Venom Prison are livestreaming from London this Sunday

Few bands have done quite as much as South Wales’ Venom Prison to bring the often arcane concerns of death metal into the present age – however horrifying that present might be.

Having stepped up the brutality on last year’s Samsara album, necessary for tackling subjects such rape culture, the judicial systems that support it, and our society’s slide back into serfdom, with all the vengeful force of a rampaging Shiva with a set of newly sharpened knives, frontwoman Larissa Stupar and the band have brought their own past into the here and now with their latest release, Primeval. Rerecording their first two, 2015 EPs, Defy The Tyrant and The Primal Chaos, alongside two new tracks to make it clear their momentum is only gaining speed, the quintet’s sonic prowess has been enhanced by equally punishing tour schedules that took them as far as last year’s Damnation Festival, before the pandemic broke.

Venom Prison’s short set recorded for last month’s European Metal Festival Alliance proved they can still level mountains in our new livestreaming age. This Sunday, September 13 – in association with Old Empire Productions and Hotel Radio, the world's only dedicated heavy music livestreaming platform – they’re about to unleash the full works, with a full-set stream live from The Dome in Tufnell Park, London, and entitled Live Behind Closed Doors.

"Is it the same? Are you content with no live music?" asks guitarist Thomas. "We’re not, so let’s try the next best thing. We’ll infect your digital stream this Sunday at 7.30 PM for a special live broadcast with our friends at Hotel Radio & Old Empire. Covid can try halt the grind but the grind must continue."

At £4.99, the price of the tickets for the streaming event are the only thing that’s reasonable about Venom Prison. Live Behind Closed Doors is guaranteed to be an object-pummelling lesson in how to drive death metal forward, and a righteous assault on the senses wringing incendiary exhilaration from the mayhem of our current times.

Venom Prison livestream Live Behind Closed Doors this Sunday September 13 at 7.30pm in association with Old Empire Promotions. Tickets are £4.99 and available from the Hotel Radio website

Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.