September 2020 Feature Release - The Pit Edition

It's now September which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We're really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don't be shy.

This month's feature release for The Pit is 1981's legendary "Welcome To Hell" album from NWOBHM pioneers Venom which single-handedly changed the direction of the global music landscape & created the catalyst for the birth of extreme metal. There has been a lot said about the genre tagging of this release over the years but it's currently sitting under both speed metal & heavy metal here. Do you think this is correct? Is the album's cult status truly reflective of the quality of the sounds held within? We'd like to hear your opinion.

https://metal.academy/releases/2959

Venom's debut record was a forward thinking project that combined elements of NWOBHM, Speed Metal, Hardcore Punk, and laid the groundwork for extreme metal with some very subtle Black Metal tinges scattered throughout this record. And listening to this record today, it has aged remarkably well! I see why this album has received legendary status by those who've heard it.

9/10

I am with Saxy here.  An album that gets too little attention nowadays but listening back was still as big a pleasure as it was the first time I span it.

4.5/5

I've posted a review, so here's an edited version:

As with many visionary metal bands, Venom were derided mercilessly in their early days. I remember the UK music press (including Kerrang!) lambasting them at every turn as a band that couldn't even play their instruments properly. Of course, those same people have no recollection of ever having done so and claim to have been supporters of the band from the outset - hypocrites. Of course Welcome to Hell sounds sloppy, but that only adds to it's charm. The album took the speed metal of Motörhead, added some cartoonish satanic imagery (that later bands took FAR too seriously) and then went at it with a youthful enthusiasm born of the UK DIY punk scene. Bold, brash and full of balls, this was an album that was made by a band who clearly did not give a damn what anybody thought about them. Often lumped in with the NWOBHM, I would argue this has far more in common with Discharge, GBH and The Exploited than Iron Maiden or Saxon, but they were too punk for the metal crowd and too metal for the punks, so for a long time had to plough their own furrow with only their diehard fans for company. The band's outsider cred is what probably endeared them to the even younger up and coming bands they influenced including Metallica, Bathory, Mayhem and the band probably closest to them in term of attitude, Darkthrone. I would argue that without Motörhead there woud never have been a Venom, but certainly without Venom there would not have been a black metal scene as we recognise it.

Well, for starters I’d like to state that I think Venom are one of those bands that would have had much more of an impact on me if I had of been there at the time. It was only seven years after its release that I first encountered "Welcome To Hell" however a lot had gone on in the metal world during that period & my ears were already accustomed to a more sophisticated & mature sound by that stage. To be fair, I've never really gravitated towards your more tongue-in-cheek approaches to metal either. Having said that though, I’ve always had a soft spot for Venom due to their catchy song-writing & addictive energy & that attribute has never been more potent than it is on “Welcome to Hell”. It’s an extremely consistent record & I have some time for every song on the tracklisting but I’m not sure that the highlights are strong enough to elevate the album into the higher scoring brackets for me personally though. Much the same as Motorhead, Venom don’t play a style of metal that will have them sitting in my all-time favourite albums but they do enough to give me a general fondness of the time I’ve spent with them over the years. To me “Welcome To Hell” was more of an important release in the continued maturity & development of metal than a genuine classic in its own right.

As far as its credentials for inclusion in The Pit go, I'd suggest that “Welcome To Hell” was the closest anyone had come to a genuine speed metal record up to that point in time although I don’t think it quite gets there & I'd prefer to see it residing entirely in The Guardians. Venom took the dark atmosphere of Black Sabbath, the theatrics of KISS, the proto-thrash riffage of “Stained Class”-era Judas Priest, the rock ‘n’ roll infused speed metal elements of Motorhead & the raw punk electricity of the Sex Pistols & combined them in the ugliest fashion possible. The punk element shouldn’t be underplayed. There are a couple of songs that are closer to punk than metal but the band never fail to incorporate the catchy & memorable hooks of rock ‘n’ roll song-writing & that’s really the key to Venom’s success. Even at their ugliest there is an undeniable catchiness to these simple songs. The package might not be glossy but it has an accessibility beneath it’s rough exterior. Motorhead would seem to be the primary influence & you can hear it throughout the record. The most important & influential elements of “Welcome To Hell” are a) the raw & noisy production, b) the flat out speed metal approach to the riffs & c) the more aggressive vocal approach. Those are the elements that most influenced extreme metal & why the band is so often spoken of as the root of the entire movement.

My favourite Venom release is the slightly more ambitious "At War With Satan" these days but "Welcome to Hell" comes in a close second over "Black Metal".

3.5/5