Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
If the band’s insidious debut album Welcome to Hell would end up as being one of the most influential metal albums of all time, then their second album Black Metal would actually go one better, by giving birth to a completely new metal sub-genre in black metal and now we go onto their third effort At War with Satan. At this time the Frankenstein monster that was Venom was still lurching around in the basement and the band’s limelight as a force of evil had certainly been supplanted by the aggressive thrash explosion that was taking place in California, with bands like Metallica and the even harder edged Slayer leading the way. If the first two Venom albums had been their proto-thrash and black metal statements, the band clearly felt that they now needed to write some proper songs (those that adhere to what most people view as songs) rather than their basic inclination to simply just express their satanic meanderings in the loudest and meanest way possible, which could be viewed as an almost sonic ordeal for some listeners. At War with Satan which of course is a glorious title, is probably my favourite album by the band (bear in mind that I’m not much of a fan) for the simple reason that the band have attempted to not only improve the structure of their songwriting, but have also gone in for an improved musical playing style and a better production (even though there were complaints about the production) which of course makes the album more enjoyable for my ears. BUT most Venom fans and even some critics would disagree with this, for the simple reason that the Venom they love, is the Venom from their first two albums, which of course had a band totally dedicated to playing in the realm of Hades, with all the applicable gloomy trappings! Now At War with Satan keeps within the confines of the band’s satanic agenda, but just does so with a more melodic and commercial approach (the album was seen as a potential breakthrough release by the band) the end result though could well be seen by some listeners, as a product that probably delivers the same amount of cheese as say a Manowar album! On the previous Black Metal album the band had finished up with the “At War with Satan (Preview)” track which of course was just a prelude for this album and this album now opens up with the same track. “At War with Satan” this time around is a very different kettle of fish and instead of being a 2 minute track, the band have gone in for a monstrous 20 minute metal epic that takes up the complete first side of the album and they were clearly inspired here by what Rush did with their 20 minute “2112” progressive rock opus several years earlier. The track fully encompasses all the facets of the band and can be seen as the true creative highlight of the band and imo their best ever track. By the time we get to the second track “Rip Ride” the speed is at full momentum and this track along with “Genocide” are two tracks that easily could’ve done Slayer proud. By the time the band get to tracks like "Cry Wolf" and "Stand Up (And Be Counted)" there is certainly clear evidence of how they had matured as songwriters and both these track give over to repeated listens. Overall and bear in mind that I’m not a musician but for me on this album Mantas and Abaddon and Cronos sound pretty mean with their instruments and Cronos never sounded better vocally either. "Women, Leather and Hell" has them entering into Motorhead territory and album closer "Aaaaaarrghh" is a bit of fun to close the album. At War with Satan results in being an almost cartoonish example of early extreme metal with an epic title track as its crowning achievement and it was around this time that some critics were calling them the greatest heavy metal band in the world, many of the the same critics were calling Manowar the loudest.

Cronos- Bass/Vocals
Mantas- Guitar
Abaddon- Drums

Production- Venom

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Power Metal

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