Venomous Maximus - debuting on LP here after an independently released EP earlier this year - are 80's metal children, to be sure, but not the kind that grew up on the usual thrash or glam... NWOBHM-inspired doom by the likes of Candlemass and Witchfinder General. While other bands toiling in the genre are either content to mine the Sabbath / Pentagram formula or else modernize under the aegis of sludge and black metal, this Houston quartet is at firmly entrenched in the second wave. "Moonchild", for instance, opens with a galloping riff that could just as easily be Saxon if it didn't have that bottomed out crunch behind it. That said, Venomous Maximus is not a nostalgia act, they just don't feel obligated to "upgrade" their primary influences to avoid accusations of irrelevance. There are clear signs of a unique artistic vision independent of those influences at play, though; in my review of their EP I criticized the vocals for not being more prominent while acknowledging the limited production budget.