Album review: Venamoris – To Cross Or To Burn

Whether he likes it or not, Dave Lombardo will always be most famous as the drummer that co-founded Slayer, playing with hand-breaking ferocity on no fewer than nine of their albums. This project, however, in which he is partnered by his wife Paula – a svelte-voiced singer and innovative songwriter – could hardly be more different. Venamoris make low-laid, heft-free music that thrives on ambience rather than volume. While sombre, it’s about as far from former thrashing grounds as can be imagined.

Take the title track, which is closer to alt goth legends The Cure than anything metallic, or In The Shadows, the consistent electric thrum of which is like that of a generator stopping you from sleeping at night. Upon these curious backdrops, Paula whisper-sings tales of light and dark. She tells of ‘Demons, keeping you awake’, before that thrum becomes even more penetrative.

Truth and Stain Of Pain are all languid melodies applied like soft brush strokes over Dave’s hypnotic and imaginative percussion. Never does he hog the spotlight, instead underpinning almost everything here in cleverly mesmeric manner. Spiderweb is another beautiful nightmare, caressing the senses as softly and stickily as the subject matter.

Those anticipating even flashes of rage have made an epic mistake. The nearest you get is when Gary Holt – the Exodus-founding sometime-Slayer guitarist that isn’t Kerry King – provides enjoyably schizo six-string wails on a cover of the Scorpions’ unintentionally sinister Animal Magnetism. While recorded quite differently, it feeds from the same dark undercurrents supplied in 1980 by the legendary German rockers.

Much of this album feels almost tribal, musical witchcraft or a strange ritual played out in front of disbelieving ears. Satisfy metalheads it will not; an interesting diversion it may be. It’s a weird trip, a disconcerting dream that you might not mind falling back into.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Myrkur, Eivør, Chelsea Wolfe

To Cross Or To Burn is released on February 28 via Ipecac