Lousy production, great material and a cool attitude is what strikes me first when I hear this. It's not as good as Black Metal, but it has a higher cult value to compensate for that, and it's still a masterpice. This is the single first black metal album ever, the root of all evil. In 1981 it chocked a world that just got used to the sound of Judas Priest, Motörhead and Iron Maiden, and the year after "Black Metal" crushed it. Nowadays it's quite harmless, and won't chock anyone, but the music is still as greart as ever. It's heavy metal/trash at its earliest with influences from various different genres and bands. The more obvious should be Kiss, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead and various punk bands of that time. This album is my second favourite Venom album after Black metal (mainly because of the much better production) but several songs are timeless, like "In league with Satan", "Poison", "Live like an Angel", "One thousand Days in Sodom" and of course "Witching Hour"
Rated

Black Metal

Aaaaahhh... The very title itself defines a new brutal style within the extremes of metal music. I must say that I was positively surprised by Venom when I heard this (I heard this before Welcome to Hell). Earlier I had heard some of their newer creations and those sucked. But this is a different story. The three first albums are the roots of black metal itself. This, the second one features many old classics, like Black metal, Countess Bathory and Buried Alive/Raise the Dead (my personal favourite). This is much faster and more brutal then any of the bands that might have inspiered them, I also think that they were more inspired by some Punk rock bands then one might think although I can't precise to anyone. Why else would they have done the punk song "Teachers Pet"? (Why have they put a Blues riff in the middle of that song? I can't figure it out, but it's a cool move.) I guess that parents all over where annoyed by the lyrics and brutality. The music is a trashy style reminding much of other early trash bands, with great riffs and good new perspectives. For all you black metal heads out there, is this something you definately should check out, if you of some reason doesn't already have it.
Rated

At War with Satan

The first track is 19:57 long but still the best on this album. This is Venom's third album and their las t good one (or so I've heard). It was a disapointment I must say. Later releases sucked big time, but this has still some sparkle left. There are several good riffs (not as good as before though) and OK-ish songs. Somewhere in the middle of the first song is the lead riff to Metallica's "Enter Sandman" (almost), so they still managed to influence a great deal. I like the layout in form of a book.
Rated

Book of Armageddon

This is a really stupid release, trying to bring back the old spirit of ancient Venom. It's a compilation album with the best songs of Venom. But if you're a fan of them, you already have them all. Just buy the early good ones and you'll have them all. Sure, they are really great songs, but buy the real albums instead, you'll get more songs and they are much cooler.
Rated

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