Venom offshoot, Venom Inc are back with a brand new US tour called Blood Stained Earth. For this tour they will be promoting their upcoming album “Ave”. I was able to interview vocalist Demolition Man via email on this album and tour.
How did did Danzig’s Black of Black fest go?
the festival was amazing for us. Being personally invited by Glen ( Danzig ) to appear alongside bands like Ministry, Devildriver, Suicidal Tendencies etc, as well as Danzig of course, was an honour. The location was superb and the whole atmosphere between crew, bands and audience was great and we debuted the title track from the new album ( for the first time ) to a super response, so all in all an incredible weekend.
What made you guys decide to call this tour ‘Blood Stained Earth”? Why did you choose Toxic Holocaust and Goatwhore as openers?
The reason is that is one of the album track titles and it’s title and lyrical content is the theme of the album. Humans and there consistent, repetitive need to soak our planet with our blood throughout history. Toxic Holocaust are friends of mine and also a superb band as are Goatwhore. There are so many bands to chose from and many who wish to play with us but these two were picked to give the best balance to the tour package as all bands have a variance that complement each other without losing any intensity. We all work the same and deliver the best we can onstage and at the end of the day we wanted to give fans a hell of a night and we feel that is exactly what they’ll get with this package!
How is the writing process for the new album going?
It’s completed! It will be out late summer pre the North American tour in time to play tracks live for the first time! The label have not announced it yet so not sure I can give title or date for it but I can tell you it is ‘classic’ us!! Myself, Mantas & Abaddon are who we are and that, quite simply is VENOM (inc) …no matter how we do it, it is just who we are together. With this album we simply stayed true to ourselves.. Mantas composed music the way he writes, I told him when he questioned himself on the approach, just be Mantas and write what comes to you naturally…so he did and my approach was the same! I thought if we tried to copy, Mimic or plagiarise ourselves it would be dishonest and fake….our identity is the three of us together so that was all we had to be, just like onstage, no gimmicks, no bullshit, no pretence, just pure, real, honest us and people will like it or hate it but it will be us and it will be VENOM ( inc). I think tô question if it’s pre my era or my era like? You’d need to be the judge but I think to us it feels like both just better than we realised it could be…maybe it’s both.
When I saw you guys play with Necrophagia last year you guys only played the track Prime Evil from your era of Venom. Will more songs from that era be played on this tour? Anything from At War With Satan?
ah ok, well we were changing songs sometimes and trying to keep one or two Prime Evil tracks in there but yes the set will be new.I have added RIP Ride from At War With Satan and plan adding a few more cool tracks..from At War With, Possessed and Prime Evil as well as touching on some obscure back catalogue and Temples of ice..there is so much material it is hard to include everything but I’m determined to try…I had Red Light Fever added last time too so I’m trying lol. Of course we’ll also be adding in new album tracks so it’s gonna be tough covering everyone’s desires but that’s our job at the end of the day so we owe it to the fans to give it our best to try
Whats your favorite Venom song to play live?
oh wow THAT is difficult because so many have a life of their own…!! I think probably I love the last few runs where we played inomine Satanás into Bloodlust…but of course hearing everyone sing on Black Metal or Countess Bathory is always electrifying…