Venefixion – Anointed In Nazarean Blood [EP]

Quite some time has passed since we heard from Venefixion, one of the best and most interesting Death Metal bands from France. ‘A Sigh From Below’ from 2021 (Iron Bonehead Productions), the band’s debut album, definitely belonged to the highlights of that year and was a strong follow-up to the already convincing demo, EP and split LP with Possession. Probably because of the individual bandmember’s involvement in bands like Deströyer 666 and Necrowretch, Venefixion doesn’t always have their full attention, but when there’s new Venefixion material it always feels like it was worth the wait. And the same goes for ‘Anointed In Nazarean Blood’, the band’s brand new EP.

As far as I was able to find out, this new EP was meant to be released as a 7” EP through Iron Bonehead Productions, but the label has largely backed out on releasing that format due to higher production costs and lower interest in these nice little pieces of vinyl. A shame of course, but fortunately both Obscurity Of Error Records and the French cult label Spikekult Records (also did some of those classic 7” EP’s from Grand Belial’s Key, Judas Iscariot, Watain, Antaeus and Arkhon Infaustus) signed up for the task. Venefixion’s long-time partner Iron Bonehead Productions are still involved via the cassette tape version of this EP. The tape, by the way, features an exclusive Incubus-cover in addition to the three original EP-tracks.

Although almost three years and a half has passed since the release of the band’s debut album, it feels like this new EP was just written and recorded in the same sessions as ‘A Sigh From Below’. After a short intro, the band fires away in the tried-and-tested fashion of the evil sounding American Death Metal that we came to love and expect. Still, Venefixion is best described as a slightly more Black Metal-tinged version of what holds the middle between early Morbid Angel and Necrovore. It comes as no surprise that the band chose to cover Incubus’ ‘God Died On His Knees’, that perfectly symbolizes where exactly Venefixion gets their main inspiration from.

Most striking, as always, is that the music shares much of the same sheer brutality and savage song writing as many of the Angelcorpse-like bands but never really ventures into the overly chaotic regions. Venefixion’s ability to unite all the raging individual musical elements without bogging them down into an inextricably big jumbled mess is undoubtedly their greatest achievement, evidence by this marvellous new EP.