Albums•November 29, 2011•15,898 views

Throwdown Venom & Tears

01. Holy Roller 02. Day Of The Dog 03. S.C.U.M 04. Americana 05. Weight Of The World 06. Cancer 07. Hellbent (On War) 08. No Love 09. Venom And Tears 10. I'll Never Die A Poisoned Death 11. I, Suicide 12. Godspeed

2007 Trustkill Records

Our score 6

by Michael Gluck

9/3/2007

What we have here is a case of mistaken identity. SoCal's Throwdown, one of the handful of surviving bands born from that region's metalcore uprising of the mid-late nineties, have stepped up to the plate and done what no one in metal and likely no more than a few people in the hardcore scene thought they could do: Write a follow-up to Pantera's Reinventing The Steel. Frontman and former Eighteen Visions guitarist Dave Peters has traded in his Slipknot t-shirt for a Phil Anselmo body suit, and with straight-edge on his side, exhibits more energy and vocal dexterity than the burnt-out Anselmo has for the better part of the last decade. No one can debate that since Peters' move from guitarist to frontman for their 2003 Trustkill debut Haymaker, the band's profile has been rising steadily, with major tour opportunities, videos, and finally a rewarding jaunt on last year's Ozzfest being afforded them for their efforts. But for some reason, former guitarists Tommy Love and Matt Mentley are nowhere to be found on Throwdown's newest, Venom & Tears [editor's note: This is not factually correct - Matt Mentley is still in the band and played on Vendetta and Venom & Tears but wasn't on Haymaker. Tommy Love left the band in 2004 before the band wrote and recorded Vendetta]. As a result, whether direct or indirect, the album sounds less like the two albums responsible for the band's impressive rise, Haymaker and its follow-up Vendetta, and more like a Pantera covers album. With Dave Peters' having openly proclaimed as of late Pantera to be the greatest metal band of all time, one need not waste much time imagining who was responsible for the decision to veer so heavily into Texan Territory on their newest. Amazingly, Throwdown even manage to do a better job deriving nearly every note, beat, and word from the Cowboys From Hell than did the original ripoff experts, troubled Spitfire Records' artist Pissing Razors. Venom & Tears' third track, "S.C.U.M.," breaks out of the gate with a riff pulled directly from "Strength Beyond Strength," the opening track to Pantera's Billboard #1 debuting album, Far Beyond Driven. The opening riff of "No Love" is half Black Sabbath's "Children of The Grave," and half anything from Pantera's last great album, The Great Southern Trendkill. Then, on Venom & Tears' title track, Throwdown slows it down for the more reflective rocker, blending Pantera's "Shedding Skin" with anything from Down's II - A Bustle in The Hedgerow. You get the picture. All the riffs, the catchy choruses, and Dave Peters' continued vocal experiments still cannot prevent Venom & Tears from packing less of a punch than their previous two albums, though nevertheless an entertaining album for a few listens. The occasional hardcore moments, largely inserted as gaps between Pantera riffs, recall the band's early Indecision Records days of Beyond Repair and You Don't Have To Be Blood To Be Family. But even then, Venom & Tears doesn't flatten all in its path like Haymaker and Vendetta succeeded in doing. One of the reasons could be the shift in songwriting direction. Perhaps these songs could have delivered more on their promise, though, if Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold) hadn't been hired to produce Venom & Tears. The songs are both improperly mixed and sound virtually unmastered. This album could have sounded huge had Zeuss or even Haymaker producer Ben Koller handled the knobs. Pantera producer Terry Date would have been an even more appropriate choice. Instead it sounds like the band is performing inside an oil barrel, and the recording equipment is glued to the outside of it. Bottom Line: Throwdown started off as a bunch of friends playing straight-edge hardcore for friends and family, with the majority of their lyrics initially covering those same topics. Years later, and ample potentially debilitating lineup shifts behind them, the band has made its most barefaced attempt at the crown of Pantera successor with Venom & Tears. They certainly pull it off more suitably than the bore-fest that has become Lamb of God. Still the fact remains that their musical peak was, and perhaps always will be, Haymaker.

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anonymous 8/13/2007 4:18:29 PM

Pantera's dead. So is this band.

Throwdown Venom & Tears

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