Houston, Texas dark heavy metal band Venomous Maximus has signed to Napalm Records. The independent record label will issue the band's critically acclaimed new album, "Beg Upon The Light", for the first time in Europe this summer while the group prepares music for its next full-length recording, slated for an early 2014 release.

Venomous Maximus is one of the most successful metal bands to emerge from Houston in years, beloved of headbangers and headbanging blogs from across the U.S. and points beyond. Since its formation in 2010, the group has risen to the top of the music scene in the country's third-largest city, winning back-to-back honors at the Houston Press Music Awards as the Space City's "Best Metal Band".

In the time since the North American release of "Beg Upon The Light", the Lp has met with rave reviews, being called "Lovecraftian" and a "masterpiece" by Metal Injection, "mayhem without mercy" by Decibel, "super-thick occult doom" by Rhapsody and "the best metal album to come out of Texas in a long, long time" by the Houston Press.

A live powerhouse, Venomous Maximus toured the U.S. as hand-picked guests of New Orleans metal titans Down and created a huge buzz last week at two slaying gigs as part of Austin's South By Southwest festival.

On bringing the band into the label's family, Napalm Records A&R man Sebastian Muench states: "Sometimes, very seldom, you get the chance to discover a band that brings back the same feelings you first had when you listened as a teenager for the first time to Metallica's 'Ride The Lightning' or Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. You just know you've found something very magical and are hooked for life. Venomous Maximus is such a band and and we are thrilled, excited and tremendously honored to call them part of the Napalm family."

Check out Venomous Maximus' new video — for the ripping track "Path of Doom" — below.