Simone Appolloni's Album Reviews
If there’s one band that’s extremely undervalued, ignored or plain insulted when it comes to trace back the history of Heavy Metal (extreme or not), that’s Venom. Highlighted by Conrad Lant’s booming, distorted bass playing and the band’s blitzkrieg, catacomb-like Thrash Metal approach derived from Deep Purple and Motörhead, their 1981 debut, Welcome to Hell, was not a smashing success, and in contemporary Hard Rock/Heavy Metal circles, the band was still ridiculed for their garage-like aesthetic, but granted their first live exhibitions around UK. For its follower, the band was given more time for recording (a week), and the album was released in 1982 with a successful tour in Europe that was cancelled halfway there due to issues with recording equipment withheld by the U.S. Custom after a few incendiary (literally, as stage pyrotechnics brought damage to the venue) shows in USA at the Island Paramount Theater, where then unknown Metallica opened the set.
Opening with an abrasive buzzing sound (allegedly an electric chainsaw used on steel plates), the title track unleashes an even faster Thrash Metal palm-muted stampede with modal melodies in the chorus and Lant’s clearer rock-out half-spoken rants. The two-chord chug of “To Hell and Back”, “Leave Me in Hell” and “Heaven’s on Fire” sound more effective and thrashing than anything recorded in USA for the following 8 years in metal, while “Buried Alive” uses a ballad-like setting with melancholic riffs and intro fueled with sadness for the dead (“We are brought forth unto this world with nothing / And with nothing we depart / So I comment this body to the ground / With loving remembrance”) to unleash an anti-climatic, opposite-tended revenge over a premature burial (“My bones are decayed, my flesh it doth rot / I'm lying in silk, take the lid off this box / My lungs gasp for air, my eyes scream for sight / I promise the rise of my body this night”) that continues with the banging post-Saxon up-tempo stomp of “Raise the Dead”).
Even more cruel riffs and raging vocals are used on the two outtakes “Acid Queen” and “Bloodlust”, while minimal, energetic double-bass arrangements propel the sex-with-teacher rant of “Teacher’s Pet” (“Pulled me down towards her mound / Teacher tasted sweet / Sixty-nine - I don't mean lines / This was teachers treat / Played hide and seek with teachers mouth / Her lips were warm and wet / Now today I've had my way / And teacher won't forget”: the only useless track is the final snippet that anticipates their next album. All killer, no filler: Black Metal proves that early Venom were, are and will always be the only historic Thrash Metal band worth listening ever.
Highlights: “Black Metal”, “Buried Alive”, “Teacher’s Pet”.
Opening with an abrasive buzzing sound (allegedly an electric chainsaw used on steel plates), the title track unleashes an even faster Thrash Metal palm-muted stampede with modal melodies in the chorus and Lant’s clearer rock-out half-spoken rants. The two-chord chug of “To Hell and Back”, “Leave Me in Hell” and “Heaven’s on Fire” sound more effective and thrashing than anything recorded in USA for the following 8 years in metal, while “Buried Alive” uses a ballad-like setting with melancholic riffs and intro fueled with sadness for the dead (“We are brought forth unto this world with nothing / And with nothing we depart / So I comment this body to the ground / With loving remembrance”) to unleash an anti-climatic, opposite-tended revenge over a premature burial (“My bones are decayed, my flesh it doth rot / I'm lying in silk, take the lid off this box / My lungs gasp for air, my eyes scream for sight / I promise the rise of my body this night”) that continues with the banging post-Saxon up-tempo stomp of “Raise the Dead”).
Even more cruel riffs and raging vocals are used on the two outtakes “Acid Queen” and “Bloodlust”, while minimal, energetic double-bass arrangements propel the sex-with-teacher rant of “Teacher’s Pet” (“Pulled me down towards her mound / Teacher tasted sweet / Sixty-nine - I don't mean lines / This was teachers treat / Played hide and seek with teachers mouth / Her lips were warm and wet / Now today I've had my way / And teacher won't forget”: the only useless track is the final snippet that anticipates their next album. All killer, no filler: Black Metal proves that early Venom were, are and will always be the only historic Thrash Metal band worth listening ever.
Highlights: “Black Metal”, “Buried Alive”, “Teacher’s Pet”.
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