Venom, three guys from Newcastle, UK, who somehow invented the most torturous prime evil, that still, many decades later, influences all manner of bands across the world. This is feral, basement, anarchic, punky and black rock that took Sabbath's horrifying doomscapes and coated them with a rusty edge, a clanking, discordant wasteland of witchcraft and other so-called dark summonings, alongside a Motorhead dirtiness. Venom, on this world shaking debut album, caused ears to bleed, shocked churches and burned fires in the black woods of Hell's domain. Cronos, a black wizard of sorts, with his drunken almost drool set to a backdrop of buzzing, grinding riffs and tinny drumbeats. This was holocaustic heavy metal as it should be. Wearing a cloak of darkness, the title track is a demonic, frothing sermon of ill-prose, that, in its almost immaturity and naivety reeked of putrid punk and alcoholic mayhem. Out there somewhere thousands of young musicians and fans were becoming hypnotised by the sound and would in time vomit out their own version of Venom's vile noise. Some of extreme metal's greatest and darkest bands such as Bathory, Darkthrone and Mayhem owe so much to this three-piece, as it's fair to say if such classics as 'Witching Hour' and 'In League With Satan' hadn't existed, then metal may well have been a far safer place to dwell today!8/10
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