Vena Amori – The Seduction of an American Housewife / 2006 The Death Scene Recording Company / http://www.venaamori.net / http://www.thedeathscene.com / Reviewed 26 March 2006

While it seems as if Vena Amori is going to come forth on their “The Seduction of an American Housewife” with a style that has been done to death (the technicalcore of acts like Converge), the inclusion of punk and emo influences to the hardcore style of “The Lady Huskies Are One Man Short” increases the number of individuals that can enjoy the band and the amount of time individuals can listener before getting weary of the band. In this sense, Vena Amori has a lot in common with bands like The Bled; both can come up with catchy, melodic songs even if their musical styles are not those that typically lend themselves to catchiness.

The track lengths of songs on “American Housewife” are on the short end of normal, pop-influenced tracks. This is a marked departure from the polar extremities of either doing thirty-second songs or stealing metal band’s reliance on six and seven minute songs. For Vena Amori, this gambit works well as the band has enough to say for precisely the length that they assign each track; it never feels as if the band is scrimping on material or trying to stretch out an inadequate amount of music. “FIN” is the Vena Amori track that individuals absolutely need to listen to; in just 75 seconds the band is able to create an atmosphere, a beginning middle and end and still have time to floor listeners with an unmatched intensity. Moving into a trash meets power metal strain of music for “How Can Things Possibly Get Any Worse…”, Vena Amori shows fakes and pretenders the proper way to rock.

The best lesson that one can take from “The Seduction of an American Housewife” is that individuals continually have to change and innovate their style, to keep listeners interested and also keep the band from resting too heavily on their own laurels. By standing at the nexus of a number of styles and different strains of music, Vena Amori provide a strong case for the abolition of all genre labels and tags; Vena Amori can only be categorized as “good”. The production on “The Seduction of an American Housewife” is great, allowing the band wiggle room without sounding empty or hollow. Vena Amori needs to stay on the scene for years to come; their presence would be enough to bring the entire state of music up ever so slightly from the pop muck it is mired in.

Top Tracks: Rotting Beef Carcasses, The Lady Huskies Are One Man Short

Rating: 7.4/10

[JMcQ]