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THE REVIEW
"At War With Satan" is the third album by the great metal band Venom, released way back in 1984. This album, as you all know, along with the surprising "Welcome To Hell" and the magnificent "Black Metal", is part of the beautiful initial trilogy of the wicked English trio from Newcastle. The historic lineup consisted of the malevolent Cronos on vocals and bass, Mantas on guitar, and Abaddon on drums.
Venom have the privilege and merit of having marked an entire genre, a stylistic current, with the title of their album, ("Black Metal").
The band’s success exploded during the full N.W.O.B.H.M. period, but they set themselves apart from all the others thanks to their desire to extreme their sound and their style in general. Venom greatly weighed down their sound, which was rather raw, hard, and wild, and began to deal with occult themes. Their fast and extreme musical style, the sulfuric and ungraceful voice of Cronos, and their dark themes influenced many famous bands like Slayer, Possessed, Sodom, Cradle Of Filth, Darkthrone, Celtic Frost, Immortal.
The album "At War With Satan" achieved great success among critics and fans, the band's sound is slightly matured, while remaining raw and fast, and all the songs keep the album at fairly high levels. The opener is the very long and devastating title track, with its twenty minutes of pure evil. The song presents many rhythm variations, with the band hammering their instruments, Cronos with his screaming and desperate voice extolling his rites, supported by a terrifying rhythm section of Abaddon and Mantas.
Venom certainly do not make these twenty minutes useless and boring... Truly a great track, which alone is worth the purchase of the album!
The following "Rip Ride" and "Genocide" are deadly thrash outbursts that recall the style of some pieces from "Welcome To Hell", like "Angel Dust" or "Sons Of Satan". "Cry Wolf" is a track that can be compared to the heaviness of Motorhead.
"Stand Up (And Be Counted)" and "Women, Leather And Hell" are decent songs that fortunately do not lower the quality level of the album, while the concluding track is "Aaaaaarghh", which already from the title, you can deduce with what rage the band concludes their third work.
"At War With Satan" is a phenomenal work for all the rest of the subsequent extreme metal.
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Summary by Bot
Venom’s 1984 album At War With Satan is a seminal work in extreme metal, showcasing the band’s raw sound and dark themes. The title track’s 20-minute epic is a standout, while the rest of the album maintains high intensity with thrash and heavy influences. This album helped define and empower the black metal genre and influenced many later bands. It remains a vital part of Venom’s classic early trilogy.
Venom
Venom are an English heavy metal band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1979, widely credited as a key influence on the development of extreme metal and for popularizing the term “black metal” via their 1982 album.25 Reviews
Other reviews
By Cronos
"At War With Satan is a masterpiece of malice, almost 20 minutes of song without any waste of time or other distractions."
Venom had completed their mission: to give birth to and develop Black Metal.
