Finally stepping out on their own two feet without the hardcore input from Jayme Jasta, Throwdown prove there's still a lot more room for them to rock. This record, unlike any of their previous material, seems to be much more about riff-based metal licks as opposed to the hardcore band mold they've been sludged into. Throughout the duration of the disc, it's easy to see it as a perfect ode to Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power. Like picturing a bunch of ruffians cruising down the highway in a beat up pick-up with a case of Miller and shotgun shells in the truck bed . . . and the night approaching for more madness. Stepping away from the person who introduced you to the industry and helped mold your sound can go either way. Sometimes it can cause a band to crack under the misguided pressure and start to suck; other times a band can step out and play the field with their abilities much more, creating a more talented band. This is a clear example when it works. Venom and Tears far overshadows their previous work. Cheers guys!

Hailing from Orange County, Throwdown are amoungst an esteemed collective that brought the hardcore scene to the US forefront with soul- baring, yet chest thumping metalcore (and in Throwdowns case, embracing the full-on aspects of anti-establishment and self professed straight edge philosophy) and thus could never be accused of doing anything half arsed. And it's a pleasure to hear them still on form, as "Venom & Tears" clearly demonstrates. Their fifth album is like a breath of acrid air from the state, smoky atmospheres of sweaty beer-stained, sticky-floored clubs of the 90's that hosted the likes of Pantera, Machine Head and Sepultura, but with a twist of 2007 metalcore zest thrown in to ease the palette. It's a total throwback to the sound that unleashed the metalcore monster in the first place, but pushes onward to form an album which can only be described as a party-friendly riff-laden mosh fest. And just for ? they give you solos, gang vocal choruses and air guitar posers at every junction, the prime examples being "Weight of the World" and "Hellbent (On War)" However, a band still steeped in a scene they helped create can only really be limited by this loyalty, and one would hope that there will be a turn of fortune which will spin the media merry-go-round back to face them, because they are a lot of fun. They're never going to be the band that fill Pantera's boots, but they might just fill yours with glee.

If you’ve been missing Pantera, Throwdown has aimed to scratch your itch. I’ve heard it over and over, “The new Throwdown is just old Pantera,” and I can’t help but agree that there is a significant similarity. However, if you are going to do it, you better do it right, and that’s exactly what Throwdown has done; and they make no apologies for it. This is a bad ass album, full of everything that has been missing in metal for years. It pours out that thick, crunched up, choppy guitar and those violently dark vocals full of rage and intent that caught so much attention not so long ago. “Holy Roller” starts off the album fast, and you’ll instantly be sucked into that signature gritty, thundering drumbeat and the violent scattered guitar. By the time they hit that first crunchy breakdown you’ll have raised an eyebrow and cocked your ear a bit closer to the speaker. But when you get to the slow intro of “No Love,” however, you realize you don’t care, it’s just damn good metal. The last titled track on the album, “Godspeed,” is a little more Throwdown typical with a lot more melody and solid radio-friendly hook that’s easy to get into. If this is the beginning of the return of southern, throaty, angry driven genre that seems to have fallen asleep, then I’ll take it! “Venom and Tears” is a well built and tightly mixed CD that doesn’t have a single bad track on it.

For all of you who don't know this band I have to warn you about something... THROWDOWN is one of the best and heaviest fucking bands out there! We're talking about a band that can rip your head off with its unique Hardcore sound! The US metallers are here with a brand new album, and I got this single CD to have a taste of what is about to follow with the full-length "Venom & Tears", which if I judge by this CD will kick you right in the face! The California based act is active since 1997 and fortunately for us, the music lovers, has delivered incredible albums like "Haymaker" (2003) and "Vendetta" (2005). The band is one of Trustkill's strongest "weapons" for sure, and their new album seems to be raising their name even higher in the Metal scene. Many line up changes and tough breaks occurred, but THROWDOWN showed their strength and overcame everything. Let's not forget that these guys have shared the stage with acts like LAMB OF GOD, AS I LAY DYING and SOULFLY, and have also played in festivals like Ozzfest and Sounds Of The Underground. If you have been bored of every fucked up loser trying to be the tough guy and swearing allegiance to Hardcore and the next time he is playing Emo and Metalcore just to follow some trends, THROWDOWN are here to keep this goddamned scene real and unfold their brutality! This band is like nothing you have heard before. Try mixing the true Hardcore music with some groovy Thrash Metal stuff like PANTERA. Basically, THROWDOWN can be described as a more "thrashened" version of HATEBREED. Low tuned guitars, fucking heavy sound and great rhythm section are being accompanied by Dave Peters' (ex-BLEEDING THROUGH) vocals and offer a more than interesting result. I think I don't have to make any comments regarding the sound, since THROWDOWN always had heavy and solid sound. Many bands try to "keep it real" or "keep it true". THROWDOWN don't have to try, they just do it! In my humble opinion, these guys are - along with HATEBREED - one of the best band that brutal Hardcore has to offer. This single CD made my day, and if "Venom & Tears" is like this, we will probably be talking about one of the top 5 releases of 2007. Keep it real fuckers!

Now here’s a band I got into a few years ago when they released Haymaker and then subsequently bought Vendetta when it came out and managed to thankfully experience the live spectacle at Download last year (want to catch a club show now) and it is fair to say that from Haymaker to Vendetta there is more of a metalcore sway to it (Haymaker being more fast paced straight edged hardcore) and where I assume they still are straight edge there seems to be an alarming batch of stories coming out that the metal side of TD’s fan base hate the hardcore stuff and the hardcore old school, hate the metal edge. Now I agree that sometimes things should not be tampered with (if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it and all that) but in the same context is it not good to see bands progress and mature to a state where it almost seems like a genre change to help them discover what they want and to keep things interesting, especially for them as they are the ones playing this day in and day out and there are far too many bands calling it a day too early in their existence. I personally embrace equally the Haymaker era and the Vendetta and now the Venom & Tears era of Throwdowns career. I think the switch to a more metal feel shown here makes this record (and I use this analogy very loosely as not to offend TD fans) not only shows their feel, mood and influence but helps make this a more easily viable product to try and broaden their fan base and not be stuck with a smaller and more narrowed fan base. Yes this has a large metal feel to it but there is a blatant hardcore feel to it also in my opinion. There are some great heavy and chunky riff fests going on here to balance out Dave Peters’ venomous, gnarly and guttural blasts of vocal assaults to really make this a pleasure to hear. If you imagined Pantera getting into a fight with Slayer, Machine Head, Hatebreed then you get an idea of the crushing monster we are dealing with here yeah? Holly Roller opens up with an Anthrax feel to the riff and tracks like S.C.U.M., Hellbent (On War), Venom & Tears, I’ll Never Die A Poisoned Death and I Suicide stand out for me as tracks that portray not only their potential and expertise but also show the blend of metal and hardcore to help all live in one harmony. I think this will divide the metal TD and the hardcore TD still but move on and embrace the change I say with pride and be honoured to fly the Throwdown flag.

The O.C.’s toughest straight edge boys have completed their full transformation into Vulgar Display of Power-Era Pantera. Over the years Throwdown have gone through many lineup changes, but this one is the tightest. With producer Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold) at the helm they’ve finally gotten it right. “Holy Roller” sets the pace with quick thrashy bursts of power and mosh. Vocalist Dave Peters sounds exactly like Phil Anselmo. It’s frightening, but welcomed. The groove heavy “Day of the Dog” chugs along and has a catchy group chorus. Not until the somber “Cancer” does the listener catch their breath from this sonic assault. The mid-tempo heaviness continues with “No Love.” As a whole Venom & Tears builds off the Pantera influenced hardcore of Vendetta and ditches the hardcore part. Think Pantera with all the heavy riffs and gruff vocals, just without the Dimebag solos. Maybe they should get a second guitarist to fill that void for the next record. This is highly recommended if you like metal and will surely fill the Pantera void for the jocks, tough guys, and rednecks of America.

This is the age of metal in which every band talks about trying to write a modern classic. Most bands try to record their own Master of Puppets or any one of the Sabbath albums. Many bands have tried, but no band has ever recaptured the intensity, sound and attitude of Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power; until Throwdown's Venom and Tears, that is. This band has been around for quite some time now, hailing from Orange County, Calif., and once included Bleeding Through vocalist Brandan Schieppati in its lineup on bass. Throwdown has had success on Headbangers Ball, Ozzfest and Sounds of the Underground. They have a strong reputation as a straight-edge hardcore/thrash band and are a recognizable name in the scene. All metal fans will now know the name Throwdown by the time Venom and Tears makes its rounds. I'll get straight to the point—when the first riffs of “Holy Roller” begin, I immediately felt like I was listening to the legendary Pantera. Everything is here: Phil Anselmo-hardcore-style vocals from Dave Peters, Dimebag-esque guitar riffs and the perfect blend of hardcore thrash metal and accessibility. This may shock or even offend diehard Pantera fans at first, but after digging deeper, there is more to Venom and Tears than just a Vulgar Display rip-off. It's the overall fuck-you attitude that makes this album so goddamn good and, also, the fact that we have no longer have Pantera. So I'd like to thank Throwdown for bringing the fire back. One can't help but raise and pump your fist to the raging anthems “Hellbent (On War),” “No Love,” the all-out “Fucking Hostile”-thrash of “S.C.U.M” or the slow-riff chug of “I'll Never Die a Poisoned Death.” “I, Suicide” features guitar shredding that I haven't heard in a decade. This is the shit—I can't put it any other way. And it's every song here. The riffs are original but have the feel of classic Pantera; they are timed perfectly and they make you want to move. Lyrics also take the stance on revolting against everyday society—these guys are fucking pissed off at everything and everyone. I hear other '90s metal influences here, as well, including Sepultura and Machine Head. It's a fucking pissed-off, groovy, stripped-down sound long missing in today's acts, who rely more on complicated time changes and combinations of styles than actual songs. Throwdown's new metallic sound may be an adjustment for their hardcore-oriented fans, but Venom and Tears has the potential to bring in a whole new metal crowd. This album is the most badass release I've heard while working on this site. I know there's still a few months left in 2007, but Venom and Tears will most certainly be the metal album of the year.

Throwdown are around now for a decade, and rose from being an underground straight edge band to one of the bigger bands our subculture has spit out. While their last effort was available via Roadrunner in Europe, the new one is distributed by SPV. So, big partners in their back, but has this become a big record as well? After some lineup changes, "haymaker" was still more a classic tough guy sxe hardcore record of good quality. Their 2005 release "vendetta" was already introducing a new sound. More metallic - but not in the typical metalcore vein. It was far more pointing to pure and honest metal in a kind of Pantera way. That direction is dominant now on their new record. While some of their hardcore roots are still visible, with beatdowns and that basic aggression, a surprisingly vast amount of their sound is following the style of that legendary Southern Metal Band that many people still miss. The opening track already kicks of into that direction. The way Throwdown present their fast parts, the hostile moshing and southern rocking chorus, the effects on the guitar, the solo, and especially the vocals – it all reminds of Pantera all the time. And: That path is followed throughout the record. The following „day of the dog“, with that massive choir in the chorus, is another example. The vocalist even imitates the semi-melodic vocals that Phil Anselmo presents sometimes. A good mid tempo trasher, before „S.C.U.M.“ puts pedal to the metal again. Other tracks are almost more southern rock than metal – and those rock as well! The titletrack is among those, being a relaxed yet heavy midtempo rock track with not too much metal left. The recipe of southern metal with reminiscent of that band I already mentioned once to often is kept throughout the album, and works quite well. The music is powerful and often brings a smile to your face. It even sounds a bit old school, as that is not the most trendy version of metal right now. From time to time, their hard and heavy hardcore has some slight comeback – „hellbent“ is among those. A good cover of Sepulturas „propaganda“ finishes the record – maybe a glimpse on what’s to come already. Surprisingly and luckily, Throwdown avoid sounding like a total carbon copy, although I am not sure how they achieved that with paying such big respect to their idols.

Throwdown have always been a blunt force. The Californian band might have been slowly transforming from hardcore troopers to heavy metal bruisers over the last ten years but they’ve always preferred crushing power to technical wizardry and direct musical might to any subtler way of doing things. ‘Venom And Tears’, the band’s fifth full-length but first with another newly adjusted membership, tunes that power up and turns it to the absolute maximum. ‘Holy Roller’ roars into action like an American muscle car, ‘Day Of The Dog’ doesn’t exactly reinvent the steel but certainly hammers at it with stern brutality and, although Throwdown haven’t quite got as far as playing battle metal yet, ‘Hellbent’ champs at the bit like a froth-mouthed warrior steed. There is no room to relax with Dave Peters’ vocals and Matt Choiniere’s solos booming through the speakers and, free from the time changes, mathy structures and wilfully difficult compositions of most contemporary metal, the music they make is pure, uncalculated, unadulterated heaviness. However, after four or five tracks of near-constant chest-beating Pantera worship, ‘Venom…’ starts to sound decidedly less than deadly. Alright, if you met ‘I. Suicide’ or the title track alone in a dark alley, the sheer force of them would be impressive enough but, ganged together with the other thuggish tunes here, that impact becomes a little faceless, a little lost. While ‘Cancer’ is a throwaway attempt at measuring the pace, later tracks like ‘I Will Never…’ become simply grey whirlwinds of macho noise. Not that Throwdown care though. You get the feeling the band would rather break rocks with their heads than take a single note from a single music hack and ease up on the pounding metal, or ease up on anything at all, here. Hell, they probably break rocks with their heads just for fun. And while that might be too much for some, if it sounds like your kind of fun too, then ‘Venom And Tears’ is the sort record you’ve been praying to Phil Anselmo for.

A new Throwdown album? Great I thought to myself, if their last album is anything to go by ‘Venom and Tears’ should be brilliant. I wasn’t disappointed, ‘Venom and Tears’ is 12 tracks of modern thrash metal; aggressive, fast and heavy, the way it should be. Throwdown have managed to retain their sound on this album. The vocals are aggressive without going into the ‘undecipherable roaring’ of this metalcore stuff floating around today. The first time I heard Throwdown’s singer, Dave Peters, I thought he sounded like Phil Anselmo. It’s quite a powerful vocal style; it has the aggression without the ‘what the hell’s he saying?’ factor, which suits this genre of metal. The drums are great; they add another layer of sound to what you hear. Sometimes they’re slow and powerful or they’re fast and aggressive, the bass drums have brutal quality, as if you’ve just been punch in the stomach, repeatedly. The guitar and bass are nice and heavy, the riffs have a Pantera and Sepultura feel to them depending on the track. An example of this would be: ‘Day of the Dog’ with the chorus riff reminding me of ‘Walk’ by Pantera and ‘Hellbent (On War)’ being the Sepultura style track. There is a strange instrumental song on the album called ‘Cancer’, it starts off quietly and slowly picks up volume, reaching its loudest about halfway through the song, before it ends with a fade out. There are a few guitar solos dotted about the album as well. One track on the album; ‘I, Suicide’, is being used on the upcoming Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack. I think this track will work with the film. Hopefully it will be used in the fast-paced –zombie-slaughter-fest scenes, adding more pace and aggression to the action. They have also done a cover of Sepultura’s ‘Propaganda’, which apparently can only be bought from iTunes. My favourite tracks off the album would have to be ‘Day of the Dog’, ‘I, Suicide’ and ‘Hellbent (On War)’, for the powerful riffs and great vocals. If you’re new to Throwdown I’d recommend starting with their previous album ‘Vendetta’. ‘Venom and Tears’ is a brilliant album from start to finish, showing that Throwdown have no intentions of slowing down.

The first you notice about “Venom and Tears” is that it’s just plain heavy and you know that isn’t going to change at all throughout the 52 minutes of the album. It’s thumping American metal in the best tradition of the 90s. I immediately thought of Pantera when hearing it, but valid comparison could be made also to early Metallica – notably “Justice for All” – Machine Head and Sepultura. Its strengths lie in its brutality and fury. I could not say it was innovative or original but I have no doubt that it lends itself to a hugely dynamic live performance, such is the energy and movement. Heavy metal hardcore like this does have room for technical nicety or mellow moments and sure enough, there aren’t any. As with the other big US bands, the sound is produced rather than being raw or re-created rawness, and is more explosive for it. On the negative side, I found all the interesting tracks in the first half of the album, and my mind started to wander off towards the end as there seemed to be nothing particularly new to offer. The slower tempo’d tenth track “I’ll Never Die a Poisoned Death” caught my attention, but it was the second, third and fourth tracks “Day of the Dog”, “S.C.U.M” and “Americana” which rose above the rest for me. “Day of the Dog” epitomises the album with its heaviness, strong riffs, solos and fast and furious drumming. “S.C.U.M” starts in a punkish fashion, before later slowing down to a punishing headbanging rhythm. “Americana” is the ultimate crowd pleaser. It has a fast, driving and catchy beat with plenty of “oi’s” and opportunities for crowd participation. This is Throwdown’s third album since 2004, and the band has put their experience so far to good use. Don’t expect anything hugely original, but do expect momentous guitar riffs and rhythms, and pure, unadulterated, crowd-pleasing Heavy Metal.

While their Orange County contemporaries were too busy being fashionable and styling their hair they forgot their metal roots (Ouch!), and have since hung up their guitars, Throwdown still remain true to their original manifesto to make skull-smashingly heavy hardcore and managed to keep their integrity intact. Now three albums into his stint as front man, Dave Peters has really come into his own since he swapped from guitar, and 'Venom & Tears' is Throwdown's finest effort yet. In fact, if you thought 'Haymaker' and 'Vendetta' were brutal affairs, you really haven't seen anything yet. 'Venom & Tears' is so weighty it's as if the guitars have been recorded in the swamps of New Orleans - and there's more than a passing nod towards Philip Anselmo's back catalogue in the down-tuned fury of hefty opener 'Holy Roller'. Veering awayfrom the regimented constraints of hardcore, 'Day of the Dog', 'Americana' and 'Weight of the World' have added groove that the likes of Down would approve of. But purists needn't be alarmed - remember Throwdown have integrity - there's plenty of beat-down sections and traditional gang-style vocals in the choruses, showing progression rather than a blatant change to latch on to a current bandwagon. Storming!

Few bands get better and more barbaric with each successive album but Orange County's Throwdown up the metal and hardcore ante every time they put pen to paper and fingers to guitar strings, the muscularly moshtastic Venom & Tears is a real ass kicker, and it's the hardcore scene's answer to Pantera's classic Vulgar Display Of Power, with vocalist Dave Peters barking like a younger, stronger, and more virile Phil Anselmo. Holy Roller, S.C.U.M., and Americana will put hair on your chest, because they're so full of testosterone and bone shattering riffage. This album will also incite moshpits from NYC to Dallas to LA with its strength and power. For a long time, Lamb Of God were considered the peerless successor to Pantera's throne, but they've got some serious competition in the form of Throwdown, who now balance mosh with melody.

Throwdown goes old-school metal in their new album entitled "Venom". There's no doubt that their sound is a modern derivative of Pantera, straying from their sound on earlier albums (although, there are a few sing-a-longs and hardcoresque parts randomly throughout). There may be talk out there that Throwdown aren't like they used to be- that the new song will hurt them rather than help. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this album turns heads- Throwdown could quite possibly gain the respect of a whole new crowd. Different sound? Yes, but the new Throwdown isn't necessarily bad- in fact, it throws out the old school "Fuck You" attitude from the metal of the mid 80s. Upbeat and almost angrily careless, "Venom" is an anthem for a new era in history and music. While most bands have turned their sites to a more over-processed, "safe" sound, Throwdown has reinvented stripped-down metal and made it their own. The lyrics are passionate with influences of the events of a typical day from the present- If you're looking for a happy¸pop-metal album, you won't find it here.With the opportunity to tour with Arch Enemy in the fall of 2007, Throwdown will likely show that musically they're ready to easily beat the weeds out of the path they've chosen. "Venom" has a mature sound, and will therefore undoubtedly yield a more mature audience, putting Throwdown in a modern day title that would parallel that of Soulfly and Pantera. Definitely worth a listen.

Venom & Tears is without a doubt Throwdown's most accomplished record, both musically and lyrically. However, the abrupt metallic shift in the evolution of the band's sound that occurs on the album has created a paradox on multiple levels. For one, there is still a huge divide between the veteran hardcore followers of the band and the metalheads. Although vocalist Dave Peters recently pleaded for unity between the two scenes, it's hard to imagine a metalhead wanting to hear about straight-edge, just as it's hard to imagine a hardcore aficionado interested in the slower, riff-oriented grooves on Venom & Tears. Even the buzzworthy (sarcasm included) profile change from "hardcore" to "metal" seems strange, though no one would question the two together as part of the metalcore sound of the band's previous releases. Straying from their fairly strict hardcore adherence may be in part responsible for the band's deviation from the traditional simplicity of their Ten Yard Fight-styled lyrics about hardcore and straight-edge. Throwdown has always been involved in socially conscious projects -- like their contribution to the Asian Man Records Plea for Peace Foundation and their support for groups like Amnesty International, Second Harvest, DATA, and RAINN -- but rarely did their lyrical content indicate such an agenda. Venom & Tears is a breakthrough for the band in this regard, as they rail against issues like organized religion, insipid American society, and domineering foreign policy in surprisingly articulate fashion. The hardcore speed-metal of "Holy Roller" pummels through first, which alternates between a savage galloping rhythm and metal guitar riffs with Bad Religion-themed lyrics: "Sermon of hate / Spoken between a smile and words of piety / Well I've got a use for you / It's time we stuck the pig / Teeth in my tongue for far too long / I've watched your lechery / So let this be your requiem / When there's no eulogy I'll speak." "Hellbent (On War)" offers a refreshingly pacifist message from the often self-antagonizing band: "Now we're well past words and threats and everything in between / No more restraint, just pure hostility / Confrontation, intimidation, vindication... / An eye for an eye / A tooth for a tooth / But a code of violence and vengeance is written in blood" with a chorus that shouts out fellow hardcore brethren Blood for Blood. The best music on the album comes from the circle pit-impelling "S.C.U.M.," which includes the disheartening line "Fuck the gangs of middle class suburbia, the gutter punks, their Prozac-medicated parents too strung out to give a shit," though the sincerity might be debatable given that the band did give props to veteran punkers like Bad Religion and MxPx on the 2007 Warped Tour. Regardless, the line that follows entirely makes up for any misunderstandings: "If I see another pedophile priest released, a hipster glam-rock wannabe, a cop shooting an unarmed teen, I'll carve my eyes out with a stick." "I Suicide" feels like a heavier, updated version of DRI-crossover thrash, and is probably the next big thing when all the burnout college kids get bored of their iPods and iPhones. The metal-oriented music on Venom & Tears is not without its downfalls though. The album was produced by Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock, who has also produced the likes of Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold and Powerman 5000. The undesirable similarities of his clients (especially Godsmack) resonate far too much through the banal grooving of "Venom & Tears" and the ironically titled "Godspeed," while "Day of the Dog" gives off a cheesy Metallica vibe. With the unveiling of Venom & Tears, many have likened the band's new style to nothing more than a Pantera ripoff. While there may be some truth in such sentiment, it's hard to argue against listening to a socially conscious straight-edge rendition of the sound in lieu of a gaggle of vaguely racist, misogynist confederates, especially when Pantera themselves have been accused of ripping off other bands' sounds. The most amusing aspect of the Pantera comparisons comes attached to "Americana," a song that thrashes and tears apart what the Texas metal band embraced: "All hail the god on TV / White noise medicating / Rape and murder, holy war / Nothing phases me / [...] / Eyes wide, fixed and dilated / A myriad of rich white trash / Nothing phases me." The final paradox of Throwdown's "metalling" is ultimately the most important: Venom & Tears is more progressed musically and lyrically than their previous material, but is it any more enjoyable? For that matter, is anything more enjoyable than dancing around with your half-shelled buddies and singing classic Throwdown songs? When Throwdown can capture the substance and impressive riffs of Venom & Tears with the fun of their preceding work, only then will they reach their full potential. Nevertheless, Venom & Tears shows progress on multiple levels and is sure to please most Throwdown fans (especially those with an itch for southern metal).

When Dave Peters took over the vocalist position for Throwdown in 2002, some people thought that it became a different band. The straight-edge hardcore band formed in 1997 amid the Orange County California scene. Though it technically has no original members, all of its current members are damn good musicians. 'Venom and Tears,' the bands latest release, is a fast paced, angry thrash album. The title track has one of the catchiest choruses on the album though most of the songs, like 'I, Suicide', focus more on pounding rhythms and guitar licks then memorable hooks. The song 'Weight of the world' opens with Dimebag worthy guitar shredding and then pounds you in the face with the shouted lyrics. The song 'Americana' is a more punk influenced song with the fast, bouncy rhythm section running along with the crunchy guitars. The song 'Cancer' takes a somber tone as what you might consider the ballad on the album. It is a guitar instrumental with no accompanying drums. The whole album is reminiscent of Pantera's 'Vulgar Display of Power' era sound. Maybe it's just because Peter's voice sounds so similar to Phil Anselmo its scary, or maybe it's that guitar shredding in perfect time with the heavy downbeat (think 'Fucking Hostile'). Throwdown has released more of a thrash-metal album here than a hardcore album but the results are definitely worth a listen since there hasn't been a decent trash metal album out in years.

Throwdown's latest slab of aggression, Venom & Tears, initially sounds nothing like what one would expect to hear from a band like Throwdown. The winding southern style riffing and the guitar tone, coupled with the vocal delivery of the albums opening track 'Holy Roller' bears a striking similarity to what is arguably one of the greatest metal bands ever. PANTERA! And while that is immediately going to cause certain individuals and critics to cry of 'rip off', there is a positive approach to viewing the change in Throwdown's sound, and the new album overall. Once you get past 'Holy Roller', the second track, 'Day Of The Dog', kicks in with a rather different feel to it. The main riff is way more hard rock oriented, though it retains that ever familiar groove that's been sorely missed for quite some time now. And the classic 'gang chorus' as a part of the chorus is definitely a nod toward their hardcore roots. 'S.C.U.M.' is basically a song about all the "worthless" people that permeate our society, from junkies and (suburban?) gang members to pedophile priests and the corruption that plagues law enforcement. Musically, it brings to mind 'Fucking Hostile', through and through, excepting the last two minutes or so of the song, which has an apocalyptic feel to it, and some wicked bends that are completely reminiscent of Meshuggah, and Dimebag (R.I.P.). 'Americana' and 'Weight Of The World' both have more of a Down meets Damageplan feel to them. Although 'Americana' does once again find Throwdown utilizing the obligatory 'gang chorus'. What really stands out is the instrumental track entitled 'Cancer, that comes in at the half way point of the album. If anything were unexpected, this would be it. The dirge-like quality is rather fitting though, given the feel of this album, and the band, or moreso the individual it brings to mind. 'Hellbent (On War)' brings the aggression factor back up to Eleven quick, with the best elements of the band's hardcore roots present, perfectly mixed in with their more current metal-as-fuck, Pantera-esque trappings. The same thing can pretty much be said for 'No Love'. Never a band to run short of surprises, the title track seems to have a suicidal slant to it, which is rather different for a sXe band who was previously more positive than anything. Whether the lyrical content is based on that or not, is completely open to interpretation. If nothing else, it's definitely dark. The rest of the album is pretty much more of the same. Throwdown hasn't entirely lost what it was that made them Throwdown, and their intensity has gone up once again, if that's even possible. But based on the overall sound of the album, the comparisons' to Pantera are going to be inevitable. You really couldn't come closer to nailing down Pantera's sound unless you were deliberately TRYING to do so. And even then, numerous bands have tried, and ultimately failed miserably. If ever there were something said about Throwdown that was true, 'The second coming of Pantera most definitely fits the bill. Bottom Line: Venom & Tears is without question a defining moment in Throwdown's short career. They've already proven that they could take what Hatebreed does and improve upon it. Now all they've done is added a bit of that southern groove to the mix, and they've let go of preconceived notions of what is or was expected of Throwdown because of the 'category' they were lumped into, and the musical "boundary" lines they previously felt that they couldn't cross. Since Dave switched over from guitars to vocals, the band has gone through a number of consistent line up changes and shifts over the course of the past two records, and there isn't a single original member of the band that's currently playing with the band. And with new blood in a band, it's definitely going to impact the way a band sounds. The simple fact that they ended up sounding so much like Pantera shouldn't elicit automatic rip off accusations. If that's the case, we may as well take a second look back, and bring Exhorder into the mix. If you wanna know where Pantera basically snaked their sound from, that is. Lyrically, Dave Peters seems determined to put all manner of serious issues out there for people to think about and interpret in their own personal way. 'Venom & Tears' is easily the most in depth album lyrically, that the band has ever put out. 'Haymaker' and 'Vendetta' were both aggressive lyrically, but at the same time entirely more positive and simplistic. This time around, negative anger has reared it's ugly head, and Dave's is sparing no one's feelings with some truly Venomous lyrical content...........