Review Summary: One of MF DOOM's most inaccessible album, but once you get through multiple listens, you will realize it is also one of his most complete albums too.
At first he sounds like a mumbling bumbling fool, but upon multiple listens, you realize this sluring man has quite a few things to say, and says them in quite interesting and bizarre ways. This man goes under multiple aliases, MF Doom, Vicktor Vaughn, King Geedorah, DOOM, just about everything under the sun. Among those persona’s, Vicktor Vaughn stands out as the darkest, most hidden, and secretive, and makes album experiences enjoyable for the most part. Venomous Villian stays true to this, however, it contains certain elements that make it, by far, DOOM’s most inaccessible and complicated effort yet.
“Viktormized (Intro)” starts things off with a mess of all the vocal samples used on the album back by a beat that sounds like a fuzzy electronic beat that sounds like the perfect super villain theme. This perfectly leads to the rest of the album, which is mostly dominated by electronica-inspired instrumentals that drive and draw themselves into different, more interesting directions. “Fall Back-Titty Fat” starts off with a keyboard-laden beat that sounds like robot elevator music, but builds up the an off-kilter reggae-esqe acoustic backing, but then leads to a instrumental climax, with classical-like violins and bass with twinkling and dangling of effects and a fairly quick drum beat. Instrumentally, the highlight is “Doom On Vik”, a track with a simplistic back track, but it allows for the electronics to flush around with weeing and wahing around.
However much you don’t approve of MF DOOM, you have to admit he’s got some damn good ideas out there. “Ode To Road Rage” is about exactly what the title says, and is quite a nice track, while “Bloody Chain” takes the murder of a girl from two different views, her man and the murderer (who sounds like a concoction of Young Buck and Ghostface Killah). However, for every really great idea, there are some of the most mediocre ideas that DOOM has come up with yet. “R.A.P. G.A.M.E.” is the weakest group collaboration that DOOM has participated, and while DOOM isn’t exactly the weakest link (in fact he’s the highlight), he just sounds way too lazy even by his standards. “Dope Skill” sounds like it would be better in the hands of a more energetic rapper like ODB or Busta Rhymes (albeit his old stuff, not Back On My B.S. era), but I guess it’s okay.
The only other flaw is the load of interludes, and the only one worth listening to is “Doom On Vik”, the others, such as the useless “Haberdashery”, which should have been a part of the last song anyway, and same goes for “Strange New Day”. But hey, who can fault DOOM for making music his own way, it sounds good enough anyway. Venemous Villain is DOOM’s most obscure and inaccessible release yet, and takes multiple listens to get used to the feel of most of it. However, once you get into it, it sounds like one of Doom’s more complete albums, and with that, you should feel at least a bit satisfied.
