Review by Felix on May 8, 2026.

Dear diary,

It's me again, the little man you love most, your cute Cronos. Today I have great news: I have released a new full-length. Okay, some assholes say it was not only me, but come on, who cares about these two other dudes? 'Nobody,' you say? Ha, that's already one too many. These conventionally designed, nearly standardized songs can be played by every impoverished musician you meet on the streets of any major city. Thus, Mister Rage and the other guy whose pseudonym I have forgotten, can be happy that my name lends them some glory and reputation. My voice, my aura and my charisma make this album unique! So enjoy with me "Into Oblivion" right now.

Well, some clueless imbeciles have made the joke that the title refers to the band itself. What on earth are these people thinking – we've already made 1 (in words: one) good album in this millennium. It came from the very depths, haha! This must be enough for these 1,000 years and therefore no one can blame me for the next mediocre output. It is my form of consistency, dear diary, you understand? So yes, tracks like "Death The Leveller" spread a certain vitality, but its odd chorus seems to be stolen from another song. Indeed, it levels everything, especially the quality, on a very low level, of course. But "Bloodlust" or "Lady Lust" were also pretty primitive tracks, almost as primitive as Abaddon and Mantas, and the people liked them anyway. I mean the songs, of course, not these two jesters. And I swear on my dead grandmother's life, I give the non-existent crowd of Venom's Legions a lot of very uncomplicated tracks.

By the way, do you know my core competency? We offer a big portion of riffs that suffer from premature ageing. They aren't from 1982, but they sound as stale as they were that old. Unfortunately, I could not reproduce the sick charm of our early albums. Now these riffs appear pretty stale and lame. Too bad. Although, come to think of it – the term "riffs" might be a bit of a stretch. After all, we have a few songs in our set ("Man & Beast") that seem to consist of almost nothing but a single note. That's an art form in itself. Maybe now you believe that "the new album from the Godfathers of black metal" (this is what the sticker on the CD says – so true!) contains songs At War would have rejected for being too primitive. But that's definitely not true. They would have rejected them for being far to primitive! We must stay fair.

Needless to say, the rumbling production was done on purpose. It revitalizes the charm of our chaotic first steps… not really. Okay, it is stripped to the essentials and this is Venom-like, but it makes no sense to deliver songs which have not much in common with our old classics while putting them into a wannabe-archaic sound. The dull "Kicked Outta Hell", with its brief out-of-place foray into funk music right in the middle, speaks volumes. Oh, age-related confusion! Nevertheless, I am, ehm, we are Venom and we are able to present good songs even if they suffer from an average production. Seriously, just take the title track. It shines with a double bass thunderstorm, the best chorus of the album (okay, the competition remains on a pretty low level) and from time to time an almost melancholic guitar line shimmers through as well. Even those dudes, who seem to derive their raison d'être from finding a fly in the ointment wherever they go, will love it. "Lay Down Your Soul" is another one-tone-track and its back-to-the-roots lyrics are embarrassing. Who the hell wrote them? Oh, it was me… (in 1982)! Either way, it is quite powerful at the end of the day. So sad that you, my diary, do not have ears. Otherwise you could listen to it – and experience how we run out of ideas during the second half of "Into Oblivion". We do it admirably consequently, I can tell you. We reach the summit at the end of "Dogs Of War". To be honest, this song has no appropriate ending at all. It just implodes. Totally impressive!

So after all, dear diary, I'm going to let you in on a secret: somehow I have the feeling that Venom has already released way better albums. Of course, those with this demolition baby on the mic cannot be taken seriously, but yes, even "Cast In Stone" or "Resurrection" had much more to offer than "Into Oblivion". Its plodding songs fail to grab the listener by the collar. They are just there, most of them do not stink, but that's it. Indeed, the iconic title track of "At War With Satan" alone had more ideas than the entire new album. But this is something I'm only telling you. And now I am almost as tired as some of my songs... Good night, dear diary.

Rating: 6.3 out of 10