Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The poet, whether armed with guitar, piano and possibly even a generous loving violin or the thunderous confident tones of well oiled and lubricated voice, with expertise is able to take a moment from the past and turn into something that can border on the exquisite, or crushingly, to filled with future optimism that it loses its buoyancy, its grasp on the real and ventures unwittingly into the absurdist fantasy beloved of the broken and bemused.
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Being the main attraction isn’t for everybody. Many are more than happy being the player filling in, the unseen midfielder who puts in more than his fair shift week in, week out, the beautiful scene behind the supposed alluring landscape or the rare flower in the hands of a beautiful woman, some quite rightly prefer it that way. Every so often though that rare flower gets noticed, even if it has been prominently displayed, it may have gone undetected to all but those that rave in the dark of its sanguine effect on the whole.
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Like all good narratives and stories that belong in the realm of darkness, From the Very Depths, is a suggestion that plays into the heart of basic fears, frustrations, doubts and other worldly qualms and the thought of endings as we know them.
It is also the very real place that sees rock bottom being attained and yet for Venom, rock bottom is not an option, it may be a fine starting place for the uninitiated to smile with teeth dripping metal corroded blood but for Venom, this is the point where years of output of across different line-ups becomes important, depths have been reached but a zenith is in sight.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are combinations that are just made to make the heart swing that little faster, the amalgamation of seemingly different flavours that somehow go together and produce a slice of unexpected and much admired bliss.
The album may steadfastly proclaim that it’s A Long Way From Heaven, however just an hour in the company of Wily Bo Walker and Karena K and the highly original songs that come across the innocent sounding space between speaker and ear is soon filled with the sweet resonance of angel siding up to a Blues/Jazz combo and uttering the immortal words, “Turn up the heat baby, you’re on fire!”
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You can be sat in your armchair, your favourite drink sat by your side, the lights down to an acceptable, undemanding level and with not a care in the world. Then from out of nowhere, an album comes on in a genre heard a thousand time before and the ears prick up, they sense something that they know the brain is going to appreciate and they tell all the other organs to be aware, some serious is going to happen and the only possible solution is to See It Through.
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When you run out of avenues to go down, the only sensible solution is to go Back To The Start and enjoy the initial rush of determined expectancy and play music as if it’s for the first time.
In many a way, that can happen every day when you open your heart to straying beyond the self imposed lines that forever increase as time inexplicably and honestly marches on, none so much more than when a music lover comes across the delightful freshness that comes with a debut album.
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Virtually all artists bring elements of themselves to their chosen creative pursuit. The sense of the autobiographical is interwoven with in all manner of artistic endeavours, from the artist sentimentally putting in their favourite flower into a scene where there was none to be seen, to the poet adding colour into a dull passage of time and the musician bringing, in some cases the very worst of their dystopian thoughts and nightmarish experiences to the public gaze and letting a guitar mourn the passing of a single note. It worked for bands such as Pink Floyd and solo performers such as Peter Gabriel so why not Fall Out Boy?
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Some fortunate people in this world are just born to deliver poetry to the mass population. Some, no matter what form that poetry should take or whether accompanied by the delicate sound of an acoustic guitar and the wistful nodding of a bespectacled, beard wearing and book loving saxophonist who clicks his fingers between notes, are just put on this Earth to urge others to turn away from a world of bleak impossibilities to a world where a single word in the right place can level mountains and take down Governments.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The love of Americana and the thought the abundance of wide open spaces that are filled with historical beauty, destruction, free thought and in some extreme cases, regretfully closed minds, all make America an appealing place in which to praise the ability of song writing.
The American dream, the chance to improve your lot in life and its downfall when the intensity of its politics bites with severity, is one that provides the thought of a lyric and offers redemption, a softness to the hammer blow when it goes wrong.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
For many a music fan, the concept album is like allowing the lengthy attention span required for a drive down the back roads of Britain from John O’ Groats to Lands End via Whitby to enjoy the gothic ambiance and a day or two in Stratford to soak up the atmosphere of a greatest of them all and the master of the concept ideal.