Just like the debate over which band or artist is the father of heavy metal music, the debate over who started the black metal genre is just as cloudy. Some say that Black Metal<\/i>, the 1982 sophomore effort from British NWOBHMers Venom was the genre\u2019s birth cry; others say the album\u2019s title was the sole contribution to it.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, one thing is clear: this disc is nearly as sloppy in terms of sound as their debut effort Welcome To Hell<\/i>, but has slightly better songwriting to back it up.<\/p>\n
Once certainly can\u2019t deny the demonic imagery in Venom\u2019s lyrics; that had quickly become their hallmark, regardless of whether or not they subscribed to these views in real life. But Black Metal<\/i> did seem to feature the band\u2014Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon\u2014expanding their lyrical view a little bit. Tracks like “Teacher\u2019s Pet” seem a bit silly at times, but they did show the band attempting to mature a little bit and reach past the leather-clad brass ring.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s plenty of material on Black Metal<\/i> to suggest this isn\u2019t the album to bring to Sunday School. Songs like \u201cDon\u2019t Burn The Witch,\u201d \u201cBuried Alive,\u201d \u201cLeave Me In Hell\u201d and the title track all show just why Venom was seen as a pioneering band in the world of black metal. (I would, however, stop short at classifying Venom as a true black metal band; to my ears, they were a thrash metal band with Satanic overtones.)<\/p>\n
Venom was never going to be held to the same level as bands such as Slayer, Metallica or Megadeth in terms of their musicianship. You aren\u2019t going to hear many skin-shredding solos from guitarist Mantas. What you will<\/i> hear, though, is a band getting more comfortable in their skins and with their style of music. Where Welcome To Hell<\/i> was an explosion of sound, Black Metal<\/i> does seem to be a bit more focused. Where it still falls short, though, is in the production\u2014though one could argue that is what gives the music its unique charm. That said, I\u2019d have liked it to sound a little crisper, and have some separation between the instruments and the vocals.<\/p>\n
The closing track on the original album, \u201cAt War With Satan (Preview),\u201d teases the listener in terms of what would be coming around the bend\u2014but that is another review for another day (and seeing it\u2019s taken me 24 years to follow up my review of Welcome To Hell<\/i>, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest holding your breath for that one). Subsequent re-releases have added numerous bonus tracks, and it is interesting to note that some of the radio station sessions do<\/i> have more definition in terms of the instrumentation, but still capture the overall sonic sludge that seemed to be Venom\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
Black Metal<\/i> is not a huge leap forward for Venom, but rather a tentative step in the right direction.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6429],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46954","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-venom","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46954"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}