Venom is Boredom - "Black Metal" Review (15%)
The title proclaims this release as black metal, but a better description might be later post-rock styled as speed metal with a nod toward NWOBHM and pop punk. The songs on Black Metal fit together acceptably well, but rely on two unfortunate things that doom them to utter mediocrity and failure: (1) repetition of classic punk and hard rock tropes as if they established something in and of themselves, and (2) use of very much pop inspired rhythmic hooks and transitions instead of proper heavy metal technique.
Let's be clear about Venom: while it is an exaggeration to say they are instrumentally incompetent, like some other reviewers have claimed on this site, they have contributed little to the advancement of the heavy metal genre, and absolutely nothing to the black metal sub-genre.
Black metal's riffing style? Bathory. Its use of chromaticism over modal scales? Morbid Angel. Its emphasis on atmosphere - which, ironically, Venom doesn't get at all - over mere "extreme" noise? Burzum. Black metal's complex, neo-classical song structures? Incantation, although arguably Bathory's The Return and Slayer's Hell Awaits both serve as precursors.
What has Venom ever contributed to black metal? Its "satanic imagery"? Big deal. And very revealing. That's entirely the point, as black metal DID NOT have a "satanic imagery" until the media started promoting the completely fabricated image of "devil worshipers" that the Norwegian black metal bands REJECTED.
"We were about 30 in the black metal scene and not one band worshiped the devil or anything like that" - Satyr.
"none of the bands involved in [the black metal scene] were Satanists" - Varg Vikernes.
"The so-called Satanist circle in Bergen was created by a journalist from BT. […] I am of course proud of my Nordic heritage, so why would I throw that away to embrace some Middle-Eastern debasement?" - King ov Hell.
Cronos, of Venom itself, has supported these statements in several interviews about Norwegian black metal.
"I started to read the lyrics, read the interviews and see they were kind of saying the same thing, but about their country, they had their religion, with all the Norse gods like Wodan and Thor. [...] It's great that they stayed within in their country's beliefs for their lyrics as well" - Conrad "Cronos" Lant.
Ironically, this goes against what the "orthodox black metal" scene claims - that black metal is about "devil worship" and "submission to Satan" - but that's another story.
Back to the Black Metal album.
Venom is Boredom
To judge Venom's Black Metal, one must compare the album not to the black metal scene - which began with Bathory, NOT with Venom - but to the early 80s speed metal.
In that regard, Black Metal somewhat holds up to scrutiny. The vocals are okay, the instrumentation sloppy - but that's to be expected of the genre (speed metal). The "melodies" adequate and the rhythms good, but far too reliant on pop rock tropes that quickly devolve into cheesy saccharine for the sake of "catchiness" - as opposed to, say, the slightly more serious and proficient speed metal of Sodom and Slayer.
What really kills the album Black Metal is that the meaning is just not there. Venom's recent Unholy album achieved a great deal more with less by focusing on having each song present an idea and then developing a basic, albeit circular looping context.
On Black Metal, Venom attempts instead the infamous "outward-in" composition of tribute bands everywhere where the need to include all superficial tropes of a genre/band pushes out the need for internal structure based around a coherent thought, so songs end up being interchangeable "heavy metal by the numbers" showcases of technique only, which is somewhat ironic in such a theoretically anti-technique genre (speed metal), and coming from such a notoriously anti-technical band as Venom.
There is little worthwhile to be found on Black Metal that hadn't been done, better, by hard rock bands of the 1970s. Replace with Locked Up in Hell or Totenlieder for some truly bestial, minimalist, anti-technical extreme metal. Venom just doesn't cut it when playing in the "big leagues".
Black Metal score: 15/100.
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