Happy New Year all you Beyond Ear Candy maniacs! Snowy has decided to kick the New Year off right by blowing the dust off of another classic metal album. While it is always important to focus on new releases, you cannot forget the great artists of the past who have paved the way for the great metal bands of today. One such artist who has influenced many top drawer metal acts of the past 15 years has been Venom. Many metal bands will name this trio from Newcastle, England as one of their biggest influences. And we are talking some big names here! Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Mayhem…the list goes on for miles and miles! This band is credited for spawning subgenres such as death metal, thrash metal and their 1982 album Black Metal even gave a yet to be born genre a name-Black Metal, of course! Talk about influential! In the early 80’s Venom released three albums which stand proudly alongside other great albums of that era: 1981’s Welcome To Hell, the aforementioned 1982 album Black Metal, and 1983’s At War With Satan. Here I will review for you their historic 1981 debut Welcome To Hell.

One look at the cover will tell you why the band was such a big influence on not only sound but image. While bands like Black Sabbath always toyed with occult lyrics and subjects, Venom took it to an almost comic level. With it’s front cover adorned with a pentagram and goat’s head, its easy to see why many metal bands wanted to prove their “allegiance” to the Prince of Darkness. It stirred up controversy and it sold records, and in most cases it was just that: a publicity stunt. That was the case with Venom and many other so-called “Satanic” metal bands that Midwestern church parishioners wanted to burn the albums of. It was just an act to grab attention. So don’t think ol’ Snowy has sold his soul to Satan. I don’t care about image, I care about music. And now that I have rambled for centuries about Venom’s image and the album cover artwork (you just love to read me rambling, don’t you?), let’s explore the music and see why this band was so influential, shall we? Alrighty then!

The boys waste no time kicking your ass on this album. The riff of opening track  “Sons of Satan” rips right through you like a knife ripping through flesh. Motorhead-esque guitar and drum artillery fire attack you relentlessly on this album from first note to last. This is clearly the sound of a band that has absolutely no intentions of being overblown or overly dramatic and just want to concentrate on kicking your ass until you are a beaten bloody mess, and then laugh as they watch you writhing in agony. I cannot go into great detail describing little nuances in the music because there are none. The music is basically classic heavy metal in the vein of Motorhead, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC sprinkled with a punk influence and warp speeded to an intensity that was unheard of in 1981. No keyboards, no progressive interludes, no string sections, just pure ass-kicking heavy metal. The furious blitzkrieg unleashed on tracks like the title track, “Poison”, “Live Like an Angel”, “Witching Hour” and “Red Light Fever” are mixed with mid-tempo stompers that may be slower, but are not lacking in intensity, such as the classic “In League With Satan” and “One Thousand Days in Sodom”. The only quiet moments on this album are courtesy of the brief instrumental “Mayhem With Mercy”, which oddly enough was the song that gave Norwegian black metal godfathers Mayhem their name. If you want variety, this is not the album for you. No frills, just head banging fury!

The musicians in this band were among the first to adopt stage aliases to go along with the dark fury of their music and stage shows. Bassist/vocalist Cronos, guitarist Mantas and drummer Abaddon planted the seed for members of later bands such as Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth to use crazy and sometimes silly stage names to go along with the image of their music. The musical ability of the members of Venom has been a subject of debate among music critics for years, as many reviewers have said that this band has NO musical ability whatsoever! I say to them “BULLSH*T!” While Venom may not be virtuosos with their respective instruments, they were very competent nonetheless. You don’t need to be a virtuoso like Yngwie Malmsteen or Mike Portnoy to rock out (even though I am a big fan of both Yngwie and Dream Theater), you just need passion and dedication to the art of making great metal! The members of Venom had that passion and they used it to create a sound that was very reminiscent of other NWOBHM stalwarts like Saxon, Angel Witch and early Iron Maiden, but had a heaviness and intensity that was previously unheard of in metal music at that time.  Mantas laid down the most brutal guitar riffs ever heard at the time and it’s easy to see how young future superstar axe-slingers like James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine,  Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman were influenced by the piledriving riffs of this influential English guitarist. Drummer Abaddon laid down fast and furious drum thrashing which may have sounded sloppy at times, but was just right for driving the Venom attack.  Cronos was by no means an accomplished bass player, but he played some very meaty bass licks and added a great rumble to the band’s sound which could be compared to a 7.5 earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Do not listen to this album in L.A. unless you want to start a catastrophe! Cronos also barked out the bands “Satanic lyrics” in a loud yell which can easily be heard in the vocals of James Hetfield of Metallica and Tom Araya of Slayer nowadays. As for the band’s lyrics, they sounded so serious that it was impossible to take them seriously! The lyrics were borderline silly and it is way too easy to tell that the band had no intentions of being a sounding board for Lucifer, and were just a rock-out and have a good time band under all the image. And to top it off, the songs on this album are so damned catchy you won’t get them out of your head for weeks! But, hey! This album is so good you’ll be playing it constantly! Why do you want them out of your head?

The imagery and lyrics of this album may still be a sticking point for people even after 24 years, but please realize that with this band it was just an act and an image to grab some attention. I am no Satanist and buying this album doesn’t make you one. Don’t let the image keep you from buying one of the classic albums in metal history.  Now that I have put your mind at ease, go out and get your hands on a metal classic which influenced many bands who’s albums you probably own already and love. Find out why Venom was so influential! This album still rocks like a ton of boulders all these years later. Plus, to sweeten the pot, Sanctuary Records, working with Venom’s former label Neat Records, have reissued the band’s first three albums with great packaging and liner notes and lots of bonus tracks!

Now go out and buy Venom’s Welcome To Hell and hear the band which helped spawn three sub-genres of heavy metal! While you are at it pick up Black Metal and At War With Satan as well. Why? Because the owl said so, that’s why! Or he’ll peck your eyes out!

Reviewer:  Matt "Snowy Owl" Bankes

   (5 out of 5)

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