Venus Twins RAXIS

It’s no secret that I’ve been anticipating the release of the new Venus Twins album all summer, so when RAXIS finally dropped last Friday, it didn’t feel right to review it without going to the release show the next night at Alphaville. The Denton,Texas transplants—Jake and Matt Derting—are one of those bands that you just cannot truly experience entirely without seeing them live. They embody pent up unbridled young energy unlike anyone else in Brooklyn right now. It’s for that reason they are able to hold their own sandwiched between the intense fury of Bosco Mujo and the raw visceral showmanship of scene darlings, STUY. For any other band, that would be a death slot. But for Venus Twins, it was the perfect place for them to tear through their new record.

Cutting through the atmosphere like a machete in the jungle, RAXIS, opens with the whiplash stop n’ go movement of a six minute track “Falling On My Own Sword.” Chanting “6666667 6666666,” the dark lords of noise proceed to lay sacrifice at the altar of Venus brutally propelling the more structured but massive ripper “Return to Dust.”

Venus Twins performing summer 2022 (photos by Kate Hoos)

The high octane twin blast/noise rock duo, are expert tension builders for sure. Every time you think “Mistmistmistmistmistmistmistmistmist” is about to boil over into total madness, they pull back the heat and allow the beat to simmer. The real prize however, if your ticker can handle it, is “God’s Machines.” Clocking in at over ten minutes, it is just as powerful and thunderous as its title would suggest. Providing very little room to catch your breath, the twins frantically weave in and out of time signatures with monstrous force. Only in the moments where there’s a brief lull, do you remember that you’re listening to just bass and drums. The rest of the time you’re hanging on for dear life as everything devolves into a wall of noise. 

To dust from bones and nuts to bolts, new record veers into some real sludgy jams but with lightning attack. It harkens back to the turn of the millennium anti-conformist sound of S.T.U.N., or the barely contained chaos of Hella with an undercurrent of early 90s The Jesus Lizard and bloodshot eyes glued to 120 Minutes at 2am. Whether subdued in the sparsely laid quieter moments tucked into the corners of “seeS recnepS” and “ANGEL32:35” or the rusted out metallic clinks and clanks that build and tear through like a tornado on “Light Catches the Rats,” Venus Twins have indeed swept in like fresh wind through the Brooklyn music scene and had a mob of kids on the the heels and tip-toes of their worn out sneakers.

I’ve said it before, but I think the sold-out RAXIS release show at Alphaville this past Saturday would only further continue to serve as a direct message to The Refused that Venus Twins are clearly the new Shape of Punk to Come. 

RAXIS is available now via all major streaming platforms.