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Track Listing: Soulless God (5:04) Determined (Vows of Vengeance) (4:54) Faith Made of Shrapnel (5:38) Push the Venom (3:28) Hail the Renegade (5:28) As the Walls Collapse (4:51) Numb & Intoxicated (3:26) At the Edge of the World (3:59) Suicide River (4:02) Blind Savior (5:19)

"Heaven's Venom" is the 11th studio album by Canadian death-metal legends Kataklysm.

The album opens up with "A Soulless God", which begins with a creepy little vocal introduction and goes into a soulful, thought out, and crushing opus. This track is very well thought out, with many key changes and different riffs. There's a lot of variation here; a refreshing change from most of the death metal I listen to. The musicianship on this track is incredible. The guitar tones are full of life and clarity, the drums are nice and heavy, the bass is very solid, and the vocals, while still deep and guttural, are incredibly coherent and understandable. The guitar work on this track really blows my mind; incredibly meticulous with a lot of substance and variety, something you don't hear very often in new music.

The next track, "Determined (Vows of Vengeance)" begins with a slow, steady riff, with drum accompaniment to keep it in time. The song picks up a bit, and more is added to the riff and drums before exploding into a heavy, thrashing, and all around kick-ass death-metal song. This song seems a bit slower than most of the other songs on this album, it has it's fast moments, but for the most part, it stays in a pretty solid time-frame. Once again, the musicianship is absolutely superb, with real emphasis on the drums. Max Duhamel has a jaw-dropping talent as a drummer, and his drumming is really the foundation of all the music on this album. The guitars are great as well, with a lot of different scales being played in a standard metal fashion. Overall, a pretty great track.

The crowning track on this album has to be "As the Walls Collapse." This track has a lot more emotion than the others, and is quite melodic. Everything seems to come together perfectly on this track. Kataklysm's mixture of traditional death-metal and melodic-death-metal is pretty incredible. The riffs are incredible, with a lot of integrity and heart. I can tell that the band put a lot of themselves into this song. This song features a short, but breathtaking solo towards the end before going back into it's original heaviness.

The only track off this album that I didn't care for too much is "Suicide River." It seems a bit forced, like the band wanted to write a glorious track, but didn't really have the time to complete it. I don't hate this track, but it could have been a lot better than it is. The guitar work on it is pretty good, but the riffs seem to just repeat themselves. This track does have one really great part close to the end. It gets very emotional and almost romantic in it's sound, but after that, straight back into the same riffs. A bit disappointing, really.

Overall, "Heaven's Venom" is a great album from a great band. Kataklysm have released consistently great albums, and "Heaven's Venom" is no exception; with incredible guitar riffs, amazing drums, solid, consistent bass, and demonic vocals, Kataklysm has really raised the bar on their own music. I have a feeling that "Heaven's Venom" is going to be their biggest selling album to date, and for good reason: It's amazing.

For more info, check out the band's official website.