ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode, we welcome back Venom to talk about the completion of his glorious sci-fi rock opera, Invaders of Uranus.
What began as an idea during the pandemic grew into a sprawling 30-plus-minute musical journey inspired by Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica, early Genesis and the long-form records Venom grew up loving. The concept flips the traditional alien-invasion story on its head: this time, humans are the invaders.
Venom takes us inside the years-long recording process, assembling a huge cast of musicians, recording largely at Hot House Studios, working with Craig Harnath, and somehow bringing the Theremin, acoustic passages, massive guitar solos, multiple vocalists and constantly shifting musical ideas together as one piece.
We also dig into the darker ideas underneath the sci-fi madness: greed, pollution, consumerism and humanity's habit of treating the planet, and eventually other planets, as commodities to exploit. There’s plenty of humour in Invaders of Uranus, but there’s a fairly serious message buried underneath it.
Venom also talks about the challenge of directing guitarists when you’re a drummer, the endless rabbit hole of mixing, why the finished record sounds very different from the version originally living in his head, and whether this monster could ever actually be performed live.
Plus: growing up on ’80s metal, seeing Queensrÿche with Metallica, being at Iron Maiden’s legendary 'Live After Death' Long Beach Arena shows , why 30-minute songs deserve to exist, the strange origin of the name 'Lord Venomous Lush', terrible band names and why sometimes you just have to make the Album you want to hear.
