NEWS: Venom Prison. Judge. Jury. Executioner?

It’s been on the cards for a while but finally it’s official. “Judges Of The Underworld“, the first single from the new Venom Prison album  “Erebos” is finally here. The record is set for 4th February 2022 via Century Media and having set the bar incredibly high with their 2019 record “Samsara“, if this single is anything to go by the Welsh Death Metallers have once again surpassed themselves.

The band comment: “‘Judges Of The Underworld’ deals with the crippling reality of people who face incarceration, who oftentimes are followed by violence over a lifetime. This violence can present itself as a dominating factor in a context of structural poverty and racial inequality, creating roles in an individual’s life where they are not only the victim, but also witness and offender at different times in different situations. But the violence we address in our courts and prisons is judged out of social context and can therefore not lead to a fair and personalised resolution for people who are stuck in a cycle of violence and systematic oppression.

It was important for us to visualise this feeling of isolation, anxiety and repeated violence in the music video for ‘Judges Of The Underworld’ and the idea was to show an individual that is stripped down to their basic needs and instincts. Consumed by their helplessness to navigate in an everyday situation, feeling isolated within themselves whilst going under in a sea of people that face similar conditions. This is where Thomas Coe Brooker comes in as a director and cinematographer, with his unique eye for detail he was able to bring out this combative helplessness and aggressiveness of said individual. He was able to convey the feeling of being alone in a crowd, suffering the same fate as many others, where isolation becomes your existence and a vicious cycle of your life at the hands of systematic violence.

Being able to work with our dear friend Eliran on another piece of art for VENOM PRISON has been exciting as always. Kantor knows the band perfectly well to capture our music and poetry into a visual masterpiece every single time. ‘Erebos’ was a personal one for both Eliran Kantor and ourselves. This artwork captures the moment a young person dies inside as they are surrounded by horror. In the moment their innocence is lost and desensitisation will from now on fuel the repetition of the cycle of violence in their life. This is “Erebos”, the one born from chaos”