VENOM At War with Satan is the third full length release from these unholy English pioneers of extreme metal. Released in 1984 this saw a definite increase in production values and musician ship while (to some degree) still maintaining that raw aggressive edge that the band was known for.
The album opens up with the epic 20+ minute epic “At War with Satan”. At the time of buying this I couldn’t think of a band that had a song this long that essentially went for the full side of an album. So that was something new for me as a kid. The song while epic in length is also epic in concept telling the story of the final battle between God and Satan with some rather skilled orchestration combing what was the extremities of metal for the time with a song that literally takes you on a journey through highs and lows of the music and of course the lyrical concept of the song. Lots of chances for all musicians to show off with guitar solos, and bass runs a plenty. This is a magnificent effort.
The rest of the album features more standard song arrangements. You know what I mean, 3 minute songs. While Venom were quite obviously the first outwardly “satanic” band in metal, this album seems to have paired it back a little after the first song with what I’d call more subtle satanism if thats a thing. I wonder if that was a conscious decision or not? I’d say it probably doesn’t matter as anyone who wouldn’t by an album with satanic concepts wouldn’t touch this one with the first song anyway.
The other songs are great too. The new found production values really bring out the groups skill and song construction abilities. “Rip Ride” is fast and agressive, I’d say while the musical variety on this has increased the fast bits are some of the fastest stuff the band had put out to this point and the new production values make this much easier to listen to. I’d have to say this is also probably the start of the rapid alternate picking that black and death metal were soon to be known for if you listent to the middle section of “Genocide”. I still doubt with the subject matter the band writes about whether they’d have found anyone outside their normal fanbase but hopefully it did well for them. Especially since at least one major distributor refused to stock the album due to the cover and lyrical content.
This album again is one of those albums where there’s virtually nothing you can fault the lads on. Great songs, the musical abilities improved out of sight and very easy to listen to! Again an essential listen for anyone into the metal scene!
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