Album Review: Venues – Transience (Arising Empire)

German metalcore quartet Venues return with their new album ‘Transience’, set for release March 29th, 2024, via Arising Empire.

Are you on the Venues train yet? Because you really should be. The German metalcore band are one of the brightest up and coming acts in that scene, and this new album is them well and truly stepping ahead of the pack.

Beginning this new album in style, unleashing one of their most impressive tracks to date. Godspeed, Goodbye is an exceptionally brilliant opener, one of Venues most emotionally charged tracks, but also one that is stupidly anthemic. It’s an outstanding piece of music; powerful, infectious, and so damn heavy. The breakdown will make the teeth ache, but it’s the deepness of the melody that stays with you long afterwards.

Take a deep bloody breath though, that’s just the start, and they’re on the creative form of their life here. Bringing even more dynamic and modern metalcore anthems to the welcoming ears of so many.

We have Haunted House, and absolutely manic track that finds Venues sounding their heaviest. Shouty vocalist Robin is killing it here, delivering the verses with such intensity, while Lela lets her cleaner vocals soar in the chorus. Then there is Braille, a track with a powerful instrumental section. In particularly, the guitars, which are electrifying. Before along comes Unspoken Words, another fabulous showcase of the vocals. Where the chorus hits so hard because of the heavier instrumentation. The speedy and savage switch that comes along after the halfway point is so destructive.

It’s as this point, if it hasn’t become clear already, that Venues are beginning to expand their musical palette. You can tell they’re not afraid to try new things, always serving the song and what works for it.

It’s this outlook and the focus on being as infectious as possible, that makes the album such a continuous joyful listen. How could anyone not get pure satisfaction from a track like Bad Karma, with its deeply melodic ambience, and a track like Reflections, with its body shaking effects and infectious rhythms. Track after track of varied quality, which isn’t often something you can say about modern metalcore.

That’s Venues for you though, a band who really are breaking away, and no further proof is needed then a latter part of an album that features such bangers as Radiate Me, Oblivion, and Cravings. The passion, the heart, the soul, the emotion… it is fundamental to Venues’ sound and each track is an album highlight in its own way.

Do you know what really makes this album so impressive though? It’s how complete Venues sound. It’s how the album features no filler at all and how it decisively shows the band’s growth of the past few years. It’s why an ending as melodramatic as Coming Home works so well. The subtle vocal performance, the big moments of flair, the over-arching emotion in it, balanced out by the emphatic variety that appears elsewhere.

Venues – Transience Track Listing:

1. Godspeed, Goodbye
2. Haunted House
3. Braille
4. Unspoken Words
5. Bad Karma
6. Reflections
7. Radiate Me
8. Oblivion
9. Cravings
10. Coming Home

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