amarth-like Death/Black metal anthems of Viking destruction. The hellish drumming goes perfectly whether the song has all-out raging sections or melodic passages; the blastbeats are perfectly placed every single time they appear.

Out of all the songs in “Heaven’s Venom”, we can’t seem to find any one that we dislike one bit. Every single track has the perfect balance of aggressiveness and melody, and each one features different riffs and it’s structured differently from the previous one, make this release very interesting for the listener.

We have to admit that before this release we had lost our faith in Kataklysm. However, with “Heaven’s Venom” they have won us over again, and with a vengeance. This will surely be on the top 10 Death Metal albums list of many people this year, so make sure you don’t miss out on this great album.

Release: August 24th, 2010

Country: Canada