Welcome to Hell

This article is about the Venom album. For the skateboarding video, see Toy Machine.
Welcome to Hell
Studio album by Venom
Released December 1981
Recorded August 1981 at Impulse Studios in Newcastle, England
Genre Speed metal, thrash metal
Length 39:26
Label Neat
Producer Keith Nichol, Venom
Venom chronology
Welcome to Hell
(1981)
Black Metal
(1982)

Welcome to Hell is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in December 1981, through Neat Records, at the culmination of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The music of Welcome to Hell is often described as speed metal, but it had a great influence on the then-emerging thrash metal style, and crystallised the elements of what later became known as death metal and black metal.[1]

The sound of the album is very noisy and rough, perhaps in part because the band thought they were recording a demo when they recorded the album over a period of only three days. According to author Dayal Patterson, Welcome to Hell might be the first black metal album.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Sounds[2]

British journalist Geoff Barton stated in his 1981 five-star review of Welcome to Hell that the album had "the hi-fi dynamics of a 50-year-old pizza", and that it "brought a new meaning to the word 'cataclysmic'".[2] According to Allmusic's journalist Eduardo Rivadavia, highlights of the album include "Welcome to Hell", "In League with Satan", "One Thousand Days in Sodom" and "Witching Hour"; Rivadavia said of "Witching Hour": "Possibly Venom's single most important track, in it you'll hear a number of stylistic devices which would later pervade all extreme metal genres, indeed become their most regularly abused clichés."[1]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Bray/Dunn/Lant. 

Side A
No. Title Length
1. "Sons of Satan"   3:38
2. "Welcome to Hell"   3:15
3. "Schizoid"   3:34
4. "Mayhem with Mercy"   0:58
5. "Poison"   4:33
6. "Live Like an Angel (Die Like a Devil)"   3:59
Side B
No. Title Length
7. "Witching Hour"   3:40
8. "One Thousand Days in Sodom"   4:36
9. "Angel Dust"   2:43
10. "In League with Satan"   3:35
11. "Red Light Fever"   5:14

Legacy

Credits

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Welcome to Hell – Venom : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : Allmusic". Allmusic. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  2. 1 2 Barton, Geoff (December 1981). "Venom: Welcome to Hell (Neat)". Sounds.
  3. The Dark Past.

External links

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