![]() ![]() Both albums flirted with mainstream success, but Venom's frenetic take on the genre was being perfected by then-up-and-coming acts like Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica, the latter of whom were opening for Venom just a few years earlier. At War with Satan, a concept album about a war between heaven and hell (guess who wins), arrived in 1983, followed in 1985 by the more streamlined Possessed - the title track managed to make its way onto the Parent Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" list. ![]() Rough, noisy, and spilling over with evil intent, the LP, and its like-minded follow-up Black Metal (1982), helped pave the way for death metal and thrash - neither album was a commercial juggernaut, but they have since been deemed canonical by the heavy metal community. Venom issued their debut album, Welcome to Hell, in 1981 via Neat Records. ![]() Drawing inspiration from a versatile array of artists including Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Sex Pistols, the Who, the Tubes, and Elvis Presley, the band eschewed technical prowess in favor of kinetic power, employing a savagely fast style of sonic deviltry that had as much in common with hardcore punk as it did heavy metal - despite their lyrical and visual obsession with the devil, the group has consistently stated that they prefer shock value over actual Satanism. Despite enduring countless personnel changes over the years, and more than a little internal acrimony, Venom continued to tour and release new music, issuing their 15th studio long-player, Storm the Gates, in 2018.įormed in 1978 in Newcastle, England, Venom went through some structural changes before settling on a core trio comprising singer/bassist Conrad "Cronos" Lant, guitarist Jeff "Mantas" Dunn, and drummer Tony "Abaddon" Bray. Influenced by the raw intensity of Motörhead and the visual flash of Kiss, they developed a dark, blistering sound that paved the way for the subsequent rise of thrash music similarly, their macabre, proudly satanic image - their landmark debut was titled Welcome to Hell - proved a major inspiration for the legions of death and black metal bands to appear in their wake, even lending the genre its name with the release of their influential 1982 sophomore LP Black Metal. A seminal influence on the evolution of extreme metal, Venom were at the vanguard of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. ![]()
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