Venomous Maximus

Beg Upon the Light (Occulture)

Red eyes aglow and horns held high, Venomous Maximus waves its pentagram flag in the face of spiritually upstanding citizens everywhere. The Houston combo revels in black-lit tales of witches, mausoleums, gravestones at midnight, and the mystical pull of the moon, Gregg Higgins’ declamatory rants dueling with sludge-riffing guitars like Cerberus snapping at the last leg bone. One song’s subtitle, “Hellenbach,” indicates the band might not be taking its devil worship entirely seriously, but then the rumbling riffs and raging rhythms of “Give Up the Witch,” “Path of Doom,” and the explicatory “Hell’s Heroes” matter more than loyalty to Old Scratch. ***

This article appears in February 8 • 2013.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.