Venues - Homecoming 2024

Venues - Homecoming 2024

"German metal with a mission and a message" (Kerrang UK)

VENUES have emerged stronger from their biggest crisis of all. The departure of singer Nyves in 2019 in the middle of the tour phase for their remarkable debut "Aspire" (2018) hit Stuttgart's modern metal figurehead hard. Because no one wanted to give up faith in this band, this band that was showing its potential for the first time after years of finding and growing, they carried on, searched - and found a replacement in the most unlikely place imaginable: At a Steel Panther concert.

VENUES guitarist Constantin Ranis is in attendance when suddenly a young woman named Lela climbs on stage and sings a number with the heavies. As if she had never done anything else! He enthusiastically records the performance and the two meet up after the show. "I actually just gave him my number so that he could send me the video of my performance," Lela recalls of an encounter with consequences. She got the video - and along the way, she became a singer with one of Germany's biggest modern metal hopefuls. "That was pretty crazy," she laughs.

It's always darkest before the dawn. Mastermind Robin Baumann is suitably flabbergasted by so much coincidence, fate, luck or whatever. "We realized immediately, right from our very first rehearsal together, that we were a perfect match." He exhales with relief: "For us, Lela is a clear upgrade." Robin has been giving his all with VENUES since 2014; the band is his baby, his pride and joy, his lifelong dream. "And our current line-up gives me the feeling for the first time that everything fits. We're all burning for the same thing, pulling in the same direction, wanting the same thing and giving everything for the band. It took a long time, but from today's perspective, it was so worth it."

What Robin means can be heard in every note, every riff, every chord of "Solace". Melody and heaviness, metal and alternative rock flavor, zeitgeist and authenticity, barbed choruses, bubbling ideas: On their second album, VENUES fulfill every single promise they made with "Aspire". The sound is thick and of an international caliber, the songs are spot-on, the choruses are moonlighting and the interplay between Robin's vocal furor and Lela's pure, unbridled blues power takes the music to a completely different level. "Aspire" was the calling card that opened the doors for VENUES. "Solace" is the march through to the throne room of the German scene. At the very least. And turns the hardness level up to eleven and a half. "We just wanted more metal," says Robin with a laugh. "'Aspire' had some poppy echoes, so we deliberately adjusted it in the opposite direction."

As with their debut, the band placed themselves in the trusting hands of Christoph Wieczorek (Annisokay), who gave VENUES a metallic alloy of astonishing precision in his studio in Halle. VENUES spent two weeks together in the studio in August 2020, a rare ray of hope in the coronavirus year and a discovery process at the end of which a steeled rebirth of the VENUES sound emerged, having gone through the fire, aware of its greatness and full of potential. "In 2020, we all felt more strongly than ever how much support the band gives us," says Robin. "Almost all of us have had to deal with minor to moderate life crises since the last album, relationships have fallen apart, things have ended and started. During these times, our second album was a great light for all of us, something to look forward to. The music kept our heads above water." The title "Solace" is almost self-explanatory. The album is about battles, the darkest days - and how to bring yourself back to life.

The step from "Aspire" to "Solace" is big, but understandable. VENUES have finally become a band, a cohesive unit, completed by new guitarist Valentin and fueled by zeitgeist, drive and depth. "Our music helps us to process difficult and painful topics. It comforts us, gives us strength," outlines Lela. "Just writing songs about anything is simply not an option." Nice exception: 'Whydah Galley', probably the world's first modern metal pirate song.

Everyone always talks about key tracks. VENUES simply deliver ten counter-examples. Every song fits, the pressure increases, even more intensely and everything would fly around our ears. 'Rite Of Passage' is powerful and monumental, a very personal song in which the relationship with one's own father is dealt with. This chorus is made for arenas, for thousands of raised fists. The razor-sharp heaviness of 'Shifting Colors' goes down to the bone, the band's secret favorite is the anthemic 'Uncaged Birds', the first song recorded by the new constellation. Great melody, stunning vocal duels, feverish riffs and blistering energy - a trademark sound emerges here that future songs will have to be measured against. Psst: By the completely crazy video clips that VENUES have shot, too. No more will be revealed.

Ten songs, ten exorcisms of negative energy, ten lifesavers - before the last notes of the combative, gripping 'Mountains' have faded away, you know: this is the new gold standard in the world of contemporary metal art, a journeyman's piece that will have VENUES marching up the career ladder in a just world. Later we will be able to say: Well, we always knew they were going to be this big.