Throwdown - Venom & Tears

\r\nThrowdown since their 2005 last album "Vendetta" return with the new release "Venom & Tears". Having walked away from the hardcore rapture of their first albums, Throwdown move themselves even more towards metal something that they had already expanded on "Vendetta". The new album once more crossbreeds the thrash-influenced old school hardcore with the modern metalcore providing a link between metal and hardcore. For fans of "Beyond Repair" and "You Don’t Have to Be Blood to Be Family", this one will be disappointing as well, as basically they are a different band than when they first started and no original members are in the band. And I should mention that Matt Mentley, who played the guitar on the last album, here is handling the bass section and a new member is added in the lineup, the guitarist Mark Choinere. Musically "Venom & Tears" throughout its duration features nothing more than a tribute to Pantera’s "Vulgar Display Of Power". Dave Peters even sounds like Phil Anselmo’s clone. And that’s the issue here. There are still moments in this album that their sound is being turned back to its roots in the hardcore scene but mostly this album sounds as Pantera would have sounded in 2008 if they were still an active band. Overall there are three options here. If you were a big fan of Pantera and you don’t mind if some other band is copying their music, then "Venom & Tears" will surely be a small satisfaction to your starvation after the demise of your once favorite band, yet from the other hand if you do mind then stick to Pantera’s old albums. And last for all of you who had a craving for the old school hardcore of Throwdown’s early days then just deal with the fact that those days seem long lost and cast aside. \r\n