Witching Hour (The Best Of Venom) - Venom

Advantages: raucous, rebellious, irreverant and OFFENSIVE
Disadvantages: raucous, rebellious, irreverant and OFFENSIVE

...can't help picturing Johnny Rotten, when listening to this album, full of anger and venom and frustration, and that certainly comes over throughout the NMTB. In my opinion, the number of people who live their lives vicariously, which is partly what "Holidays" is addressing, has vastly increased (witness the rise of the soap opera in the intervening 25+ years), so this song applies now as much as it did at the end of '76/beginning of '77. The second song - Bodies - concerns abortion, in graphic detail. O.K., we're not supposed to discuss it in polite conversation, but that's the whole point. ****At this point i had included some lyrics to Bodies, but i've re-read the review rules, and realise now that it is impossible to give an accurate flavour of the lyrics without contravening Ciao's rules. Sorry, but please direct... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Everything.
Disadvantages: It makes every other album sound crap.

..., that it's immediate follow up is probably the weakest song on the album, Cheat, is just a long winded way of saying something Hate and War summed up in a line "I cheat if I can't win".This song was later covered by Rancid, who are often said to be the present day equivalent of the Clash.Which tells you something about the rest of the 'punk scene'. The song isn't even all that exciting musically, and is really as close as the record gets to 'filler'. Protex Blue is a fast paced Jones sung number and is (officially?)the best song written about condoms ever. What follows next is one of the true masterpieces of not only the band's career, but in music history.A cover of a Junior Murvin song, Police And Thieves would become one of the band's most iconic numbers, and was even loved by the original track's co-writer Lee 'Scratch' Perry... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: old-school, classic, true, bonus material
Disadvantages: somewhat bad sound

...Venom released this, their third masterpiece, back in 1983, "Welcome to Hell" and "Black Metal" preceding it. Venom is one of the most influential bands in extreme metal, they have contributed to thrash, black and death metal and to other metal's sub-genres as well. Venom play very hard somewhat bluesy thrash metal with harsh vocals. They're also known for using satanic imagery though they themselves are not satanist and the lyrical themes are rather drawn from christian beliefs about satanism. This album is very consistent, practically no weak links, this is also the reason why I don't have a favorite on this album, the whole album is best listened song-by-song, no hits really, but not a single screw-up neither. The lyrical themes are as always with Venom: Satan, death, war and other related themes. This was one of the 3 Venom... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful