Venus Evening is the brainchild of the Nashville, TN-based artist Austin. It started as he was in isolation during the pandemic, Venus Evening turned to be his way of expressing his emotions and the tough times he’s been through, and his debut album “Friendly Weapon” is where he mixed his influences and experience and molded them into the unique sonic journey we will be reviewing today.
With some psychedelic touches and groovy sound, Venus Evening kick-starts “Friendly Weapon” with “My surface”, a perfect opener that’ll give you a taste of what you’re about to get into. With “Perfect Vice” he introduces a more bluesy sound with mellow groovy bass, enjoyable jazzy drums, and a warm soothing vocal melody with beautiful harmonies, setting the blueprint for one of the record’s key sounds. Everything about “Your System” sounds raw and organic and I LOVED THAT! It has some sincere jamming improvisational vibes with the heavy pounding bass that’s super clear on the production and its incredible guitar work. Definitely one of the record’s top songs!
With a melody that felt like it was building on its predecessor but, with a different mood comes “Yellow Chair”. The fluid guitar melody which falls in perfect harmony with the ambient moody vocals, the beautiful jazzy keys, and moody effects all gave it a sweet chilling mood. Catching up with his bluesy significant touch, Venus Evening hits again with “Blossom”. It has a smooth flow with a stream of melodies and a well-constructed guitar line. It gets more psychedelic as it progresses with a Pink Floyd-ish kind of sound but, without losing its emotional vibe throughout the synth and effects. Things get more colorful on “Twisted Game”. It has a light fluid swaying melody with a dynamic smooth structure and yet another one of Venus Evening’s warm emotional vocal melodies. Steering the sound into a more modern, more updated sound with “Mind Matter” as he mixed his melodic guitars and subtle drum beats with a chill rap flow by Weston who did a great job being 100% in harmony and on mood with Venus Evening’s music. “Noise Offering” is a suitable follow-up break, showing Venus Evening’s other side and skill of using effects and digging more into psychedelia and spacey sounds. The record gets an interesting jazzy twist on “Weighed Down with Desire”, it has a massively groovy bass, catchy enjoyable drumming, and funky upbeat guitars that get a little bit heavy at some points to shake its dynamics. The guitar work is one of the coolest on this record and its slow and jazzy mood gave the vocals the space to shine and show a side of what Austin is capable of.
Saving the best till the end, Venus Evening ends the record with the most epic song, “Smile for a Frown”. Keeping up with the mood of “Weighed Down with Desire” while adding more layers and more detailed songwriting. It shows his real musicianship and perfect instrumentation and harmony. The dynamic changing structure as it flows from slow clean guitar parts with groovy bass into heavier sound with fuzzy effects then coming back and re-building up again, and its smooth sound progression with the participation of all instruments including vocals created an interesting journey from start till the very end. Hands down, my favorite off “Friendly Weapon“.
“Friendly Weapon” is one hell of an enjoyable journey with everything in its place with the most suitable and fitting sound possible. It shows Venus Evening’s well knowledge of his influences and how to use them without clouding his vision and unique style. It has a diverse sound but is somehow connected with the same sound and direction. Will totally recommend this to everyone and I’d love to see where he’ll go from here. Looking forward to more and more, cheers!
