Venom Prison - Primeval

The Guardian 0

(Prosthetic Records)
Continuing to subvert the politics of a lot of hardcore metal, the band look back to early material, energising it with melodic invention and anger

With their gleefully hardcore, socially astute take on death metal, Venom Prison have been responsible for some of the most energising extreme music of recent years. Musically aligned with the more melodic end of death metal (think Carcass or At the Gates) alongside a grinding hardcore influence, the Welsh band on their 2016 debut Animus comprehensively subverted the genre’s predilection for violent misogyny with songs like Perpetrator Emasculation. On 2019’s Samsara, vocalist Larissa Stupar covered issues such as forced surrogacy (Uterine Industrialisation), gaslighting abuse (Sadistic Rituals) and the perils of internet status obsession (Asura’s Realm) with her perfectly pitched guttural delivery, cutting through the layers of adrenalised riffs.