We had the pleasure of interviewing VENUES over Zoom video!
With their third album “Transience”, VENUES effortlessly pushes the boundaries of what is possible in modern metal. After two strong predecessors “Aspire” and “Solace”, oscillating somewhere between post-hardcore, alternative metal and metalcore, the Stuttgart-based band are finally tearing down all barriers, borders and walls. “Transience” unleashes an emotional cascade full of great melodies, visionary soundscapes, abysmal heaviness and visceral, unfiltered emotion. This is not just an album. This is catharsis. A medicine for a sick world. The antidote to dreariness, indifference and coldness.
And yet it is anything but a given fact that VENUES are still standing. Old members left, corona hit hard; yet, from a long dark tunnel emerged a band that has somehow only grown bigger, stronger, more fearless through all the setbacks and catastrophes. “Since our last album, we’ve grown together enormously as a band,” confirms shouter Robin Baumann. Since 2019, he has been sharing the vocals with wonder voice Lela Gruber, who has given VENUES a huge boost and is easily one of the most versatile, strongest vocalists in modern metal – a voice like an axe for the frozen sea within us. “We all pulled together and can now talk openly about everything,” she says. “That has brought a whole new vibe to the band – not to mention that insane energy.”
You can hear it, but you can feel it even more: The ten songs on “Transience” revolve around vanitas, farewells, new beginnings and the inevitability of change; they are emotional projectiles that hit home exactly where they hurt the most: right into our wounded hearts. Recorded in three creative and harmonious sessions with their long-time producer and confidante Christoph Wieczorek (Annisokay) at Sawdust Recordings in Halle, the final act in their trilogy bears all the pain of a wounded world. VENUES don’t look away, don’t suppress anything, don’t sugarcoat. But they don’t give up on themselves and this world either and sing, scream and play against powerlessness. They live, they suffer, they love, they breathe; they don’t close their eyes to toxic relationships (“Unspoken Words”), they channel emotional baggage (“Godspeed, Goodbye”). But VENUES are at their most moving in their most intimate moments. When Robin Baumann addresses his mother’s cancer in “Braille”, for example, or when Lela sings about imprisonment in the depressing “Coming Home”. “I haven't yet managed to sing this song without crying,” she says quietly.
This vulnerability, this unfiltered empathy leads to an incredibly intense, at times painstakingly honest album that draws on post-hardcore, alternative rock and electronic prisms. A healing thunderstorm, no less. “When I think back to my 16-year-old self, sitting sadly in his room and immersed in music, I realise what we are actually doing here and that we are this important band for some people today,” says singer Lela. They are: The bristling power of Bring Me The Horizon goes hand in hand with the symphonic arena demolition of In This Moment, infused with a very unique sound that has once and for all become an unmistakable brand on album three. “Transience” is a camera obscura, a prism composed of numerous dazzling facets and immortalised by a band at a new creative and musical peak. “Our last album was a pretty heavy metal record in response to our debut; this time we consciously wanted to be as open and multi-faceted as we are as individuals,” says Robin. “This album sounds the way we always wanted to sound.”
VENUES are a metal band at heart, of course. Nevertheless, this has never been a band for those who prefer to think in drawers. For those who don’t want to miss out on great melodies or powerful breakdowns, in turn, they are: The band has been playing their way up step by step since 2015. First “Aspire”, then “Solace”, touring extensively for both records. Since the last album, VENUES have been on the road with Emil Bulls and Blind Channel and played in Wacken, and the first new songs were already released back in 2022. You can feel how hungry the band is right now, how eager to live out their momentum. It’s not the first time people have said this about this band, but: VENUES are just getting started.
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