After the destruction of Venusian 1 in a solar flare, another crew of humans in a separate spaceship called the Venusian 2 grit their teeth and pull through towards Venus. Miraculously, they are able to make it through the planet’s atmosphere and land on the surface. They have made it to Planet V.
“Venusian 2” is the triumphant third song in a three-song suite opening the second side of Infest the Rats’ Nest featuring Lemmy-esque vocals, a pounding drum part, and a load of chugging guitars.
A demo of the song was released on Demos Vol. 5: Music To Think Existentially To. This version features two vocal parts, both singing different, seemingly improvised lyrics. The song’s form is also incomplete. The pre-chorus is twice as long as the final version, there’s an instrumental break before the chorus, there’s no bass solo and the outro is different, with Stu singing a layered “call and response” part similar to what would appear on the final version. The song features the main team of Stu (vocals/guitar), Joey (bass/backing vocals) and Cavs (drums/backing vocals), but also Ambrose and Cook doing backing vocals. “Venusian 2” was released as part of Infest the Rats’ Nest on August 16th, 2019.
“Venusian 2” debuted live on 2019-06-26 during a surprise show at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne) and was played heavily throughout 2019 with a performance from 2019-10-15 making it into the concert film Chunky Shrapnel. Another live performance would be briefly heard in the documentary RATTY. It was often played towards the beginning of sets before fall, when it would shift towards the middle or end of sets. While it could be paired with “Venusian 1” or “Perihelion,” as in the album, the song was usually played on its own. It was played a few times before the pandemic in 2020 and then once in 2021 during the “Play On Victoria” festival on 2021-10-30. “Venusian 2” was in heavy rotation for 2022 and made a few appearances in the following year, making it the “Venusian” track with the highest number of plays. A similar drum beat would be played in the video Cavs’ Rig.