Venom - Welcome To Hell

Welcome To Hell album cover
7.9 | 404 votes |
Band
Venom
Style
First wave of black metal
Release date
12 January 1981
Owners
470 have it
51 want it
1 trades it
Tracklist
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]
Line-up
Jeffrey Dunn - guitars
Anthony Bray - drums
Conrad Thomas Lant - bass, vocals
Guest review by
-tom-
Rating:
8.0
Rating:
8.0
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?

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published 20.12.2004 | Comments ( 35 )
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Comments

Comments: 20 Visited by 814 users

Posts: 352


Permalink
+2
05.03.2012 - 20:49
Rating: 7

Posts: 352


Noise, noise, noise, but good noise sometimes.
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Don't cry for my English
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Cuca Beludo
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05.06.2012 - 21:34
Cuca Beludo
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I was going to say the same thing this guy said before...
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megadeath13
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24.11.2012 - 13:26
megadeath13
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When it goes to music, Venom is not the band to talk about, but Welcome to hell is such an influential album. This and Black metal are easily Venoms best albums
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Metropolis_Dream
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+2
07.04.2013 - 16:04
Metropolis_Dream
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Legendary debut! As goood as Black metal. Raw and extremely heavy for that time.
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Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Elite

Posts: 21306


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+5
18.02.2014 - 04:49
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Elite

Posts: 21306


I prefer modern bands who know how to write more than one song but having fun is important too I guess.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Boxcar Willy
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Posts: 9568


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+2
18.02.2014 - 05:04
Boxcar Willy
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Posts: 9568


Venom's Black Metal is the only release I can listen to from start to finish. Regardless of what everyone here will think, I think that's a really good and FUN album.
----
14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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!J.O.O.E.!
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18.02.2014 - 15:46
!J.O.O.E.!
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Written by Boxcar Willy on 18.02.2014 at 05:04

Venom's Black Metal is the only release I can listen to from start to finish. Regardless of what everyone here will think, I think that's a really good and FUN album.

I can't even get through Black Metal without getting bored. I usually just listen to Buried Alive and go listen to something else.
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Lit.
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+1
18.02.2014 - 21:28
Lit.
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Black Metal and Countess Bathory are pretty much the only good songs on that album, and this album has even less in the way of redeemable songs.

Written by deadone on 18.02.2014 at 06:58

Venom is quite an acquired taste - it's raw, punky and completely juvenile.

That's like saying Cannibal Corpse or AC/DC are an acquired taste. You only need to listen once, as with most bands or albums, to get a band like Venom.

There's a difference between being simple and just being utterly repetitive.
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Amy

Posts: 137
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28.01.2015 - 04:40
Amy

Posts: 137
Written by Boxcar Willy on 18.02.2014 at 05:04

Venom's Black Metal is the only release I can listen to from start to finish. Regardless of what everyone here will think, I think that's a really good and FUN album.

That is very true. It not about being brutal, atmospheric, or technical in my opinion; it is great album that is there to have a good time. I don't really feel there is much to analyze on the album and I like it because no matter what kind of day I'm having I feel extremely happy when I listen to this album.
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\m/
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Posts: 1089


Permalink
+2
03.10.2021 - 08:00
Rating: 3

Posts: 1089


It's amazing how this is considered to be the first black metal album just because it's so badly produced. It's really just hard rock at it's most banal.
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Posts: 5824


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03.10.2021 - 15:11

Posts: 5824


Written by Ganondox on 03.10.2021 at 08:00

It's amazing how this is considered to be the first black metal album just because it's so badly produced. It's really just hard rock at it's most banal.

To be fair most "first genre metal" aren't 'genre' at all, it's just ppl hearing too much so that they can praise their favorite old band for being influential
----
"Aah! The cat turned into a cat!"
- Reimu Hakurei
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Maco
Pvt Funderground

Posts: 3593


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04.10.2021 - 02:57
Maco
Pvt Funderground

Posts: 3593


Truth be told this is vastly superior than 80% of modern american Black Metal bands.

And Hard Rock? Lol yeah whatever.
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Crackhead Megadeth reigns supreme.
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Posts: 1089


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11.11.2021 - 09:56
Rating: 3

Posts: 1089


Written by Maco on 04.10.2021 at 02:57

And Hard Rock? Lol yeah whatever.

Yeah. Like how Motorhead is hard rock, and this is just a ripoff of Motorhead. In that light, Cold Lake was just Celtic Frost returning black metal to it's roots.
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Posts: 79


Permalink
20.01.2022 - 21:23
Rating: 5

Posts: 79


Sounds like shit but it's got energy at least. Really the only thing Venom contributed to the creation of black metal was the iconography and the term itself.
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F3ynman
Nocturnal Bro
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Posts: 3432


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+2
25.01.2022 - 01:31
Rating: 6
F3ynman
Nocturnal Bro
Contributor

Posts: 3432


It's average. Nothing special nowadays, but I can of course see how it was influential at the time for bands like Slayer. This is probably the origin of thrash and the first wave of black metal.

Some of the better songs here are the title track (with some interesting backing vocals and a catchy main riff), the short instrumental "Mayhem with Mercy", the catchy "Live like an Angel (Die like a Devil)", and "One Thousand Days in Sodom" (which contains the best bass playing and soloing on the album!)
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Posts: 218


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25.07.2024 - 09:15
Rating: 6

Posts: 218


Average. I enjoyed some parts but mainly noise for me
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AndyMetalFreak
A Nice Guy
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Posts: 6611


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+1
25.07.2024 - 10:54
Rating: 7
AndyMetalFreak
A Nice Guy
Contributor

Posts: 6611


It's not a great album overall but still contains a few bangers. I'd say it's one of those bands that was perhaps more influential than they were actually known for being good, certainly frowned upon back then for their Satanic lyrics and image, which now just makes them look run-of-the-mill.
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Posts: 31
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02.05.2025 - 15:12
Rating: 6

Posts: 31
I did not expect it to sound this bad, but I appreciate the effort and the historic importance of the album. cool piece of music history i guess. im not going to listen to it again
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Posts: 49


Permalink
+1
09.06.2025 - 05:31
Rating: 9

Posts: 49


This album sounds pretty rough. But I still love it. Venom created up genre of music with this. You got give them credit for that. I honestly always thought Cronos had a really evil ,aggressive sounding voice that made up for how the music sounded. I was one of the kids in the Catholic high school I went to that loved Venom. I still love them 40 years later.
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Posts: 762


Permalink
23.10.2025 - 18:18
Rating: 9

Posts: 762


Very good debut and the coming of an era!

I agree that Venom were definitely a rawer and more primitive version of Motörhead, but they still delivered on their debut. That´s why they are usually assigned to the NWOBHM genre.

The opener is one of the weakest songs, but then it just goes off with Welcome To Hell, Poisen, Live Like An Angel, Witching Hour, One Thousnad Days..., Angel Dust, and In League With Satan. They're all great songs!

I like Black Metal a bit more, but Welcome To Hell is definitely something special!
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