Band:	Venom
Album:	Welcome To Hell
Style:	First wave of black metal
Release date:	January 1981
Guest review by:	-tom-

01. Sons Of Satan
02. Welcome To Hell
03. Schizo
04. Mayhem With Mercy
05. Poison
06. Live Like An Angel (Die Like A Devil)
07. Witching Hour
08. One Thousand Days In Sodom
09. Angel Dust
10. In League With Satan
11. Red Light Fever

2002 remastered re-release bonus tracks:
12. Angel Dust [From Lead Weight]
13. In League With Satan [7 version]
14. Live Like An Angel [7 version]
15. Bloodlust [7" Single]
16. In Nomine Satanas [7" Single]
17. Angel Dust [Demo]
18. Raise The Dead [Demo]
19. Red Light Fever [Demo]
20. Welcome To Hell [Demo]
21. Bitch Witch [Outtake]
22. Snots Shit [Outtake]

The first release by the godfathers of black metal. At the time of release few people would have predicted the impact this album would have. 11 Motorhead-influenced dirty thrash songs with lyrics about Satanism, hell and strangely a song about catching a sexually transmitted disease (poison). This may have been the album that started off the most evil sub-genre but it clearly isn't black metal. Venom were just having fun with the idea of Satanism in metal, an idea that had been started with claims that rock music encouraged violence and that some songs contained subliminal messages (e.g. stairway to heaven). Venom used this to their advantage to draw attention to their music. Who would have guessed that this would start off a new genre?

Although it sounds like it was recorded in a shed, this is an excellent album. Perhaps the awful quality of this recording is the reason that it has become compulsory for 'true' black metal bands to follow in the footsteps of their heroes. The raw sound of this album definitely made it feel a lot rougher and more extreme (can you imagine it properly produced?). This is where extreme metal of all forms started. Almost all early thrash, death and black metal bands claim that these guys are the reason that they play that style of music.

However, despite its legendary status and its influence on hundreds of black metal bands, it is recorded and produced extremely badly and the songs are pretty simple and often repetitive. The bad production can be blamed on the fact that this was recorded in 3 days as a demo but then released as a full-length album and the fact that 23 years ago recording technology was a lot less advanced. The simplicity and repetitiveness can be blamed on the fact that the band had only been together for a short time when this was recorded and they released much better albums later on.

The influence of Venom is still present in the black metal scene even after 20 years of evolving and mutating the sound and even if welcome to hell does sound aged now, it is still an excellent piece of metal history that deserves a place in any metal-heads collection.