Venom - Black Metal (1982)

Vile, rusty thrash for the hours of darkness. Although I prefer Bathory's evil injection of the eardrums, Venom's early records still reek of that black, oily and barbaric drunkenness, from the chainsaw start-up of the title track, which would become the unholy statement for so many corpse paint bands decades later, there's also the gravelly 'Countess Bathory', the riff-induced 'Don't Burn The Witch' with Mantas the sorcerer reaching a maddening peak, and 'Buried Alive' opts for some interesting effects.
This is grim, stumbling, raw, guttural rock 'n' roll, more satanic than Motorhead, and a true original even my the standards of heavy metal. Who'd have thought that a trio from Newcastle could spawned such demonic hordes to spill forth from the dark corners of the planet to create such anthems of disgust. Metal - the way it was meant to be.
8/10