Customer Reviews

Welcome to Hell

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When you are a boy in high school- bored, frustrated, in need of attention- sometimes the more offensive and awful a band is the better. Behold Venom! These guys are about offensive as it gets. 75% of their lyrics (at least) are Satanic and they make Motorhead sound like the Beach Boys. But they are great at what they do. They actually have some catchy riffs. They have taken a lot of heat for their questionable musicianship and low budget production but you could say the same about musicianship for a lot of bands including The Sex Pistols and The Clash. I think if you had Bob Rock behind the glass I think these guys would sound tight. But this in it's rawness is ferocious metal and ended up influencing everyone. To hear what I am talking about listen to In League With Satan and In Nomine Satanas... but then go to confession.

For a metal fan it took me an amazingly long time to get around to listening to the trailblazing work of Venom. I have to say that the experience of this album and the two that followed it, while not quite packing the punch it did when they were first released in the early '80s, is thoroughly enjoyable and surprising. And, from a music history point of view, quite fascinating. I recommend this album and the two follow-ups, Black Metal and At War With Satan to anyone putting together a thorough collection of metal and hard rock.

I bought Welcome to Hell together with the other two albums and I have to say that, of the three, this the one that I enjoyed most on the first listen. In true Venom style, the riffs are wicked, the vocals are pure satanic machismo and the lyrics are irreverent and darkly humourous. The sound quality of this album is notoriously bad and I must say that I didn't expect it to be as bad as it is. The album sounds like it was recorded in a dungeon and then someone forgot to mix it before releasing it. On many of the tracks the mixing of the guitar and bass is terrible, resulting in a monstrous mishmash of distorted sound. Famed metal critic Geoff Barton is often quoted as saying, in one of the first ever reviews of this album back in the 80s, that it had the hi-fi quality of a 50-year-old pizza. That may be a bit harsh, but just be warned, that if you're expecting the polished production of Martin Birch, Rick Rubin or Bob Rock, you ain't gonna find it here.

However, that does not detract from the experience of listening to the album. In a sense it adds to its status as a metal classic. Before the band's ambitions overstretched their abilities after the At War With Satan album, they perfectly captured the essence of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal - the perfect comination of metal bombast and punk irreverence. Some people might say that this was best captured on Black Metal, but I'm inclined to think that Welcome to Hell was really their definitive statement. The album also includes what is probably the catchiest piece of satanic-themed metal ever released. If you don't walk around for a week after hearing this belting out, "'CAUSE I'M EVIL. IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN" either at the top of your lungs or under your breath, then you're probably not a rock fan. So if you're averse to having an infectious piece of devil rock stuck in your head, give this a miss.

This reissue comes in a slipcase and has a booklet with great photos and facts. There are also a lot of bonus tracks. Go ahead, it's worth every penny.

A good album to have to understand where Death/Black metal(or thrash) began. A fairly solid album at the time it can wear on todays listener who expects everthing to be perfect because between the semi decent songs, lyrics, and instument playing many may feel this is what Satan will play for them when they arrive in HELL!! However, the extreme RAWNESS of this album will work for the rest of us who miss the days of non perfect/WHERE THE HELL IS THE SINGLES THAT WILL SELL MILLIONS FOR US RECORD/PIG COMPANIES. Thank fully VENOM came around when a band was expected to be different not some perfect kissass like many of todays band.

The original Black Metal band! Loud, obnoxious, offensive, and GREAT! Crank it up and offend almost anyone!

More Classic stuff available, Thanks to Amazon, You guys bring it all back right to my door step. What can I say its VENOM , gotta have it, play it loud......

The songs are great! Dark, satanic,and makes you think of witches having an orgy at a bonfire. But the production is what will irritate a first time listener. It sounds like someone recorded them behind a wall in a garage. The drums sound like cardboard boxes, you can't make out the guitar notes, and some songs you need to read along the lyrics because you can't make out what he's saying. This album has been remastered poorly. There is also a re-recorded version of welcome to hell, bloodlust, and in nomine satanas on the Cast In Stone album expanded version. You'll get your fix of high quality instumentals but Conrad Lants voice no longer sound like an evil irish gnome, but a typical heavy metal singer. It's really give and take between the two albums. If you can get past the production, you may appreciate the group that inspired slayer, bathory, metallica, and so on.

This album is a true metal classic which help inspire both thrash metal and black metal to the glorious standards we old dear today. This band was never given any respect or admiration by their piers but legions of fans embraced this great music and still to this day rock out to Venom. Venom earned their respect the hard way, and that's the reason they are still around today to adoring legions of fans. This album was the beginning of something great, anyone who listens to this style of music knows why. The production is low but the sound is great and totally Black Metal sounding. Great tracks, riffs and vox, check this classic out now and experience Venom!

Great recording of the origins of Death,Black,Speed,Thrash,etc. metal. Only disappointing item is..."Acid Queen" is the 12"vinyl recording included w/the bonus tracks. The cassette i bought as a child included "Acid Queen" w/the rest of the main tracks.

This is the sort of music that made parents hate heavy metal, even though bands like Black Sabbath got more press because of it. Of course, that's because a lot of people had never heard of Venom. I was listening to Slayer and Morbid Angel long before I ever owned a Black Sabbath album, so by the time I attempted to listen to Sabbath's quasi-dark image coupled with Ozzy's whining for God to help him it just appalled me; it seemed like the whole band and their image was a sham. I couldn't understand why anyone liked them. I still can't stand Ozzy's voice, and if it weren't for sort of fun songs like "Sweet Leaf," I wouldn't have taken the time to try to listen to Sabbath at all. On the other hand, despite cheesy, tongue in cheek lyrics, Venom felt like the real deal. Having been aware of their influence on thrash without actually having heard them, as a teenager I hunted down copies of Welcome to Hell and Black Metal.

These appalled me for a different reason but ended up growing on me. The really appalling thing was the production quality. You could barely make out what the instruments were doing. It took repeated listenings before it even began to sound like something resembling music. Even then, it was apparent that this wasn't the most tight or technically-proficient band. It was clear that they weren't popular enough to do an album with great sound quality. Their appearance was also totally silly and gimmicky-looking. These are all legitimate reasons to dislike them, but on the other hand, they had a certain charm. They were certainly more appealing to me as a teenager than Black Sabbath. They had more of a garage band sound, and with the pentagram on the cover and lyrics about Satan, this was the sort of album you had to hide or your parents might throw it away and start inviting priests over to dinner. I hid my copy behind a rack of magazines in my bedroom. And that's all part of what made it fun; unlike Black Sabbath, this actually seemed subversive. Black Sabbath had occult imagery; Venom was the sort of band you'd expect to see playing at a drunken party in the pits of hell. It was pure blasphemous fun; and made no apologies for its silliness and blasphemy. And unlike Diamond Head, who also had songs with "Evil" in the title, they actually sounded evil.

Despite admittedly shoddy musicianship and production, the attitude of the songs on this is what makes it really stand out. So what if Cronos can't sing and none of them can play their instruments well; they got the job done. For the time, this was crushingly heavy-sounding stuff. Sure, it doesn't seem as crushingly heavy today, but the crushingly heavy bands of today wouldn't have been properly inspired if it weren't for Venom. And I suppose that's the argument for why this is a great and historically important album.

My copy has been sitting in my parents' attic for umpteen years, and after rediscovering it, it still retains all the charm it had when I first listened to it. This is fun stuff. "In League with Satan" is one of the best songs ever, very catchy, but in general so are all the songs on here. "1000 days in Sodom" is another favorite of mine. Great chorus, and the bass is very groovy. It's like pure evil with a side of cheese. The horrible demo-like quality just adds to the atmosphere of it all. A piece of music history. This is what it's all about.

I dont rate based on the fact that Venom is the beginning of Black metal or thrash... i don't care about this fact . I care only about what i hear in anytime (2011) i hear it. The production is terrible (since its very old) and tracks are just ok. There are not special tracks to make the difference. Its a nice album that some kind of metal fans would like. Its heavy metal 80s. With this production especially the bass is terrible.