Texan mum doom: good quality, kind of fresh
Venus Victrix are a new project from the American South, near Austin, Texas to be more precise and they were formed by the composer and multi instrumentalist Keegan Kjeldsen (already part of two other bands) with the addition of a woman named Tiffany (in a legit band called Bad Lucifer as well but they have nothing released yet). Joined by some other members, this duo is the creative core of the project. Their first release is quite legit and it fits the current occult female fronted doom metal trend of recent years.
This debut album is
quite well produced considering it's their self released debut, the
sound is defined and it can easily highlight the different components
of their songwriting, some keyboards, a loud bass (“Change”) and
some acoustic guitars like on the ethnic Om/Orphaned Land inspired
ending of the last track “House of Bast”. The drums sound a bit
weird, a bit cardboard-esque but that's not bothering me too much.
While their ideas are not the most originals, everything is done with
the utmost care. The tracklist is well balanced, eight songs for a
bit more than forty minutes is perhaps one of the best deal you can
have in doom.
The vocals are
pretty good, perhaps one of the best the genre has to offer, really.
They're quite airy and ethereal and it fits the direction they wanted
to find. Like the band, the vocalist is akin to popular bands like
Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony or Jess and the Ancient Ones. Clean,
powerful female vocalists with a very melodic edge who can transpose
the psychedelic era of Jefferson Airplane into modern soil. Compared
to a band like Jex Thoth, the band has plenty of riffs and it just
doesn't rely on doomy atmospheres to create their ambiances. There's
nice leads too, it's never too much and they contribute to the good
direction the album has.
Their sound is
nowhere near as vintage as the seventies 70s afficionados of Blood
Ceremony though, it's much more subtly brought both instrumentally
and lyrically (the lyrics of the intricate seven minutes “Tsukuyomi”
are nicely written). All of 'em are about different mythologies
instead of your usual evil occult satanist stuff, we have Japanese,
Roman or Greek legends like Bacchus on “The Horned God”. I always
liked these themes, these tales are damn bloody and pretty metal!
While riding on the
mum doom (female fronted doom that can be seen as soft) wave, Venus
Victrix delivers the goods on their debut, it's a heavy, psychedelic
and fun record. It's perhaps very safe but this doesn't make it any
less enjoyable. Support the band!
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