Black Metal

In the early ’80’s, I was riding with the Hell’s Angels and selling PCP in Bakersfield. I listened to this record ALL. THE. TIME. Nowadays, I need a pint of virgin blood and a nap halfway thru to make it through the album once. There’s lots of noise here on this album and the devil lyrics are on high. As a matter of fact, the lyrics are where this Black Metal shines. Who can dismiss “do you believe in God, he’s chained up like a dog and every hour he screams 'SATAN RULES SUPREME!" ?? [whoa!] And, though there's nothing fancy about the drumming, the guitar is show-y, fast and intricate at times. As a matter of fact, this band makes me think a lot of TSO. Yep, TSO - The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I’m quite certain these Venom guys could’ve been real competition to the TSO if the devil-worshiping thing ever caught on. There are plenty of similarities between the two. Both are rock’n’roll crusaders for a higher power and tolerable in small doses, played ONLY during special occasions. For example, TSO, is often heard during Christmas season, while Venom's Black Metal, I'm assuming, gets a lot of play during sacrificing your first-born or throwing a surprise birthday party for Lucifer. Two stars.

"'twas i who fucked the dragon "

There is lots of decent or even good metal out there. Why is this on the list? (So that was my first reaction. Then I read up on it, and apparently they were really pioneers of several sub-genres of metal in the late 70s-early 80s. And so like with the Brian Eno stuff, part of why they merit inclusion on this list is the influence they had on what came after? In that case, do I boost their rating based on the impact they had? Do I rate the music in a vacuum, based totally on what I hear? Or do I rate it based on its historical context?)

It’s a little bit silly (ok it’s very silly) and objectively the songs are not very good and the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in their bathroom. But as massive fan of 80s thrash metal I cannot ignore the influence this album had on that genre. And it’s fun too.

Is this a Tenacious D album?

This album might be difficult to appreciated if you're not into metal, but I swear this one is very important in the history of the genre. Its title even became the name of an evergrowing style of metal, the black metal. This album is so explosive, energetic, fast and grimy, it was a revelation back in 1982. The lyrics and imagery also had a major influence on the shape of metal to come. To me, it sounds like an influencial classic, so... 5 stars!

Heavy metal is awesome but Venom has never done it for me. They got lucky in that they were one of the (if not THE) first bands to get really gritty. None of it is particularly good - it just plods along, a mix of noisy and boring. About the best I can say is that it influenced a lot of the more extreme end of metal, which I love. Within a year or two of this, Venom had been completely outclassed and made obsolete. Why the hell would you listen to this when 2 years later you can have ride the lightning? 2 points but I gotta grudgingly bump it up to 3 because it was so influential. 3/5.

Intelligible metal is good metal. I feel like this album could have benefited from a producer saying, "Hey, this would be much more listenable if you dialed it back by 5 or 10 percent." Then again, what kind of metal band listens to that kind of advice? Best track: Don't Burn the Witch

I can't recall if I've ever listened to this one before, but my expectations were low and the album exceeded them on almost every level. It's fascinating to me that the sub-genre this album spawned has so little in common with the actual music on the record. It's like a bunch of Norwegian teenagers just saw the artwork and decided to take what they thought Venom probably sounded and looked like and made up their own bands based around that. I can't quite explain how else they got from this album to corpsepaint screeching blast-beat insanity that sounds like it was recorded on an electric can opener. Not to dismiss the whole genre, because there are moments that really work for me. I just don't understand the evolution here. Which is too bad, as well, because I really dig what this album actually is. In essence, it's just a grimier Satanic infused version of Motorhead. That's a winning recipe in my kitchen and I'd have no problem with other bands stealing and modifying that recipe. (see: High on Fire and/or Kvelertak!) Also, how the hell does a church-burning bandmate murdering Norwegian black metal diehard brush off the inarguably terrible song "Teacher's Pet"? (Naturally, it's the longest song on the album.) Worse than the half-baked blues riff bullshit, did you see the lyrics to that one? Good god. I'll give them credit for beating Van Halen to the party, but that song's an X-rated joke that damn near derails the whole album. Keep it in your pants, fellas. Even so, I'll stand up for this one. You know what I love? Songs where they literally spell out words. "Sacrifice" is a banger. "Countess Bathory" rules. "Buried Alive" is tortured and creepy. I wish I had found this at age 12.

Very consistent (thrash? black? power?) metal album, consists of great songs such as "Black Metal", "Sacrifice", "Teacher's Pet" and "Countless Bathory"

This feels like something I would listen to if I was riding motorcycles and selling PCP. But I respect the album, I can for sure feel the influence of this album. It's got some pretty rad guitars and the lyrics are pretty metal. Full on Satan. I don't mind it at all.

Nearly 70 albums in and I've managed to get by without any metal... until now. It was never going to be a big hit with me, and I can generally appreciate the influence these albums have had, but it didn't make this one any easier to get through. Everything about Venom's "Black Metal" is sloppy, from the hackneyed lyrics to the performance and production. There's absolutely no range to it, it's sludgy riffs caked in distortion, thrashy drums and endlessly bellowed vocals. It's hard to tell if this is Venom's intention, or they're taking their satanism and musicianship very seriously and just not landing it. It might feel spontaneous and on the fly, but so does a plane crash. The lyrics are unbelievably trite, "let's be edgy because we're a metal band" sort of material that ends up feeling eye-rollingly try-hard. Satan worshipping? Virgins bleeding? Ooh, you're hard. And then, in the middle of devil worshipping and the re-animated undead, comes "Teacher's Pet": a juvenile, graphic sexual fantasy that feels out of place even here. I cringed throughout the whole thing. "Bathory" and "Raise the Dead" were the only ones I could tolerate, and they're the best of a bad bunch. The last track, "At War with Satan", is a two minute preview of what would become a side-long epic on their next album, a bit like a post-credits tease. It's either a tantalising marketing move or just a lazy way to fill up space. Either way, it feels odd and closes things on a duff note with an abrupt fade-out. I'm not into metal in general, but I'm still glad I heard this effort from a band who were on the edge of the NWOBHM (an acronym I didn't know meant New Wave of British Heavy Metal until today- that's how little experience I have with the genre). This might have made it to 2* if it hadn't come up on a day I'm feeling lousy and hungover, as possibly the worst album I could have drawn. While I can appreciate its significance, it's almost certain I'll never seek out "Black Metal" again.

1982. Venom's second album. The first proto-black metal album! This one inspired a lot of trash and death bands in early 90-s. Black Metal song has been covered dozen of times (more than 100)!

The opening 15 seconds of electronic hiss are enticing. The joke was going to be that rest of the album doesn’t fulfil that early promise, but it was foiled by the record’s smeary pleasures: it has the wiggly riffage of Motörhead, the blistering chord sequences of Minor Threat, and the murk calls ahead to Portal. Sometimes crude, usually interesting, this is pretty good.

make metallica cornier and talk about satan more

Well this is an absolute assault. Unfortunately, what it's assaulting me with is tedium. Yes, yes, you bleed an unexpected amount. Yes yes, you worship the devil. I expect you've got a teatowel with a picture of Baphomet on his throne on it. Your mum bought it for you, because while she doesn't exactly approve, well, it's harmless isn't it and the least she can do is encourage you to get out of yourself a bit. I get that this inspired a genre, but I honestly think that 2/3rds of this album could easily have been left out and we'd all still get the point. I wish my mum had bought me a teatowel with a picture of Baphomet on his throne on it.

There is good metal out there, and this didn't sound like it. Genuinely a slog to get through, from the bad production to the lead's vocals. The music itself was uninspired and bland at times, but ultimately the best part of the album. The music + the influence keeps me from giving this a 1. Like, I *get* why this is on the list, but really? Y'all couldn't pick a better representation? Also I turned on the lyrics because I was having a difficult time understanding and tbh I wish I hadn't done that.

Sounds like me doing bad screamy karaoke. Awful. I understand it is a genre, but nothing here for me.

This was like a technically gifted school child was given a task to write a 'metal' album. A complete load of unimaginative rubbish.

Meh

4/5. Surprisingly, despite the terrible production, this has aged well, music wise. Sure, some (most) of the lyrics can be a little cringe (Teacher's Pet). The direct songs about Satan and revolution are the best of course, and the heaviness throughout the album really shines, especially on the second side. There are several staples here for the metal genre that have inspired so many. I don't want to say this is perfect, because it is not, but this was a fun listen and I did enjoy it overall. The unapologetic attitude talking about things that are not real but knows it will make people mad is pretty funny how over the top they go. Mad respect there. Best Song: Black Metal, Countess Bathory, Heaven's On Fire

Super duper skraldet produktion, hvilket passer lige ind i den genre de er gået i gang med at opfinde her. At Mayhem og Bathory er inspireret af den her plade giver super god mening - De forfinede "kunsten", men Venom var O.G. (Original Goat)

not what i expected! good early thrash. will likely listen to again

For an album that spawned one of the most vicious music ever created under its name, Black Metal is a lot of fun. Maybe it's because we have a lot of hindsight on it, but it's kind of surprising how seriously this album was taken by the generation that would create the second wave of black metal. To me it's just a fun metal album with great riffs and some clumsy execution. But since BM is my favorite metal subgenre, I can only be thankful that Venom (and Bathory) helped creating some of the best music out there.

A genuine rush. You could feel Venom know they're onto something new, fresh and exciting. This gallops gleefully along, giving no gucks and taking no prisoners. Great stuff.

Thrash metal. Screaming and loud - very big. Would be great to lift to. Solid melody. Fast drums. Solid guitar. It must be boring to write all your songs about exactly the same thing. A clear setup for Metallica.

So as a rock fan, and a heavy metal guy (i.e. think Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Dio, Pantera, Tool, Ghost, etc.) – I was interested to see how this one would play out… I’m guessing for 1982, it was probably pretty popular with a very select group of fans… You’ll note with most of the bands that I mentioned, you have fairly complex musical compositions – which are incredibly performed by amazing musicians… You could argue that Judas Priest is the most basic of that group, but I found Venom to be fairly average in terms of the quality of the compositions, as well as the playing… Also – creative lyrics about some of those dark topics can be appealing, but there’s not a ton of imagination here… Here’s a sample from “Raise The Dead” – which overall, was one of the better tracks on the album IMO, but lyrically – bit much to wrote home about… “…Rising from my deadly tomb I've got maddened eyes with fright fingers bleeding fast heart beating the moons my only light Ashes to ashes, dust to dust If God won't have me, then the Devil must…” But hey, if some extreme sub-genre takes it’s name from your album – then that’s gotta be worth something, so a solid 2 creating a little slice of goodness for a few people…

Pretty silly, schoolboy stuff. Some of the music sounds like proto-shoegaze; "Buried Alive" could be a comedian reading a Hammer Horror script over early Ride. Other parts sound like Motorhead taking the piss out of a community theater production of Rosemary's Baby. Essential, eh?

My only previous exposure to Venom was the “Live at City Gardens” 7-inch, put out by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on his Ecstatic Peace! label. You should check it out, it’s on YouTube. So any chance of an unbiased review went out the window the moment I heard that. In fact, I can’t separate them. There’s almost no difference between this record and that hilarious 7” in my mind, only that this is like a super-sized version of that 7”. Sorry Venom fans, blame Thurston.

Terrible music but was quite funny and made me laugh. How many different ways can you say Satan is the boss on proto thrash sounds? One apparently, just keep repeating it!

I suppose that if you were 14 years old and missed the first wave of metal and punk was more your older brother's type of music, you could call this your own. But I have serious reservations about any non-teenagers still listening to, or admitting to listening to, this. I see that, of the 1001 albums it's got the #994 spot all locked up.

Took me 3 attempts to finish this. like wtf - srsly the best. Irritating af. Not sure I needed to listen to this before I died. I'm annoyed

Hail satan

My early metal memories in one perfect banger of an album 666 stars or 5 cause that option ain’t avail

Really good album. Awesome drum lines. Very 80s metal sound.

"Black Metal" is the second album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in 1982 during the new wave of British heavy metal but unlike the music of those particular bands, this is firmly planted in the thrash, speed, death and black metal scenes. There's actually disagreements as to which one but who cares; I heard elements and songs in all of them. They cover all the basic metal themes: Satanism, witchcraft, nightmares, horror mythology and teenage sexual fantasy. The album received critical acclaim and is considered one of the most influential albums released, especially in the Norwegian black metal scene. The first side "Black" opens with a chainsaw on steel plates in the self-titled "Black Metal." And why wouldn't you open like that. It goes right into a thrash metal style and sounds like it was recorded underwate. But, it works. Lead singing Conrad "Cronos "Lant repeating "black metal." Impressive drumming by Anthony "Abaddon" Brey. Sand and a cardboard box were used to create the sound of dirt being shovelled on a coffin in "Buried Alive." A priest delivers a prayer as a gong strikes. Eerie guitar notes lead into a heavy sludgy/grungy bass and drums. "Summon the dead!" A ripping guitar opens "Sacrifice." A thunderous rhythm section. This is melodic speed metal. Yes, I said that. "The moon is black and the witches dance, heaven is denied. Sacrifice!" A guitar riff based on the children show "The Magic Roundabout" opens "Countess Bathory." Dave Grohl said that the open to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is actually based on that riff. Yes, I hear it. The song just kicks into a heavy groove. Pretty standard heavy metal but just rocks. I also hear Randy Rhoads' "Over the Mountain" in the guitar riff. Great song. This album is fantastic. I needed this today. The band does change their style throughout from speed to thrash to more heavy and sludgy. I heard a lot of future metal in their songs especially Metallica's "Kill 'Em All." What they lack in technical ability they make up in attitude and delivery. At times, the production did sound muddled but it didn't bother me too much. This album is an essential must listen to if you're a metal or even hardcore punk fan.

I much prefer their previous album to Black Metal, but this album solidifies Venom’s influence in what would become the extreme metal subgenres.

Great Metal classic. I enjoyed it a lot and listened to it twice.

good heavy metal

Rips.

This what started extreme metal. Thrash and black metal (and by expansion death metal) would not exist without the sloppy but heavy sound of Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon. It is very much a product of it's time, since nowadays it could be considered cheesy and messy. Back in it's day however this was the epitome of evil.

Over the top imagery, speed and subject matter. They really got it right and its no surprise they got copied by so many bands to come after them. I love hearing the little things they did on this album that other bands capitalized on, my favorite being the palm muted chugging rhythm guitar on a couple songs like Countess Bathory. They really missed the mark with Teacher's Pet though, should have let Van Halen blaze that trail alone. That being said, if you don't like or understand metal you probably wont like this. HAIL SANTA!

Honestly this album reminds me so much of when i first moved to san francisco. Listneing to High on Fire, Witchcraft, pentagram, electric wizard. For some reason living in the mission made me hellbent on being a motorcycle riding skateboarding metalhead that lived on 24th st. Great memmys.

This is exactly the kind of trash I love. I saw the other reviews and kept wondering when it would fall off, but this did everything right for me. It’s high energy, ignorant, and fun. Perfect for lifting heavy at the gym or driving fast.

So many albums and bands inspired by this record. Some good riffs on here even if the production is ropey at best. Well deserves its place on the list.

This album has a long history for me. When I was 14, I started listening to black metal, and the first bands I listened to were Ulver, Burzum, Darkthrone, and Venom. I used to listen to this album every night, and I still feel melancholic when I hear those bands mentioned earlier. I rarely listen to black metal now, but when I came across this album again, I was very happy. It makes me want to go back to being a 14-year-old kid.

One thing for sure… this cover of this album pretty much had me expecting exactly what was delivered. The real surprise is how listenable this is. The music is catchy! The lyrics made me laugh quite often. Back in 1982 this would seem like a sure sign my soul was in peril. A terrified 14 year old me would have been clutching my pearls and plagued with nightmares. Today an amused 55 year old me hears a quaint parody of evil. Simpler times… *sigh* Maybe if it were any other day I’d give this a lower score… but Black Metal is a perfect romp on a Halloween afternoon!

LOVE this!!!! Opener is FIRE! / Buried Alive is giving goth/metal anthem! Raise The Dead is fun. Album so far is a 5. Maybe a very strong 4, just because there are other metal albums I would consider a 5, that I find more iconic (for me), that deserve some distinction. So perhaps just to acknowledge the others, I will give this 4, but objectively a perfect album that deserves a 5. Maybe I’ll give it a 5. Let’s wait and see… Fuck it. It’s a 5. So fun.

Vaak over gehoord, nooit geluisterd. Dit is top. Lekker ruig. Mooie brug tussen Black Sabbath en Metallica.

Objectively, this is a terrible album. From Amy other perspective, it's a work of raw genius. Hilarious and deadly serious in equal measure, not much else comes close to capturing the excitement and anger of being a teenage metalhead - not to mention it inspired an entire genre.

It's hard to think of a metal album that is so influential as this is, that is also equally unknown to the general public. But without the seeds planted here, we might not have thrash, death, or black metal. Not to mention the whole thing slaps front to back.

I was 13 when this came out. I was balls deep into zeppelin and never heard of this until I’m an old guy. Thanks 1001 thing. Thanks weed. Wonderful.

Truly a groundbreaking album in the world of metal!

Not a fan of metal usually, but I got to chnage my mind for this one ! fire !

There are better bands than Venom for sure, but this is still solid stuff. Their influence outweighs their enjoyability but without Venom it's hard to imagine Slayer existing. Without Venom who knows how the world of extreme metal might have been influenced? In the end I gotta throw this a 5. Especially because the people that can't handle a little metal have the average on this album waaaay too low.

This is great. Really fun, Satan worshipping thrash metal. The directness in they way they approach their subject matter is hilarious and the songs are narratively complex, the imagery within each evoking a clear story. The little interludes and extra sound effects really give off the impression they were having a great time making it. Teacher's Pet has dethroned Hot for Teacher as the definitive song about inappropriate student-teacher relations. I did find that the mixing on a few of the tracks made the instruments sound a bit hollow, but they get a pass for being one of the first thrash albums. Despite it's age, it holds up incredibly well, and to me this is the gold standard of great metal. Fav Tracks: Buried Alive, Raise The Dead, Teacher's Pet, Leave Me In Hell

FUCK. YES. Teenage Satan metal at its most delightfully neanderthal and teenage. The over the top, hydrogen bomb subtlety of the thing would, of course, have kind of grim repercussions a decade later, when a bunch of kids in Norway approached it without any irony and started setting things on fire... but for all that there's a certain magnificence in its recorded-in-a-week grottiness. I get far more joy from this than a lot of other "better", more reputable records.

cool

On paper I should have hated this but (never thought I'd say this) thought it was amazing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it in an ironic (School of Rock/Spinal Tap) way. But it made me smile, it made me bop, it kept me entertained) and it plain rocks. Teacher's Pet especially made me laugh. In a good way

Black Metal!

A classic!

I love metal. But the further back in time I go, the less I like it. There's a certain rhythm that metal gained that just isn't there in the early years. This is punishing in a great way. It's a little cheesy and the tracks sound the same. But it's influence is clear.

Played hide and seek with teachers mouth Her lips were warm and wet

Jeg troede, jeg ville have det som Daniels mor, men blev positivt overrasket.

Teacher wet

The new wave of British heavy metal was teeming with unstoppable momentum and Venom seemed poised to stand out amongst the crowd. Black Metal sounds every bit as apt in title, sound and feel; it may appear amateurish but there is something rambunctious and glorious about the overall result. It may be sprawling at times but that's how it's meant to be. Favorites: Black Metal, Buried Alive, Raise the Dead, Teacher Pet, Leave Me in Hell, Sacrifice, Countess Bathory, Don't Burn the Witch, Die Hard (12").

Lay down your soul to the god rock n roll

Buried aluve

Surprisingly good. A better recording would have helped but this is solid 3.8

Highlights: To Hell and Back Buried Alive Heaven's on Fire At War With Satan This is some real OG metal shit right here. A little bit Sabbath, a little bit Iron Maiden, a lot edgy. I like this early era of metal where you can see the direction it is leading, but it's not all the way yet. The guitars are heavy, but not completely washed out; the vocals are aggressive, but legible. Calling this extreme now seems almost quaint, but at the time this really was shocking to the mainstream. Even now I can imagine a talking head on the news reading these lyrics out with deadly seriousness to try and scare grandpa about the rebellious youths. But taken in whole, Venom is clearly being performative, Black Metal reads more like melodrama theater than Satanist instruction manual. If you can allow yourself the freedom to not take it too seriously, this album is a lot of fun and I regret not listening until now.

A great speed / thrash metal record - maybe a little weak on the production side (although it’s awesome its self recorded) and maybe it could have done away with the Teacher’s pet song - which throws off the macabre theme of the album.

Classic metal from a classic British band. I got in to metal in the mid 90's so this was always a bit old school for me but listening to it now it has that early thrash vibe. Stand out tracks: - Black metal - Buried alive - Raise the dead - Leave me in hell - Heavan's on fire - Countess Bathory

Awesome heavy metal. Every song had my foot tapping. The lead singer's vocals fit wonderfully with the style. The lyrics are a bit cheesy, but a proper album of the genre.

Very very good hard rock/metal. A little heavy on the hell/devil stuff. No single banger, but a very good album

"Lay down your soul to the god's rock 'n' roooooolll! unghhh.... unghhh...." *gasps* "Whooaooaoaauuuuaa BLACK METULLLL" This actually grew on me as it went on; the unintentional silliness broke into intentional silliness. Is this music I'd play around the house or while driving? Not really. Would I be pretty excited if I walked into a bar and Venom was playing? Hell yeah. addendum: this music reminded me of a passed-around supercut of *just* stage banter from a metal show; the singer ends every song by roaring "allright!" and talking about how hot it is. I was like "this music sounds like that banter." Well one internet search later it turns out that's Cronos from Venom. Here's a full extra star for that.

Had never heard of Venom before this but was absolutely in love within the first few minutes! Fantastic album if you’re into thrash metal. Hearing it in its early stages was awesome!

I thought this might be one that was more important than good, but I enjoyed this.

Metal good

The audio quality undermines the effort here, yet the music is on par or better than what we get out of modern metal.

This may sound quite hilarious by today's standards, but for when it came out this was way ahead of the curve. This spawned thrash metal, death metal and black metal. It's just an amazingly influential album.

That's pretty metal.

I'm always in the mood for a good old metal album and Black Metal helped satiate my thirst for one. The guitar riffs are those heavy, crunchy sounds that i really like. I also think the kinda muffled sounding audio works really well for an album like this and just makes it that much more heavy. I also really like the cool introductions that Buried Alive, Teacher's Pet, and i guess At War With Satan (if that track even counts as being on this album) they really add a lot of character to the songs. This is a great album that any heavy metal fan can enjoy. Best Song: Sacrifice Worst Song: Black Metal

Foundational to much more meaner music that would come, but in 2024 it made a nice listen on a vacation day morning while drinking coffee and lazing around. That's the march of time, I suppose. The album sounded great.

It was really entertaining to happen to get this the day after Metallica's black album. The opening song did not fill me with a lot of hope, but I wound up enjoying it overall.

"first" but not best, still... to hell and back raise the dead leave me in hell countess bathory at war with satan

This one goes to 11. An absolute delight beginning to end. Like Satan's house band. Has that weird, garagey muffled-yet-echo-y sound of all the best underground music. Really great metal album. Thinking Van Halen probably secretly listened to this, especially Teacher's Pet. Which is a weirdly horny tune amidst all of threst of the hellscape. Good job!

It was, indeed, black metal (ish).

VITTU VENOOOOOOM!!! Tuntus tosi oudolta antaa tälle viisi pistettä kun onhan tää nyt siis ihan hirveen kuulosta kolinaa ja muminaa, mutta onhan tässä se fiilis! Kyllä mä ymmärrän sen että tää yks levy on toiminut innoittajana koko bläkyn genrelle. 4/5

Mon genre de métal, son canette, lyrics sataniques un peu cringe. Parfait.

Fuck yeah! The album that spawned so many -metal bands. Fundamental listening for fans of death metal, thrash, NWOBHM, crust-punk, and obviously black metal. It does suffer a bit from muddy production unfortunately.

Listened to this one before. The production and sound engineering is dreadful and spawned the black metal style I loathe (looking at you Transylvanian Hunger by Darkthrone). The songs are good though if you can look past the sound quality and spawned a genre that got some great bands. Black Metal by Venom is alright I get why it's on the 1001 album list.

A great early punk thrash crossover

Well, this is definitely a lot different than the black metal genre, mainly because these guys seem to be having fun, while black metal dudes are so goddamned serious all the time. This has much more of a Judas Priest sound, with a little bit more edge to it. It's cool, obviously a hugely influential early metal album 4/5

Wow wasn't expecting this at all. I love this record; it's one of my favorite metal albums of all time. I think one of my oldest "band shirts" is a shirt for this album. It's ragged as hell. The pedant in me wants to say technically the sound is more "blackened thrash" than straightforward black metal but Venom will always be known as an early black metal band and they deserve to be called whatever they want. They are true pioneers! Cronos (the singer) was always the highlight for me. He is so enthusiastic about heavy metal and his performances are always top notch. The lyrics are also always hysterical and corny in a good way. Despite a lot of people knowing me as a metal head, I've come to terms that I dislike most metal. I don't know if it's because it was a genre that I was so enmeshed with while growing up, but it's hard for me to not be an elitist about. I tend to judge a lot of metal by how catchy it is, and how lasting / memorable it is. If I listen to a track a few times and then a year later I can still recall the song, it's usually a good song. This album and first song I haven't heard in maybe over a decade and while listening to it during a walk outside I found myself singing every single lyric. That's pretty amazing! I understand that not everyone is going to rate this high, but I think it's true in my heart that this is a 4.

This album means a lot more to us kids who grew up in the 80's, this was was some heavy and deep stuff, and that album cover, still legendary. Sure the production is pretty bad, little repetitive and some dumb lyrics but it still has some great music. While there are better metal albums not many had the influence that this had, Slayers first 2 albums especially.

Not as heavy metal as I expected

Ganske bra ligger på vipper mellom 3 og 4

I used to be in a band with a guy that was quite into black metal as a genre (hi Mike). It never really appealed to me, but I did learn about some things via osmosis, such as the wild story of Varg Vikernes. I think he was a YouTuber at one point, which is absolutely crazy to me. Anyway, I believe that today’s album was the genesis (lol) of black metal. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Teacher’s Pet, Buried Alive I was expecting something a lot more noisy and growly than this. I’ve heard bands like Burzum, 1349 and others who I think are considered black metal, but this one by Venom is much more listenable. I’d say it lies, at least to my ears, somewhere between speed metal and hardcore punk. Definitely not what I expected. I surprised myself by how I genuinely really enjoyed this. I was expecting a grim listen today, but I’ll take this as a win.

Believe it or not this is not the first black metal album (because it's technicially not black metal), but to deny it's influence on black metal would be foolish. Right out of the gate, Venom introduces unrelenting guitar riffs, blasting drums, and a raw production style that provides the blueprints for true black metal. kvlt. The truth is that they're like a more evil Iron Maiden. And I like Iron Maiden, so I also like Venom.

Banger metal album! It’s clear from where Metallica got influence for their debut album.