Venus Syndrome – Cannibal Star
Release Date: 22nd October 2021
Label: Rockshots Records
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Genre: Dark Melodic Metal, Progressive Metal.
FFO: Dream Theater, Pagan’s Mind, Sons of Apollo, Haken, Symphony X, King’s X.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Venus Syndrome began life as a Dream Theater cover band, and while there is no doubt that drummer Thibaud Pontet (Eternal Flight), guitarist Ayman Mokdad (Alien Encounters), keyboardist Rodolfo Lima Sproesser (Goiana, Tahra, Heretic, Floyd Rose cover Pink Floyd), bassist Florian Guidat and vocalist Emmanuelson (Ellipsis, Rising Steel, Hydroflame) are talented enough to play Dream Theater covers, the band has moved away from this early influence to a more spacey style of dark melodic metal that feels all their own.
Cannibal Star, the bands sophomore album, drops about a year after their self-titled debut. Named after a star that literally swallows neighboring stars, Cannibal Star tackles big ideas about the destruction of the Earth through a phenomenon called the “Venus syndrome,” in which greenhouse gases cause global warming so bad that the planet dries up and dies.
While the idea of the Venus syndrome is grim, the band’s music is anything but. As you would expect from this style of music, the songwriting is strong and the musicianship is impeccable. The songs take on a spacey feel thanks to the atmospheric keyboards of Sproesser, who doesn’t try to steal the show but perfectly complements Mokdad’s fretboard wizardry. Singer Emmanuelson’s voice is as powerful as a rocket blast yet remains comfortable in the upper registers. Fans of Pagan’s Mind may notice a similarity between his voice and that of Nils K. Rue. Not to be left out, the rhythm section of Pontet and Guidat hold down the low-end with aplomb. Perfectly capturing the feel of space, these eleven songs take the listener on a trip out of this world without requiring them to even take off their headphones.
Whereas the aforementioned Dream Theater fill every spare second with musical pyrotechnics, Venus Syndrome allows their compositions to breathe while in no way sacrificing heaviness or virtuosity. The result is an album that begs multiple listens not because the music is so complex, but because the music is so good. 
(5 / 5)
