Black Metal [Remastered] - Venom

Venom's Black Metal album was released on the Neat label in November, 1982 - about 20 months after their debut album. This album retains a lot of the catchiness from the first but the production is considerably clearer and better, the musicianship is tighter but still a little sloppy, a lot of tracks start off with cracking riffs and the clear but croaky vocals belt out anthem like tracks with choruses necessary to sing a long to.

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...would become a mainstay of black metal (a genre which name derived from this album), just about every track has satanic lyrics, much more vivid and detailed than bands had done in the past and my favourite track of the album is "Buried Alive" which takes a while to get going due to the early instrumental work but proves to be a corker of a track.

Countess Bathory also starts off with a wonderful retro sound, a top tune to ... more

Venom's Black Metal album was released on the Neat label in November, 1982 - about 20 months after their debut album. This album retains a lot of the catchiness from the first but the production is considerably clearer and better, the musicianship is tighter but still a little sloppy, a lot of tracks start off with cracking riffs and the clear but croaky vocals belt out anthem like tracks with choruses necessary to sing a long to.

It's not a carbon copy of their first album though, the band delve into deeper realms with more experimental darker melodic sounds that would become a mainstay of black metal (a genre which name derived from this album), just about every track has satanic lyrics, much more vivid and detailed than bands had done in the past and my favourite track of the album is "Buried Alive" which takes a while to get going due to the early instrumental work but proves to be a corker of a track.

Countess Bathory also starts off with a wonderful retro sound, a top tune to bounce around to, if ever there was one. The vocals of Cronos are sublime (especially when taking in to account he's still only 19 here), at times it sounds like Lemmy chewing his way through a bus and at other times a more punkier youthful Johnny Rotten sneery scream. Perhaps particularly entertaining on this album are the geordie chants of "get your tits out" during "Teacher's Pet", if only they'd said that to Mike Ashley!

Again - the 2002 release has an additional 9 tracks which make it top value!

1. "Black Metal" - 3:40
2. "To Hell and Back" - 3:00
3. "Buried Alive" - 4:16
4. "Raise the Dead" - 2:45
5. "Teachers' Pet" - 4:41
6. "Leave Me in Hell" - 3:33
7. "Sacrifice" - 4:27
8. "Heaven's on Fire" - 3:40
9. "Countess Bathory" - 3:44
10. "Don't Burn the Witch" - 3:20
11. "At War with Satan" (Introduction) - 2:14

All tracks composed by Bray/Dunn/Lant

Bonus tracks in 2002 re-release by Castle Music/Sanctuary Records Group

12. "Bursting Out (60 Min+ version)" - 2:58
13. "Black Metal (Radio 1 session)" - 3:08
14. "Nightmare (Radio 1 session)" - 3:27
15. "Too Loud for the Crowd (Radio 1 session)" - 2:09
16. "Bloodlust (Radio 1 session)" - 2:44
17. "Die Hard (12" version)" - 3:06
18. "Acid Queen (12" version)" - 2:31
19. "Bursting Out (12" version)" - 2:59
20. "Hounds of Hell (Outtake)" - 3:20 

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