Proscriptor — The Venus Bellona
The reissue comes in a wonderful bold, bright & glossy digipak- taking in deep reds, yellow, blacks & greens. The front cover features a blend between medieval banner & occult runes/ symbols. With a twelve paged red & black inlay booklet- taking in meaning behind the album, lyrics, etc. It came in an edition of 300 copies, and the labels still has copies left.
The Proscriptor project is the solo project of Russ R. Givens- the drummer/ vocalist of Dallas based esoteric black metal band Absu. The project started in 1995 with the release of The Venus Bellona, going onto release two more albums- 2000’s The Serpentine Has Risen, and 2008’s 726. On this debut album, there is really no trace of Givens metal background, though I’m not sure if it appeared on latter albums.
The Venus Bellona takes in twenty-one tracks, and forty-nine minutes of play-time- and really it’s one of the most gloriously varied & frankly wonderfully bonkers albums I’ve heard in some time. The twenty-one tracks each run between just under a minute to nearing six minutes, and each is sub-titled with an act number- as well as a cryptic/ lengthy track title.
This really is a release you’ve got to experience as one long trip- letting the album puzzle, amuse, and impress with each new track, acting very much like a bizzare sonic chocolate box. So, as a result, it’s difficult to pick out stand-out moments here, as it works great as a whole. But to give you an idea of what to expect here I’ll give you a snapshot of a few sequenced tracks here- we move from "Act 3: Our Blood And Veins From The McGovern Regiment", which finds Givens theatrically rambling out fantasy & occultic texts over sourly-yet- violent jaunting synth strings loops. Next with "Act 4: Hi Ri Ri Tha E Tighinn" we get two minutes of dramatic bagpipe playing & marching percussion, over a selection of horse nays & clip- clomps samples, female screams, male chuckles. "Act 5 Lady Day Eve" is all lushly strummed guitar harmonics, & acoustic marching drums. While "Act 6 Madeleine" sounds like Givens is channeling Marc Almond over jaunting-yet- the epic blend of dramatic piano & synth grandness- with later weird warbling bird samples blended in to create a wonderful wonky feel.
We got this release through late last year, but it’s taken until now to try & get to grips with this oddity, as there’s so much shifting & often bizarre stuff going on over the album's runtime. If you enjoy deranged, and often theatrical genre blending you really need to experience The Venus Bellona, as you really won't have heard anything quite like this.