Finland's Venia can trace its beginnings back to the fall of 2002 when guitarist Jere Veijalainen met fellow guitarist Viktor Fagerstrom through an add placed on a message board seeking musicians to form a melodic metal band.  After recruiting drummer Daniel Puolimatka and vocalist Veronica Fagerlund in early 2004, the new band chose the moniker Venia (which is the Latin translation for forgiveness).  Bassist Juhani Palttala rounded out Venia's line up in the spring of 2004, and during the bands first live performance in September of the same year, it released its first and only demo "Genesis".  Signing to Bombworks Records shortly thereafter, Venia debuted in the summer of 2005 with the thrash influenced power metal of its five song EP "In Our Weakness".

Veronica brings a clean and refined vocal style to the band and, despite a few rough and shaky moments, puts in an all around fine performance.  In contrast, Jere adds the extreme element to Venia's sound, trading off with Veronica during the track "The Path" in addition to spicing up "Illusion" and "Heikko" with some death metal-like growls.  The rhythm section of Juhani and Daniel performs capably and stands in solid support of a very effective guitar team of Viktor and Jere.
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This second offering from Venia displays the dedication and time the group has put in to perfecting their craft. Vocals have a much wider range than the original demo, guitars are tighter and the drumming is much more fluid and accents the songs better. While the Genesis demo was good, this cd surpasses it by miles! Get it now so you can say you were a fan from the beginning.
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