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Venomous Concept > Poisoned Apple > Reviews
Venomous Concept - Poisoned Apple

A Great Record For Fans of Discharge and Nausea. - 96%

GalacticPotHealer, July 26th, 2009

First off, this record has some of the best musicians from the metal community and from various subgenres (all of them play in grind bands) performing an excellent take on hardcore punk. These people play crusty punk like Discharge and Nausea, but with more influences coming from the U.S. such as Black Flag and Poison Idea. Some the songs show flavors of the grindcore all the artists play in other projects. However, the grind elements never overtake the album, as this is in your face, angry hardcore. The album hardly slows down, and when it does, it is only for an intensely heavy and furious intro or bridge. The songs just jab at you one by one like a hail of bullets.

The instrumentation is good, but that is expected when all of these people play in bands (Brutal Truth, Napalm Death) that are intricate and fast, so playing stripped down hardcore is not a problem for these speed freaks. Each song only uses two or three riffs, and the songs normally end at about one minute and forty seconds, so you never get too bored if you know that most hardcore is like that. However, if you are not digging that, you probably would not like this record. The composition generally goes like this:

1: The song will explode with a quick intro riff that might be executed by thrash bass master Dan Lilker, whose bass tones are reminiscent of his crossover/S.O.D. days.

2: First verse, everyone is playing fast.

3: Chorus with a riff only a bit slower than the one for the verses.

4: Verse 2.

5: Chorus.

6: Outro.

Some of the songs also have a bridge or slower sequence, these are generally very good, and I do not hear too many hardcore bands doing this, but that might be me.

The production value is also very good, coming from a guy who’s helped Napalm Death and Dimmu Borgir, the production is more polished than a lot of the original hardcore records of the 80’s, but that makes the record good, all of the material sounds really great, and I don’t know if dirtier production would improve it. It still has the intense anger at the world that Black Flag had a few decades before. The lyrics show it too, as most of it is social commentary that you have probably heard before, but is done right here. Kevin Sharp brutally vomits these rants, which fits well with the top-notch instrumentation.

This record is a well-executed record, nostalgic for the heyday of punk. It has respected musicians playing the kind of music that influenced the stuff they play now, and all those interested in a little time-travel or nostalgia, I recommend this record, and it is a metallic take on a good era of music.