This is the third album from Venues, a modern metal band from Germany.
2018’s Aspire was good, but 2021’s Solace was where Venues really came into their own. The more I listened to it, the better it got, and it’s still a record that’s great when you want anthemic and catchy modern metal.
Now we have Transience, so let’s dive in.
The 38 minutes of new music that we get on Transience continues in the style that I became unexpectedly enamoured with on Solace, only refines it further and is now even leaner. These ten songs are tight balls of fire and passion, wrapped in enthusiastic heaviness and draped in luscious anthemic catchiness. Yep, Venues know how to write a good tune.
Something about Venues manages to break through the defences that I seem to have subconsciously raised against this very contemporary form of metalcore. A lot of the style comes across as plastic and uninteresting, but it just works for me here. This is partly due to the passion that Venues display constantly, partly down to the quality of the songwriting and performances, and partly because it just sounds so damn infectious.
Transience improves upon the successes of Solace, polishing everything further and heightening both the emotive content and the heaviness. The impressive, dazzling vocals of Daniela ‘Lela’ Gruber are just as show-stopping as they were on Solace, but I have to compliment co-singer Robin Baumann, who has stepped up his game on Transience. He already had a good voice, but it sounds sharper and more cutting now. Musically, despite the modern trappings, the guitars are heavier too, and the music hits harder overall.
Transience is an impressive, super-professional work, that somehow has managed to emerge from the hyper-polishing process with its fiery passion and aggressive bite intact. Whatever the reason why, I’m extremely happy to have Venues back and firing on all cylinders.
If you’re partial to the most contemporary versions of modern metal, post-hardcore, and metalcore, then don’t miss out on Transience.
Wonderbox Metal 