Album review: VENREZ – Children Of The Drones

Monarch Music Group [Release date 24.04.15]

‘Children Of The Drones’ is the third album release by Venrez following their critically acclaimed secondalbum ‘American Illusion’ which found them supporting Slash and Alice Cooper amongst others. The band were formed back in 2011 by frontman Steven Berez (hence the venrez monicker) who met up with multi-instrumentalist Jason Womack and the pair formed a writing partnership almost immediately.

The guys are based on the west coast of America and have drawn their inspiration from the likes of Alice In Chains and the Doors to produce high quality Californian psychedelica. ‘Hang The Predator’ starts things off with a bang. This is a full on AIC like rocker right down to the twin vocals running throughout. Title track ‘Children Of The Drones’ follows and has a more straight forward approach, no nonsense rock with a big chorus.

The pair, together with Ed Davis on drums, seamlessly manage to flow from the faster, rockier tracks into more laid back and spaced out epics like ‘Mist Of Mercy’ with ease. The echoing guitar work of Womack is perfectly paced and pitched to carry you along on a rippling melodic wave.

Ven has a bit of a nasal drone to his vocal delivery which is ideal for this type of music and is put to good use on the track ‘Deep’. Apparently much has been made of Ven’s age as he only formed the band when he was in his fifties, but as the old saying goes, if it’s too loud, you’re too old, and listening to the album he sounds like he is in fine form.

‘Reflection’ is another slow paced track with a huge groove, whilst the second single from the album ‘Sacred Blood’ rounds things off in an almost hypnotic fashion containing a pulsating rhythm which is coupled with a chanting vocal from Ven, a very trippy track.

If you like your rock with a bit of a psychedelic tinge then this album is for you and following the success of ‘American Illusion’ I could see this moving Venrez to the next level. You’re never too old to rock ‘n’ roll! ***1/2

Review by Dave Wilson

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