Customer Reviews

Black Metal

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I will always remember the fateful day when a school friend handed me Venom's very own "Black Metal" opus and suggested I give it a spin. With trepidation I placed the vinyl on my stereo and although the sound was harsh and brutal you knew you were listening to something exciting and new. It was strangely perverse yet deliciously addictive...plus your parents hated it which is a huge bonus for any teenager. You will never catch your Mommy singing anything on offer here whilst dusting the Wedgewood figurines. And here it is again repackaged, remastered and beefed up with extra trax looking as resplendant as the day it was spewed from the sooty depths of Hell. Embossed and glossy the horned one invites you to slip back the cover and enter Hades if you dare? After the grating intro of steel on steel (which had you checking your stylus for defects) Cronos invites you to join the band in the worship of "Black Metal". A rip roarer of a song with chainsaw guitars, out of control drums and wolverine vocals its obvious this band means serious harm to your health and general well being. "To Hell and Back" is next which demonstrates the quantum leap the band's songwriting has taken since their delightfully basic debut album. You can imagine yourself a stride some gargoyle demon in flight travelling through the depths of the infernos. "Buried Alive" with its all too realistic soil on coffin lid sound effects and the coffins all too alive inhabitant waking to find his very dark confines are all too real. A true triumph of a song which is still disturbing all these years later. "Raise the Dead" belts out next with great bursts of Mantas guitar work firing from the speakers like sparks from an anvil. Venom always had a sense of humour and it shows on "Teachers Pet" which is the most politically incorrect ditty you will ever hear. Suprising is the fact that it does not contain a Satanic reference at all, and equally suprising that it contains an eyebrow raising blues style passage of guitar work mid way. Side two is as strong containing great concept songs such as "Countess Bathory" and "Don't Burn The Witch" and great slabs of frenzy as "Leave Me In Hell" and "Heaven's On Fire". You may conjur the bearded one himself by playing "Sacrifice" so beware! The outro of "At War With Satan" wets the appetite for more mayhem next time around. The extra trax on offer include an assortment of 12" versions of singles released around the same time the highlight being the classic "Die Hard" with genuine hard man backing vocals. Also we are given a collection of radio sessions that loose some of the greatness of the originals in the translation but are still great to have for the admission cost. I've enjoyed re-aquainting myself with all three of these awesome re-issues so much that I am thinking of buying them again!

The first Venom album I ever heard was "At War With Satan". I hated it. It was raw, crude and extremely blasphemous. Now I love it. Venom's music really has to grow on you. You'll probably either love it or think it's total garbage. "Black Metal", their second album, recorded in '82, is one of the best albums of its kind. It's the one that set the tone for all other black metal bands. Many have copied Venom's style, and many have failed. But this is the original. This is a new "remastered" version, but to be honest, the sound quality isn't really that much of an improvement, but that's okay. It still kicks ... Starting with the simplistic, but furious, title track, to the eerie & haunting "Buried Alive", to the raunchy, yet bluesy "Teacher's Pet", to the powerful "Leave Me In Hell", a song about a demonic being who wants to stay unborn and remain in Hell, & which opened side two of the original LP, to the classic "Countess Bathory", to the cool & scary epic, "Don't Burn The Witch" and ending with the "At War With Satan (intro)",which previewed the next album. This CD will either make you sick to your stomach or have you banging your ... head all day & night! Plus it's got NINE bonus tracks, like "Die Hard", 2 versions of "Bursting Out", the previously unreleased "Hounds Of Hell", Radio 1 Sessions and other Satanic goodies. But beware! This ain't for the squeamish.

I just bought this cd and i havent stopped listening to it! It is an amazing album...just raw fast riffs and fast drumming! It is a classic metal album, although Venom is not really that well-known by some metalheads. Amazing songs on this album include the title track "Black Metal", my personal favorite "Countess Bathory", "Raise the Dead," "Acid Queen," and "Heaven's On Fire." This is just a raw album full of catchy riffs and Cronos (vocals, bassist) yelling and moaning and acting possessed, ot is just soooo awesome.

"Black Metal", an album that is just as its' name implies, is in my opinion Venom's finest hour. Just as the rest of Venom's catalog, "Black Metal" goes without hooks or in sync melody, and opts instead for over the top heaviness, pounding drums, ripping guitars, and toungue in cheek lyrics about the man downstairs. Songs like "Black Metal", "To Hell and Back", "Buried Alive", and "Sacrifice" are all great thrashing songs, while the unexpectedly laugh out loud hilarious "Teacher's Pet" shows that the band is more than what they are perceived to be and really do have a sense of humor. I say that this album is important for a very good reason; every thrash band that boomed in the 80's (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus) cited Venom as one of their top influences, and Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo even cited "Black Metal" as one of the most influential albums of his life. All that there alone is reason enough to give Venom a listen. This recent re-issue has a much sharper sound than any of the previously available imports, which makes it all the sweeter for new listeners to check out.

(My Review scale: 1- Bad, 2- Average, 3- Good, 4- Very Good, 5- Excellent/Classic)

Venom's second album stands as a huge jump from their debut, Welcome To Hell. On Black Metal, Venom managed to maintain the sonic pounding of the debut, while improving their musicianship.

The sound is still pretty muddy, but Cronos delivers some pretty good vocals. Compared with most of the tuneless shouters who are prevalent in this type of metal, Cronos is freaking Pavarotti!

Mantas really is advanced here as his guitar shreds anything that came before it! Songs like "Black Metal", "Buried Alive", "Blood Lust" and "Sacrifice" all are relentless in their sonic pounding.

Venom's lyrics I can take or leave. I'm not really into the satanic thing. But for those into that sort of stuff, Black Metal is far more satanic than the debut. And, in terms of lyrics, they are pretty inventive. They don't seem hokey even after all these years, which is more than I can say for a lot of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond's lyrics. (I like Fate/King, by the way)

Venom invented the black metal genre, and no one ever did it better. I can't decide if I like this effort or At War With Satan more, but they are both 5 stars, simply for their adventurous nature, and the way they developed a whole new form of metal. There are really no bad songs on Black Metal...and like most Venom albums, you kind of feel proud to be able to sit and listen to them from beggining to end, because that's how relentless they are. Too bad this Nu Metal sludge we are presented with in 2005 can't be this cool!

I had this album when I was 13 or 14, and at the time (1983-4), it was a very rebellious and extreme album. It still is (for the most part), but it's just not as good as I remembered. I still love the "Lay down your soul to the God's Rock and Roll!!" in Black Metal, and "S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E" is still cool, as are Countess Bathory, Teachers Pet, etc.
Although it states that it is "remastered," I remember the guitar being more prevalent on the original. On this copy, you can barely hear it. It seems as if the drums (particularly the bass drum) are entirely too loud. Whomever remixed this did a poor job. But there again, it may have always sounded this way, as 1983 didn't have the crisp, crunchy guitar sound yet (Metallica had just put out Kill Em All that year) that we all sort of take for granted today.
Anyways, it's still cool to have this album to pull out when I take a trip down memory lane, it's just not as pleasant as I remembered. I recommend buying a used copy.

The sequel to the masterpiece debut album Welcome To Hell, this album actually gets more attention because its name lead strain to the most extreme underground metal genres that would pop up in the 90's and 00's. The title track alone is a classic anthem. Despite it being quite an awesome album, track for track it doesnt match up to the original, but comes damn close. To Hell And Back and Leave Me In Hell are classic Venom. The true highlights being their atmospheric and slow eerie 'Buried Alive' which moves into Raise The Dead. This is essential Venom as is another of their major highlights, Countess Bathory. The song of course influenced by the oft told tale of Elizabeth Bathory who among other atrocities believed bathing in virgins' blood would preserve her youth. The song would start a huge line of tracks throughout the years by various metal bands retelling stories of blood, vampires and other horror oriented occult lyrics. The final real song Don't Burn The Witch is another Venom standard which leads into the a 'preview' of At War With Satan'. Something that would pop up in the future. Another true classic under their belt, the remastered/expanded edition comes built in once more with a collection of bonus cuts including demos, singles and radio live performances. The single release (which Venom did for all their albums) features Die Hard, Acid Queen, and Bursting Out. The first of which is top flight Cronos, Mantas, and Abaddon. The Radio 1 Session gig featuring 'Nightmare' is a great take of a track that wouldn't even pop up on an 'offical' release until 1986. Like the debut, this record is essential for metalheads.

"black metal" is what made venom famous (well in the underground at least), its got that indie feel to it when listened to and sounds very rough production wise, but other that that,its awesome. there like a cross between motorhead, sabbath and spinal tap, they have satanic goofy lyrics 'plunge the dagger in her breast, i insist" or " ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if god won't help me, then the devil must" which you have to laugh at at times. i can't say any thing on the bonus tracks for this album because i have it on cassette, but for the album it self,its one of the goofyiest albums made in heavy metal,i love it. you really have to give this band credit, they influenced people like slayer and metallica, and were one of the original black metal bands, but you never hear anything about this band, most people into metal have never heard of them, wonder why?

Though some have voiced their dislike of this re-released import, Venom's "Black Metal" is undoubtedly a complete, intriguing compilation of tight metal. I don't know what the original version offered, hence, I don't have the frame of reference or discerning capabilities some of these veteran metalheads possess. Nevertheless, tunes like "Black Metal," "Raise the Dead," "Teacher's Pet," and some of the outtakes like "Bursting Out," "Acid Queen," "Too Loud for the Crowd," and "Hounds of Hell" simply rage! This is classic stuff, and is likely the Venom catalog's finest offering.

"Plunge the dagger in her breast--I insist," snarls Cronos in the second verse of "Sacrifice." It's a moment when the B-horror-movie imagery and pulp satanica almost get the better of him--he's in the borderland between earnestness and parody. But somehow Cronos sounds just serious enough to make us ask, "Is this on the level?" and that is what makes this album so much fun. That and the music, which has enough evil riffs and speed to keep fans of Motorhead, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden happy.

No virgins were harmed in the making of BLACK METAL. That the album's two best songs--"Sacrifice" and "Raise the Dead"--are paeans to pseudo-medieval necromancy tells us how seriously we should take the lyrics. Unlike the psychopaths, white supremacists, and mildly retarded Norwegian pyromaniacs who later gravitated to Black Metal, Venom understands that Satan is just pretend. But they never step out of character. They don't wink at the audience, and they don't let on that they are anything other than blood-chugging demi-demons who party in the eleventh circle of Hell. Satan may not have actually recorded the first note--as the band claims--but BLACK METAL is as devilish as it gets.