About Heavy Metal Review

By: Dave Schalek
March 19th, 2013

VON – Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves Album Review

The reformation of VON has been a three pronged approach. Late last year, band founder VENIEN, a mysterious figure within black metal’s pantheon, reformed VON and set about to play a few concerts deep within the underground. The concerts coincided with a proper re-recording of the original Satanic Blood demo, but VENIEN was forced to gather a new cadre of musicians to complete the process. Following the completion of those concerts, VENIEN gathered a new band of musicians to record entirely new material for VON, the first such material in over two decades. The material will be released as a trilogy of albums, the first of which appears as Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves on VENIEN’s own label, Von Records.

Largely a continuation of the style presented on Satanic Blood, Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves consists of a murky production and a simple, generally fast-paced tempo. The result is one of a rotting miasma, a great sense of unease, and an otherworldly feel to the music, an atmosphere that VENIEN and VON are known for.

That atmosphere works on many levels, but is emphasized when the music takes on a droning, metronome-like cadence with muted growls and a beefy bass in the background. Dark ambience is also employed in both the intro and outro, pieces that simultaneously set the tone and close out the album within a loop.

However, when the tinny sounding guitars that simply strum up and down the fret board become more prominent, the result is somewhat grating and annoying as the mix is probably uneven. For all practical purposes, though, the rougher mix might be intentional, as the music takes on a definite feeling of discomfort.

The discomfort and rather simple feel to the music may detract some, and Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves doesn’t exactly break new ground by simultaneously mining suicidal, depressive, and primitive black metal, but fans of past VON material will not care. The bizarre feel of VON is intact with Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves.

(Source: heavymetal.about.com) *site defunct

VON - Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves (Open Edition) (Digital Album)

vVurMzflessshhh Publishing

Cat/Sku#: VR D0009

Artist: VON
Title: Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves (Open Edition) (Digital Album)
Volume: Dark Gods Vol.I
Audio Format: Digital
Publisher/Distributor: Von Records (USA)
Digital Release Date: 2013
Illustration: VENIEN

Track-Listing:
01. They Have Come
02. Ancient Flesh of The Dark Gods Feat. D & C (Coffinworm)
03. Hands of
Cat/Sku#: VR D0009

Artist: VON
Title: Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves (Open Edition) (Digital Album)
Volume: Dark Gods Vol.I
Audio Format: Digital
Publisher/Distributor: Von Records (USA)
Digital Release Date: 2013
Illustration: VENIEN

Track-Listing:
01. They Have Come
02. Ancient Flesh of The Dark Gods Feat. D & C (Coffinworm)
03. Hands of Black Death
04. Dark Gods
05. MONSTER!
06. RawRot
07. DevilWhore
08. iAmInHuMan
09. Black Eyes

Recoding Lineup:
Jason Ventura (VENIEN) (vocals | bass)
Jon Gonzalez (Lord Giblete) (guitar)
Charlie Fell (drums)
Special Guests: vocals by D (Coffinworm) & guitar solo by C (Coffinworm)
Read more…