Venaculas plays streamlined nu-metal in the usual fashion: rapping in the verses, alternating with Euro-style growled vocals, and clean, stentorian vocals in the choruses, over big-beat drums and heavy-riffing unison guitars. The Omaha-based band plays its chosen style about as well as anyone, but
Therapy, their fourth release, shows how limited the style has become. The songs trundle along for three or four minutes at a time, each taking one riff and one chorus melody and pile-driving them into the ground, and singer Phil Anson barely changes his vocal approach from one song to another.
Therapy sounds polished, professional, and almost completely bloodless, as if the band is just phoning its parts in. For a style of music that's supposed to be all about extreme emotions and catharsis, the effect is unnerving.