Venom - Black Metal (1982)

Black Metal is the second album by english Black Thrash Metal band Venom. It was released in November 1982, during the great flourishing of metal music in the UK that was the new wave of British Heavy Metal, and is considered a major influence on the Thrash Metal, Death Metal and Black Metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Although lending its name to the latter subgenre of Heavy Metal, today it is still debated if the album's music is Thrash Metal or Black Metal. AllMusic has described it as "Extreme Metal", while Moynihan & Søderlind in their book affirm that the album "carved in stone some of (black metal's) essential features". Nevertheless, its lyrics and imagery were a major influence on the early Norwegian Black Metal scene.

The cover art was made by the band's bassist and singer Conrad "Cronos" Lant.

VMC-180, 50.1033

 

• Tracklist:

Side A - Black
1.     Black Metal     03:45
2.     To Hell and Back     03:04
3.     Buried Alive     04:19
4.     Raise the Dead     02:48
5.     Teacher's Pet     04:46

Side B - Metal
6.     Leave Me in Hell     03:37
7.     Sacrifice     04:31
8.     Heaven's on Fire     03:43
9.     Countess Bathory     03:44
10.     Don't Burn the Witch     03:20
11.     At War with Satan (Preview)     02:14

 

• Line up:

- Cronos: vocals, bass
- Mantas: guitars
-  Abaddon: drums.

 

 

Recorded at Impulse Studios, Newcastle, England.
Mastered at Utopia Studios, London, England.

  Keith Nichol: producer, engineer.

 ..."The bullshit even came in Venom's direction with certain bands getting us banned from certain rehearsal rooms in the area, so I'd have to book the studios under different band names to get some rehearsal time, until we finally ended up rehearsing in a church, it was the only place left who'd hire to us"...

 [Cronos].

 

 

Welcoming the virgins fair
To live a noble life
In the castle known to all
The Count's infernal wife
She invites the peasants with
Endless lavish foods
But, when evening spreads its wings
She rapes them of their blood

Countess Bathory
Countess Bathory

All day long the virgins sit
And feast on endless meals
The Countless laughs and sips her wine
Her skin doth crack and peel
But when nighttime fills the air
One must pay the price
The Countess takes her midnight bath
With blood that once gave life

Countess Bathory
Countess Bathory

Living in her self styled Hell
The Countess dressed in black
Life's so distant - death's so near
No blood to turn time back
The castle walls are closing in
She's crippled now with age
Welcomes death with open arms
The reaper turns the page

Countess Bathory
Countess Bathory.