A Parody of Black Metal - "Welcome to Hell" Review (13%)
Venom is a black metal band that has been around for quite some time now, and despite the fact that they've had quite a prolonged tenure in the extreme metal scene, they have failed to release anything decent in their entire career (2015 album Envenom excluded).
Their debut album Welcome to Hell is a typical generic NWOBHM/speed metal bore-fest with very little redeeming qualities. In fact, this barely qualifies as black metal at all save for the over the top satanic imagery, which is more ridiculous than blasphemous whatever way you look at it.
What immediately puts me off with Welcome to Hell is how generic and bland this band sounds.
Seriously every song sounds the same, it's just a constant barrage of poorly executed riffs, uninspired drumming and weak vocals with no substance whatsoever. For a band that claims to be a "pioneer" of the black metal genre, there is very little on this record that hasn't been done elsewhere (and with much more talent).
I'm a massive fan of bands like Profanatica, Antekhrist, Sewer and Von so don't think I don't enjoy the more brutal and underground end of black metal music. The problem is that Welcome to Hell and Venom's music in general sound like none of these bands, and in contrast to any of the aforementioned bands they don't have any identity.
Venom apparently confuses raw production with lack of musical talent, a regrettably common trait in the black metal scene.
Welcome to Hell is just way too boring to elicit anything other than a mild annoyance in the listener's mind. Every instrument sounds flat and the drum fills are simply awful. Even Marduk's talentless drum-machine repetitive blast-beats sound better by comparison.
A Parody of Black Metal
The guitar sound in particular is very distracting. It is right up front in the mix and everything else is buried below the crappy fuzzy tones, so all you are hearing is a vague buzzing sound with unidentifiable riffs. This wouldn't be too bad if the riffs were actually interesting, but as with many aspects of this album, they simply aren't.
Almost every song is built essential on a variation of the same simplistic guitar riff. A two string power chord followed by a tremolo picked open string for a few notes, then another chord, and then the chord progression gradually evolves around tremolo picked single notes and generic power chords. Ad nauseam.
The vocals on Welcome to Hell are similarly quite awful. There is simply no emotion or intensity behind them.
In most black metal music the vocals are supposed to represent anger, depression, or flat out insanity. On Welcome to Hell it's just one constant lazy high shriek that sounds forced.
This album failed to hold my attention, as I found myself bored with most songs barely halfway through them. Welcome to Hell wouldn't be so bad if there was better songwriting, better riffs, better vocals, a better drummer, a better production... better everything in short.
Welcome to Hell is a parody of black metal.
If you want to hear what true black metal sounds like, I highly suggest either Sewer's masterpiece NecroPedoSadoMaso or Phantom's devilish Demonecromancy.
Welcome to Hell score: 13/100.
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