Venom
Black Metal

THE REVIEW

The Venom were one of the greatest and most innovative bands in the history of metal. With their debut "Welcome To Hell" in 1981, they significantly shook the world of metal and set a new limit for the extremism of this genre both musically and lyrically and in imagery. Before that, the most one could hear were Sabbathian allusions and attempts to find mythical hidden messages in the records and songs of Led Zeppelin and/or The Beatles; never had such explicit flaunting been reached.    

Originally, Venom consisted of 5 members who eventually became 3, not exactly virtuosos of their instruments, and whose goal was to play as fast and violently as possible. As often happens, the secret of their evil and extreme sound was born by chance; if in the case of Sabbath, their heavy sound was derived from blues played with a very heavy amplification and especially by the necessity to play with a lower tuning to aid Tony Iommy, the sound of Newcastle's Venom took an unexpected turn when rhythm guitarist-turned-bassist Conrad "Cronos" Lant plugged the jack of his bass into his guitar amplifier and, equalizing it all even with the effects of his former instrument, what came out was the so-called "Bulldozer Bass Sound" which would become the soul of the group's sound, later inspiring a whole generation of bands from Metallica to Slayer all the way to the cruder and more demented Black Metal groups like Meyhem (who took their name from a song in "Welcome To Hell").    

I’ll say right away that I am not a fan of this genre, which I consider indeed demented, not so much for the music but for everything else we all know. No offense to the more hardcore blacksters, but at the same time, I consider Venom something seminal and therefore still "pure" and "uncontaminated," at least musically. Their intent was primarily to have lyrics that were alternative and shocking compared to those popular at the time in the UK, even though later on they obviously extensively capitalized on the image they had created.   

After their brilliant debut came this "Black Metal", which gave its name to the entire future scene, and I will say right away that I don’t consider it a masterpiece unlike its predecessor. An slightly overrated album, although still great, and now we begin the description: it starts with the famous title track, which together with the ninth track "Countess Bathory" perhaps represents the absolute pinnacle of Venom's production, two of the most devastating pieces in the history of all metal, unmatched. "To Hell And Back" is also a great track, this time more powerful than fast and chaotic, but sufficiently dark not to pale beside the two previously mentioned; the subsequent "Buried Alive" (which is actually united with "Raise The Dead" into a single song) begins with sinister (real) sounds of moving earth to underline the funereal atmosphere of the track, but then continues slow and measured, more Sabbathian this time. Personally, I consider these 2 the minor tracks of the work.   

"Teacher's Pet" returns to the violence, but it doesn't match the first ones and the predecessor album; with the quartet "Leave Me In Hell", "Sacrifice", "Heaven's On Fire", and "Don't Burn The Witch", we return to a level of excellence, among highs and lows they confirm themselves as excellent tracks nonetheless inferior to the gems mentioned at the beginning. The unnecessary "At War With Satan Preview" closes a work that has always been considered the masterpiece of the English band, certainly the atmosphere is absolutely dark and evil and with the predecessor (which is only a few months apart) completes a pair that for better or worse marked the beginning of (at least) a new genre, but also the beginning, as always happens, of a trend.   

Musically this LP is seen as a continuation of the line of "Welcome To Hell" but with a refinement of the sound; I instead think that perhaps because of this it is inferior, the first still appears more violent, raw, chaotic, and spontaneous, without taking anything away anyway from this excellent album which had the honor of offering the name to an entire scene, and regardless of the effective value, this is no small thing, as well as inspiring other sub-genres like Thrash and Death in a decisive way, and not everyone can boast this  

"Lay down your soul to the gods rock n' roll!!!!!!"