VENOM BLACK METAL
VENOM Black Metal from 1982 was next on the agenda for this Newcastle trio. After the cult success of their first album “Welcome to Hell” the band returned to the studio, this time armed with a little more experience both musically and production wise and a little more time to achieve their vision. Lyrically “Black Metal” was infinitely darker and contained a much darker feel to the music. This for my money is my favourite album of theirs. The musicianship had improved and the pedal had been pushed down to the metal lifting the extremity level another few notches. The album Black Metal is still credited as single-handedly creating the “Black Metal” genre. While it does differ stylistically from the Black Metal as a genre, it laid the prototype, especially lyrically for the dark feel that the Black Metal Genre would adopt.
The album starts off with some screeching grinding sounds and then into the track “Black Metal” a song which not only started this album off but un-intentionally started off an entire genre of metal. As most of you would know, it has now become an anthem of extreme metal. The album slows it down with “To Hell and Back” and “Buried Alive” showcasing a darker but more melodic side of the band. The speed picks up with “Teachers Pet”, a sleazy little number which descends into some great blues breaks.
The metal anthems continue on the second side of this record with “Leave me in Hell” and “Sacrifice” and later another classic “Countess Bathory“. This album is near perfect and again as a fan there is nothing I would change about this one. I can’t even imagine how many times I’ve listened to this album and I never get sick of it.
The album was far more extreme than anything that had come before it. Whilst Welcome to hell had already influenced the Bay Area Thrash scene this one influenced a new breed of bands like Mayhem, Sadisitik Exekution, Slayer, Darkthrone, Deicide etc… To push metal to its sonic boundaries and lyrical depths of darkness. The Influence of this album would then push its fans to new levels of extremity in the bands they formed in the aftermath of this album.
I Can only recommend you give this classic slab of metal a listen if you haven’t already. Every track on this is a classic. From start to finish this is one evil blast from the very depths of hell! Venom Black Metal is available to stream on You Tube if you haven’t heard it, but really it’s one of those albums that I think every Metalhead should own.
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