Cast in Stone [Bonus Tracks] (CD - 1998)

Venom: Mantas (guitar, background vocals); Cronos (bass guitar); Abbadon (drums, sampler).

Personnel: Cronos (vocals).

Audio Mixers: Rainer Hansel; Charly Bauerfeind.

Audio Remasterer: Doug Shearer.

Recording information: Dynamo Festival (1996).

Since Welcome to Hell and Black Metal were expanded, remastered, and reissued in 2002, it stands to reason that the last great Venom album, 1997's Cast in Stone, would get the same treatment. While Cast in Stone's virtues can be argued among the faithful endlessly -- since, after all, it was a reunion album by the original trio 15 years after the fact -- it blows away Possessed and 2000s horrible Resurrection. Castle/Sanctuary have released the expanded version of Cast in Stone in a double-disc package that celebrates what made the three crazies in Venom who they were as a band, but with better production. There's the stomp and thrash of "Flight of the Hydra," the bone splintering heaviness of "Bleeding," (that does sound as if Venom also listened to a lot of Slayer and early Metallica). The guitar spew in "Raised in Hell" and the chanted refrain and Cronos' screaming makes the latter one of the greatest songs the band ever recorded. The Deep Purple-meets-Manowar riff in "God's Forsaken" kicks ass as well. This set also features a bonus platter with the band's classics re-recorded in better sound -- totally unnecessary -- as well as a handful of rarities to boot: the 1996 Dynamo Festival mini-album that contained live reunion readings of "7 Gates of Hell," "Welcome to Hell," "In Nomine Satanas," "Black Metal," and "The Evil One." Whether the bonus disc is of use or not is highly debatable, but Cast in Stone in remastered sound is a worthy addition to the Venom shelf. The liner notes with a history of reunion and demise via an in-depth interview with the egomaniacal Cronos by Malcolm Dome is a great read, too. ~ Thom Jurek minimize