this is Venom, by the way
The story of black metal begins with the English band VENOM. They formed in 1978, and were interested in playing heavy metal in the vein of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, with some punk influence thrown in as well. Unlike some of the other NWOBHM bands of the day, Venom had more overtly Satanic lyrics. 1981 saw the release of their first album, Welcome to Hell. Welcome to Hell was atmospheric, Satanic speed metal. It was pretty much unlike anything ever attempted before. Imagine the dark mood and lyrics of early Black Sabbath and the raw intensity of Motorhead, and you've more or less nailed Venom's sound. This album laid the template for all extreme metal since. But it was Venom's second album that is of importance here....
Venom's 1982 album, Black Metal, was a continuation of the style of Welcome to Hell, but now this style had a name: black metal. While thrash metal and death metal drew from Venom, black metal took stylistic elements and the name of their genre from Venom. After these two albums, 1984's At War With Satan continued this proto-black metal sound. Venom's sound after that more or less became a more generic speed metal.
This is "Witching Hour" from Venom's first album. An excellent example of their sound.
This is the song that gave its name to an entire genre.
"Warhead", from Venom's 1984 single of the same name. It's a slower track, but still has that old-school black metal vibe to it.
These songs give you a good idea of what Venom's early work sounded like, as well as how black metal sounded at its birth. So, with 1982 giving the world the term "black metal", I am celebrating thirty years of black metal in 2012. I will do a band a day (some bands will get more than one day) until the end of year (or November 1, which is the day Black Metal was released back in 1982).
Select Discography
Demon (demo) (1980)
Welcome to Hell (full-length) (1981)
Black Metal (full-length) (1982)
"Warhead" (single) (1983)
At War With Satan (full-length) (1984)
Possessed (full-length) (1985)
Tomorrow: BATHORY
HAIL! \m/
I made an ~800 word comment then Chrome crashed.
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Basically, Venom is not over the top, and I think that is a good thing.
But their bass drum recording from their first album sounds worse than flicking the display of laptop repeatedly and recording it through the mic by the webcam.
I'll be around.
I definitely don't think that Venom was OTT by today's standards, for sure. But maybe by 1981's standards, when they released Welcome to Hell...? I think the drum sound in black metal in general is a problem, at least when viewed from a non-black metal perspective. If you listen to a lot of death metal, the bass drum esp. usually has a rich sound. In black metal, the production is paper-thin, but that's kind of the point. It gives the music that evil, vile, kind of Satanic feel to it. On the other hand, I can think of some black metal with a thicker production sound to it, where you have good drum sounds. Immortal's middle period, for example, has excellent drum sounds (Battles in the North is a pretty good example).
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