For a number of years, Venom were “awarded” the title of the worst band of the year in the polls of magazines and radio stations during the 80s (the fact that Iron Maiden were always awarded the band of the year award, even without even rehearsing for the year talks by itself). Scripta Manent it is and they would have to wait for the end of the 80s and mainly the 90s when Extreme Metal found its way and came to save the day for Metal Music whether one likes it or not (during the times that half of the Metal Heroes broke up and the other half followed the flow) to find themselves proven not responsible for the attitude or the philosophy of all the Thrash/Death/Black genre bands. I suppose that “Welcome To Hell” was a ne Genesis for them…

Why this LP and not their trademark “Black Metal” you might ask. Because we are not discussing the best album of the British “criminals” but for a highly influential work in the history of this kind of music. “Welcome To Hell” in 1981, defined what one year later would be certified by the “Black Metal” album. A bastard hybrid of British Punk and primordial British Metal in thefootsteps of Motorhead and Judas Priest, the Venom version set its mark from the beginning. Extreme sound, extreme music, extreme lyrics, extreme outfits, extreme statements…Cronos, Abandon and Mantas never saw the interiors of a music school when they wrote the tracks that compiled the album setlist, however, the darkness and imminence (among others) exhaled from “Welcome To Hell” had no precedent in the short-lived British Metal idiom.

When, during the firs sparks of NWOBHM movement, bands like Quartz and Witchfynde pretended to be dark, Venom came over making them sound like kindergarten ensembles. While Motorhead’s, Vardis’s and Raven’s speed brought a rush of adrenaline to the teenager fans, Venom’s ultra-speed sent all of the above for refurbishment. And this without mentioning how sick their sound sounded in this monumental art work…yes, art. Why? But because art means to create and project new shapes, not necessarily in perfection, dexterity and maturity. If we get to discuss shapes, songs like these, hover like thunder over the politically correct image of the rest of the bands of the era, not because that was it but because it looked like it in comparison.

Nevertheless, scraping off the dirty layers of the Venom sound, what’s left was noisy Rockn Roll, I dare say. What does this mean? Probably that the theatricality might be a close companion to the Heavy Metal idiom, but the guitars/bass/drums rock’nroll tendency to mischief will always stand as a spine it will stand proudly and eternally, no matter how illmated or provocative this may sound. And when they decided to go to hell? Clearly my dear, they made it happen. Listen to this at night and tell me about it…

Welcome To Hell is a punch in the throat if you ask me. Goat heads, pentacles, darkness, Sodom and Gomorra and son on. And on top a concrete sound in a sewer defining a new road is under work to be the way for the new extreme sound of the future. It was Venom that was the step for Quorthon(no matter what he said while he was still alive) as the pioneer of Black Metal, the same as bands like Metallica and Slayer or Sodom that helped define Thrash Metal. Not forgetting Death and Possessed that both deserve the role of Death Metal’s godfather. Not excluding Celtic Frost and Voivod as ambassadors of the still-to- appear bizarre/avant-garde Metal idiom. Venom lurked everywhere and with them the album that introduced that wicked sperm.

If anyone asks me what Venom are “speaking” to me, the answer should be easy. It’s what they were always “whispering” to me: Naïve, pure childish spirit that stills entangles me and never goes pale. Their music sweeps me away and brings forward new ideas, breaking barriers with their authenticity. Frankly, without Venom, the contemporary “extreme” paradigm would be…I don’t know…Dragonforce?

Side A:

"Sons of Satan"

"Welcome to Hell"

"Mayhem With Mercy"

"Poison"

"Live Like an Angel"

Side B:

"Witching Hour"

"One Thousand Days in Sodom"

"Angel Dust"

"In League With Satan"

"Red Light Fever"

Venom:
Cronos – Bass, Vocals

Mantas - Guitars

Abaddon - Drums