Unknown Soldier

Album
Much like Cirith Ungol’s Frost and Fire or Manilla Road’s Invasion, Newcastle born and bred Venom adopted this same down-in-the-dingy-basement approach in recording their debut album Welcome to Hell. The one thing all these bands had in common was their ‘DIY ethos’ and all put out albums that are considered primordial releases for the future extreme metal genres. But this is where the similarities between Venom and their two American counterparts end, as both Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol were somewhat backward looking in terms of their influences which were standard and progressive rock, whereas Venom adopted a far more potent and crueler overall sound and image. Musically Venom took their cue from the so-called satanic preachings of Black Sabbath and even more notably from the visceral approach of Motorhead, in fact if these two bands had got married and had a son, then Motorhead would’ve been the father and Black Sabbath the mother, with Venom of course being that devilspawn son! They weren’t finished there of course as Kiss probably would’ve been the godparents, as Venom had to get their macabre stage show from somewhere and Kiss were the perfect choice in that respect, as was the Witchfynde Give ‘em Hell album cover as well. Welcome to Hell was recorded in just three days for a miniscule budget and it sounded like it as well and the album was basically splatter metal right out of the gutter, which came across as a loud and menacing beast being played at breakneck speed! The production on the album was beyond bad and this was an aspect that future black metal bands would soon turn into a fine-art form several years later! Musically the songs were possibly there, as it usually took great amounts of concentration to follow them through the barrage of noise from the band and the loopy production. Another problem was that band members Cronos-bass/vocals, Mantas-guitar and Abaddon-drums were musicians of extremely limited ability and they made shamming look bloody cool, but it was also enough to turn any metal purists insane! Welcome to Hell is an album that says fuck off to musical conventions and instead just goes for the jugular like a screwed up Motorhead! Now personally I don’t really like the album song for song and I like better production than this as well (I’m not big on black metal for this reason) and therefore would hardly ever listen to this type of album. But what I do like is the album’s manic bestial flow from start to finish, something that the future Slayer would perfect on Reign in Blood. Overall Welcome to Hell is a unique listening experience for its time and if you can dig out the songs then that’s another bonus as well! Finally llittle did anybody know, that Welcome to Hell and its follow-up album Black Metal, would eventually go onto become two of the most influential metal albums of all time! As over these two albums, Venom would effectively rewrite the metal rulebook and in turn give birth to extreme metal, along with laying down and crystallising the complete criteria for the future sub-genres of thrash, death and most notably black metal. Indeed this really was welcome to hell as far as heavy metal was concerned!

Cronos- Bass/Vocals
Mantas- Guitar
Abaddon- Drums

Production- Keith Nichol

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