BLACK METAL by VENOM. Probably the most influential album in the history of Heavy Metal. The 1981 album, WELCOME TO HELL, obviously gave birth to all sorts of extreme music, but BLACK METAL is the album that has had an even bigger impact. Just think what the name alone has created – a multi-billion dollar industry was born, and continues to thrive and shows no sign of slowing down. But a name of an album would mean nothing if it were not backed up with some serious musical punch…

And BLACK METAL most fuckin’ definitely delivered that!! From the moment you hear the sound of the chainsaw cutting into the bolts of a door in the studio, you are carried through the ultimate level of Metal, a level that so many have tried to imitate, but no one ever has even come close to matching. There is a terrific variation of music – from the neck-breaking speed and energy of songs like Black Metal or Heavens On Fire, to the atmospheric feel of Buried Alive, the blues of Teachers Pet…. Throw it all together and you get real BLACK METAL. There has certainly been some excellent bands that have been described as, or present themselves under the Black Metal name. But make no mistake, there was and is and forever will be only one true BLACK METAL band, and that is V – E – N – O fuckin’ M!!!!!

It is not just the music on BLACK METAL that has made such an impact on the extreme Metal scene. The satanic artwork (one of  the greatest album covers ever created, alongside WELCOME TO HELL) and the images of Abaddon, Mantas and Cronos on the back cover have been mimicked on many thousands of albums since. And even all these years later, there are still many bands / releases that use the artwork and the image of classic VENOM as their template.

Personally, I would maintain that BLACK METAL is the second greatest album ever made, just behind WELCOME TO HELL. What Abaddon, Mantas and Cronos invented with these albums can never be replicated, the boundaries of Metal were outlined and the guidelines set in stone – the benchmark for Metal pure!

Some uneducated children choose to ignore the fact that VENOM released an album called BLACK METAL in 1982, and argue that BM is about playing at a million miles an hour, screaming like a wounded animal and throwing on some corpse paint. No fuckin’ way!! BLACK METAL is the exclusive domain of VENOM, and no matter how people may dress things up, that is quite simply fact! End of discussion! So…

!! Lay Down Your Soul To The Gods Rock’n’Roll – BLACK METAL !!