hypersongs

Black Metal

The second album, which named a genre.
Venom, 1982

Neat issued it as NEAT 1005, and Combat in the US as MX 8030 in 1985. Keith Nichol produced and engineered at Impulse Studios, which Wikipedia places in Wallsend and VenomCollector in Newcastle. Cronos told The Quietus in 2010 we wanted to create something that sounded fucked; the opening chainsaw was made by sawing steel plates until the teeth broke, and for "Buried Alive" the band put a microphone in a coffin and shoveled dirt on it. Cronos did the artwork in Tipp-Ex, with a back-cover line, Home Taping Is Killing Music, So Are Venom. AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia gave it 4.5 of 5; Sounds's Garry Bushell gave it 5 out of 5 on November 20, 1982, and Decibel ranked it fifth among the top 100 black metal albums in 2013. The 2002 CD added a Radio One session of "Black Metal" (3:08).

Track listing

  1. Black Metal3:40
  2. To Hell and Back3:00
  3. Buried Alive4:16
  4. Raise the Dead2:45
  5. Teacher's Pet4:41
  6. Leave Me in Hell3:33
  7. Sacrifice4:27
  8. Heaven's on Fire3:40
  9. Countess Bathory3:44
  10. Don't Burn the Witch3:20
  11. At War with Satan (Preview)2:14

More from Venom

Welcome To Hell (1981), At War With Satan (1984), Hammersmith Odeon 1984 (1984), Doomed To Hell (1984), Canadian Assault (1985), Possessed (1985), French Assault (1985), Burried Alive (1986), Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1986), Calm Before The Storm (1987), German Assault (1987), Prime Evil (1989), Temples Of Ice (1991), The Waste Lands (1992), Venom '96 (1996), Cast In Stone (1997), Resurrection (2000), London Mean Fiddler 2006 (2006), Metal Black (2006), Worship Of Evil (2007), Hell (2008), Polish Assault (2010), Fallen Angels (2011), Evil Faces (2014), Leave Me In Hell - Assault 2 (2014), Black Metal Holocaust (2014), Leave Me In Hell - Assault 1 (2014), From The Very Depths (2015), Don't Bury The Witch (2017), Storm The Gates (2018), Dying Hard In London (2025), US Possession Tour 86 (2025), Into Oblivion (2026), Seven Dates Of Hell (2026)

Sources

  1. Black Metal (Venom album), Wikipedia
  2. Forging Black Metal: Cronos of Venom, The Quietus (2010)