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Music Reviews:

Venom – Music by James l. Venable

Promo - 2005

The score for VENOM is one of the most underrated scores I’ve heard for a horror film in the past five years.  James L. Venable has composed a terrific score that captures the down home ambience of the Louisiana swampland and the frightening subject matter of Jim Gillespie’s film.

I’m especially impressed by Venable showing us this side as he is primarily known for scoring comedies like JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, CLERKS 2, JERSEY GIRL, DUECE BIGALOW EUROPEAN GIGOLO and VIEW FROM THE TOP.  This proves he is a composer with quite a bit of musical dexterity and can shift easily between genres.

Venable uses Herculean brass to represent the evil monstrosity seen in the film and attacks us throughout the 31 tracks featured on this CD.  “Don’t Want This Town” is one of the many that hold this kind of approach. “Tammy Investigates Garage” has forward propulsion of drums and snarling brass that builds to a cliffhanger.  “Eric & Shawn Find” features some nice bites of brass.  “Shawn’s Blood” pounces with the force of brass. The same can be said of the aggression of the metallic instrumentation of “Ray Plows.”  “F U Ray pt 1” & “F U Ray pt 2” (great titles) musically represent the protagonist fighting back against the seemingly unstoppable embodiment of evil.

A dark mood of something evil being born happens over the course two minutes and thirty-eight seconds in “ It Was An Accident.”  Strings swirl and merge with an interesting high keyboard part and forceful drums in “Ray’s Blood Ceremony.”

Venable captures a cool vibe in “Patty Enters Station” where the music sounds like it is crawling into the underside of barrel and then the brass screams out to startle you.

“Mambo Woman Meant Business” has the clicking-clacking percussion that accentuates the low strings gliding along the surface of the swampland.  Flutes and tender drums add to the atmosphere.

Death and darkness lurk as “Eric & Eden Enter.”  The first few moments of “Eden’s Revenge” are mellow and give a slight breather before evil returns with the tribal drums that bring deadly destruction.

The soft strings and tapping percussion let “Eden Rise.”

But make no mistake.  Venable doesn’t let us off easy.  The last tracks “Who’s Checking Out Ed” and “Is That You Ray?” are like a blow to the gut and an uppercut to the chin to prove VENOM is lethal.

VENOM seeps into your consciousness for one hour and twelve minutes.  James L Venable could honestly stand among the top composers in horror motion picture scoring and has made a potent soundtrack that all of you should be more than aware of.

www.venablemusic.com