Artist: Venthiax
Country: Sweden
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP
Year: 2026
When Venthiax sprang from the shared vision of Wendy, Emil, and Leo, they were still in their mid-to-late teens. Yet nothing stopped them from releasing their first demo in 2022, called ‘Demon Attack’ which showed that their goal was nothing less than to revive the golden years of Thrash/Speed Metal. Indeed, those years were a quarter of a century before they were born, but that is not reflected in their devotion and the quality of their music. After two live cassette tapes and a cassette EP, all released on Wendy’s own Black Pages Records label, named after her printed fanzine of the same name, it is now time for the first “real” release, which will be released via the celebrated German label Dying Victims Productions.
‘Rites Of Ra’ is also the first studio experience with the band for new guitarist Viggo Heinonen, who replaces Leo Buchalle, who moved to Sarcator. Heinonen was already known to Wendy from his time playing in the black metal band Pyrrha, which was also featured on one of the compilation tapes on Black Pages Records. But, honestly, much of that change is not really noticeable. Venthiax still sounds exactly the same as before, pleasantly stuck in the tradition of the Thrash/Speed Metal that reached its absolute peak around 1985.
It’s the kind of extreme 80s metal that exists as a kind of inextricable tangle of equal parts Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, and what you might call proto-Black Metal. That means virtually all the icons from that era can be heard, including Slayer, Sodom, Dark Angel, Venom, Onslaught, Kreator, Exorcist, Hobb’s Angel Of Death, Exumer, Protector, Infernäl Mäjesty, Sadus, Possessed… the list goes on.
Quite obviously, you shouldn’t expect originality or daring new ideas from Venthiax. However, with a touch of Punk/Hardcore in the rhythm section and the semi-grunts of drummer/singer Emil Borg, Venthiax has a little more to offer than the average band in this field. Or, better yet, especially in combination with the firm tempos at which they play, this is not a band that relies purely on the spandex era of the 80s. Consequently, this aggressive, balls-out form of Thrash Metal is not for those who enjoy the more polished version of the genre. Instead, it will appeal to fans who regularly revisit the mid-era albums by Desaster and the first two by Cruel Force. Yes, Venthiax proves that age is sometimes indeed just a number, and many could learn a thing or two from them.
