The lost structures of rational points within a barbaric future dystopia. — Filling in the blank spaces of perception with the delusion of a “best guess” is one of the most successful adaptations of we great ape descendants, wherein all of the things that we miss when compartmentalizing familiar sights and sounds still add up to evolutionary progress in action. A protective layer of processing power which weeds out chaff datum to the best of the human mind’s capability is yet an additive curve, an unreal momentum built toward the surety of the senses, a dangerous habit which has proven easily farmed in order to breed mass delusion. Critical thought is a mind-art and less of a deeply embedded adaptation, infused as easily as it is erased per the corpo-comforted, curdled minds of the two most recent generations of mankind. Rather than avoid the plain as day extinction-in-action of today the noblest of goals of the species’ deteriorating minds returns to the fear of the dark, a paranoiac fear of one another as the urge to kill rises in revelation of exhausted resources. Unable to hide under the radar for more than a few months beyond formation Athens, Greece-based progressive thrash metal duo Venus offer the pulsating brain of thrash metal’s all too hot to handle 20XX hypermodernity in their ranks, an mercenary which appears as if it were set aside in hypersleep and allowed to stew its psychokinetic prowess for the last decade. As if built to make up for lost progress in the race to extinction and offering an accomplished explorer-level ride right off the bat ‘Obscured Until Observed‘ offers an impressive yet plainly familiar debut full-length album which lends substantive insight into known spectacle, offering a modest challenge in its rounding-up of modern thrash metal’s most ambitious future-now forms.

Venus formed back in 2021 assumedly as a pandemic spawned happening between guitarist/harsh vocalist Giorgos Verginis and guitarist/clean vocalist Antonis Avtzis and of course we can assume that without any drummer credited the drumming is more than likely programmed on each of their releases thus far. They’ve worked fast in terms of clearly having a plan for the sort of record envisioned and this means their earliest recordings didn’t quite nail their vision but might’ve been arguably more original than their official debut, a typical side-effect of blazing through projects without testing them in reality. That is to say that unholy Hell, was their digital only debut mLP (‘Project Lambda‘, 2022) an impressive showing as a nearly half hour roll through progressive-power metal influenced technical thrash metal very much in the style one’d expect post-2016 beyond ‘Terminal Redux‘-era Vektor, which is the only primary-level inspiration to effectively direct the stylistic choices of the two guitarists. So, instead of dreaming up the next Sacral Rage record consider that mLP and this full-length moreso in the tradition of bands like Paranorm or Vexovoid where any two guitarists examined have found their medium per this common inspiration.

DEEPER LISTENING [x]

Vektor: You will find an obvious inspiration coming from the song structures, chord voicing, and general sound of ‘Terminal Redux‘ (2016) throughout Venus‘ debut album.

Droid: An underrated Canadian thrash metal band who took their craft in a similar direction for their 2017 debut ‘Terrestrial Mutations‘. Bought the shirt, bought the album, love that record.

Believer: A classic thrash metal band known for their tech-thrash evolution as well as their Christian beliefs. More importantly their third album ‘Dimensions‘ (1993) is relevant to the larger conversation on progressive vs. tech-thrash when we look past the Vektor-isms abounding.

Kenn Nardi: One of the brilliant minds behind classic prog-thrashers Anacrusis and an artist/arranger whose sense of composition feels important to mention here.

Again, I’ll have to get this out of my system up front otherwise risk overstating: Yes, this record sounds like Vektor. — While it’d make sense to focus on all of the reasons why Venus fit into their assigned “nowadays tech-thrash” slot this is too reductive to accurately portray their work which, again, features a progressive metal element which is not necessarily related to the legacies of groups like Psychotic Waltz or the German innovators of the late 80’s/early 90’s and instead takes cues from modern prog-metal, death/thrash, and such without going quite as far into their harsh/clean dynamic as say, Vorbid had on their most recent record. We could hear shades of death metal infused intent on ‘Project Lambda‘ but for this full-length the elaborate forms and maze-like structures of progressive extreme metal alongside an increasing use of vocal harmonies are what defines the duo’s sound beyond the obvious expectations. They go other places with it here and there and this does ultimately add up to the development of Venus‘ own sound though this is still an early stage of distinction, as is evidenced by what is both too familiar yet well-elaborated on opener “Sons of Grus”, a ready-fired example of their clean vocals trading off with their more throat-set rasping timbre where impassioned melodies are built around circularly whipped leads, a power-prog trait unrelated to the Priest inspired breed of power-thrashers beyond ‘Painkiller‘ one might’ve expected otherwise.

As a fan of all things technical/progressive in the realm of thrash metal of course my bias is years thick but as we cut into the progressive death metal wrenched dance of the dual guitar compositions on ‘Obscured Until Observed‘, specifically the opening centerpiece made of “The Observatory” the appeal of this record begins to live up to my eager thumbs up and allow a brief window or two beyond their semblance of another band. Folks who particularly appreciate the elasticity available to the language of thrash metal in terms of the riff and its expansion into many different moods and scenery should quickly identify this above average show of arrangement, particularly the interplay between the two guitarists. The album is only getting started on this trip, so, the actual compositional density of each guitar line one after another should quickly become garbled in mind unless this is your thing, the kind of gear you like to tackle note for note. As we reach for songs like “City of Nektron” we do however begin to access manifolds which are frankly bland and per no convincing musical effect, such as the ~2:55 minute mark and the jaunty chugging riff that develops beneath, which reads as comically underwhelming before it has a chance to mutate. From my point of view these are the sort of tunnel vision moments where a skilled rhythm section might provide more impactful punctuation for the moment.

Float is everything in a downhill-flowing race. — If you’d gotten the impression that this album was riff city front to back for its ~52 minute rip via singles like “Circus Strange” in some sense this is true for the sake of no real standout melodies developed within the first half of ‘Obscured Until Observed‘. This is for the sake of Venus‘ true excesses and point of personality thus far being limited to their progressivisms, a loss of directionality as they throttle through their work with such detail that the scenery changes frequently within short periods of time. We can eventually begin to resolve this as a progressive metal album primarily when staring down the funnel of “Artificially Prolonged Existence” as the second half of the full listen begins to feel whimsical, eager to stretch back into the power-thrashing vaunt of their EP without ever capably pulling into that anthemic mode, save the main riff in the first half of “The Arrhythmic Pulse of the Universe”. Naturally the greatest viewpoint where this side of the band spreads its plutonium-soaked wings comes with the ~11.5 minute closer, balancing out the fiery attack of the first half of the album with their most elaborate clean vocal arrangements and an epic piece to close out the full listen.

No doubt I am impressed that a project from two folks I’d never heard of have managed such a high standard of composition on a nearly hour-long progressive/technical thrash metal album after having formed just a couple of years ago. Yet at the same time many have taken these same shortcuts to points of style and not managed to stand out at all when similarly borrowing so much of their core phrasing and songcraft from another artist’s well developed (but perhaps somewhat dormant) repertoire. I think there is enough potential shown on to this debut to suggest Venus‘ own personality, vision and wiles are worth pursuing in the hopes that that they might quickly develop in accelerated evolution. Overall it should be clear that I think this band needs more time to cook but even so, this is a memorable enough debut which should inspire the sci-fi thrash metal sect as a rare above-average entry. A moderately high recommendation.

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