Temples of Ice

"Temples of Ice" was the second album with the Demolition Man on vocals. The crumbling band logo and the blurred cover artwork attracted my attention. Okay, I would have bought the full-length anyway. But of course, I like albums with a thoughtfully designed packaging. So far, so good.

The music itself pleased me without blowing my head off. A mixture of thrash, power and heavy metal was dished up. Because of the then modern trends, the once celebrated band seemed to be a kind of fossil, prehistoric and fallen out of time. Worse still, the group lacked of a clear conception. On the one hand, the album failed to deliver an appropriate quantum of filth and rudeness. Previously unimaginable, they covered Deep Purple´s "Speed King" without ripping apart the composition. This was an unmistakeable sign that the band did no longer focus on any kind of musical rebellion. On the other hand, Mantas and his sidekicks did not break with its loutish past. They still used the well-known band logo and some of the lyrics had once again a satanic touch. Nevertheless, the overall impression was too harmless to leave an unsettling effect. No doubt, the album could not be compared with their early classics.

But that does not mean that the band had released a flop. "Temples of Ice" provided, inter alia, the probably most catchy song in the history of Venom. I am speaking of the comparatively brutal "Acid". Due to its perfect combination of accessibility and insanity, it marked the outstanding highlight of the ten tracks. But "Acid" did not have the monopoly on catchiness. The strong opener, driven by a highly effective riff, turned out to be a metallic earworm. Its smooth flow and the almost loose and light atmosphere contrasted with the band´s approach during its early days. One could call it inoffensive, but from my point of view, "Tribes" was just an example for good songwriting. Unfortunately, "Faerie Tale", the downer of the vinyl, really suffered from harmlessness.

The production was pretty decent. Neither explosive nor combative, but clean, heavy and well balanced. It emphasized the pleasant flow of the single pieces. The expressive and powerful vocals of the Demolition Man crowned the compositions. With regard to a few average songs, the album did not lead the band to new success stories. But with the humorous "Playtime" or the fairly sinister "Even in Heaven", the guys also had some aces up their sleeves. And I have to mention the title track in this context. It marked the dramatic climax of the album. Venom mobilised all its energies so that they were able to deliver an intelligently configured final chord which surprised with a dreamful and surreal ending. I was absolutely satisfied with this album and I am still convinced that this period of Venom is completely underrated. "Temples of Ice" is a more than solid album and much stronger than relatively weak but better known products such as "Possessed" or "Calm Before the Storm". Give it a try.

Most metalheads know the story behind Venom, but few could explain the post-Cronos era. When Cronos left Venom, Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan came in to take up bass and lead vocals. "Prime Evil" showed that this new line-up was able to present the same type of headbanging fury that Venom once delivered, but after "Prime Evil," fans began to drift away from Venom. Once the fan base began to shrink, a new album that was just as powerful as "Prime Evil" was released, but has been repressed from Venom's history. "Temples Of Ice" is the forgotten album of Venom's legacy.

Venom has always been known to put on a great guitar show. Mantas lives up to all the past expectations due to his fantastic playing. The guitar work is always thrash riffs that are nice, catchy and fast. Mantas's guitar playing takes a different turn on "Playtime" and "Faerie Tale" when his guitar riffs lean toward a more heavy metal driven sound. Mantas also displays a great deal of wild solos. Every song on "Temples Of Ice" has at least one solo that is always memorable and fast. The technicality of the solos show just how talented Mantas is. The solos during "Playtime" and "Even In Heaven" are the best example of this and are simply mind blowing because of all the notes he hits within just a couple seconds.

The one thing that made this album different from other Venom albums is the
new addition of band members. Steve "War Machine" White and Al Barnes played perfectly along side Mantas and the two new guitarist really helped out the overall sound. On the song "Even In Heaven," they accompany the fading solo with an acoustic bridges, but the best situation is on "Speedking" where Mantas and War Machine copy each others solos again and again, which really makes "Speedking" exciting. Venom just didn't stop at the two guitarist, they even added some keyboards. New keyboardist V.X.S makes a small mark on "Temples Of Ice," which is pretty dissapointing. All V.X.S does is add small samples into the songs. "Tribes" has a humorous sample that has a woman saying "Oh Shit," and he plays this strange tango sample on "Acid," but that's it; other then that, his presence is basically invisible.

Tony Dolan showed in "Prime Evil" that he could replace Cronos, and he does here as well. One thing that makes his vocal performance seem good is that his voice is very similiar to Cronos. His voice is gruff and loud, which really represents the usual Venom vocal style. The main thing that really makes Dolan amazing on this album is his flawless bass playing. From beginning to end, "Temples Of Ice" is loaded with bass lines. The bass is now a key part of the sound and is always audible and easy to hear. During "Tribes," Dolan is playing something completely different from the guitarists and his bass is always shooting out unique sounds. The best part of his bass playing is the bass solo on "Even In Heaven." Toward the end of the song, Dolan goes nuts on his bass and nails incredilne notes. Not only does his playing show how good he is, it shows his bass playing could open new doors that Cronos couldn't.

I wasn't really expecting much from this album since I haven't heard too many good things about it, but I was surprised of how good it was. "Temples Of Ice" is sadly out of print and has been forgotten in the minds of many Venom fans. Try to find this one, it will make you happy.

This review was orginally written for: http://www.thrashpit.com

I don't care what other Venom fans say, 1989's Prime Evil was an excellent Venom release. The production was clean and the band seemed to be rejuvinated and full of great ideas and aggression. Vocalist Tony Dolan was also seemed to be a fitting replacement for Cronos. Reviews at the time even stated "Cronos has been put to bed". Prime Evil could have been a new beginning to a bright future for the band...

...and then came 1991's Temples of Ice.

The first problem with Temples of Ice is the production. The production is muddy and Dolan's vocals seem distant. The songs themselves are considerably weaker than what was present on Prime Evil. Some decent ones like Tribes and In Memory of, but all the rest seem to fall flat. The song Playtime was supposed to be the third song in Mantas's teacher obsessed series (first songs being Teacher's Pet and Skool Daze) but it doesn't come near the silly charm as the other songs in teh series.

Another problem is the lame cover art. The Venom logo portrayed as shattering ice was an interesting idea, but the the drawn beast on the cover is just bad. Looks like some moster with huge eyeballs and and teeth being crushed by some metal bar. Whatever it is, Abaddon should be ashamed of himself for slapping on such a dreadful piece of art on a Venom album cover

As with Possessed, Venom failed at an opportune moment where they needed to release a steller album. The bands follow-up The Waste Lands was better, but still nothing the band was capable of and again the band faded into oblivion.