Venia – Frozen Hands
Blood and Ink Records

Rating:  

This is the Sophomore release from Minneapolis’ Venia. Sophomore albums are a little more scrutinized than debuts. This one is no exception. The only thing I like better about this album from the last one is the lyrical content.

The First track “It starts here” is kind of a declaration piece. Starting with the lines ‘Let’s take this world, and turn it upside down’ It’s more of an extended intro than a song though. The second track “Seeker” is exactly what you would expect form Venia, brutal in your face drums, riffs and vocals, but nothing that really jumps out and demands your attention. Tracks 3-7 and 9-11 are the same as the others, they are all good but nothing that really would separate them from the pack. Now as for track 8 “Strength of Heart”. One of my two favorite songs from “Convictions” I really don’t like it when a band re-records a song from a previous full-length (E.P tracks are OK). If they thought they were improving on this track be re-recording it I would have to disagree. If the rest of “Convictions” sounded like this I definitely would not have liked it as much as I did. The first line of track 12 “Better Seas” pretty much sums up the record “This ship is sinking fast”. I know that it sounds a bit mean and maybe I expected too much of this record. But I know that the dudes in Venia are musicians and they were trying to make a record that had a different sound than the last one. They succeeded, just not the way I had expected.