Welcome to Hell

Welcome to Hell is the debut studio album by English extreme 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 described as a mix of heavy metal and speed metal, but it had a great influence on the emerging extreme metal genres of thrash, death and black metal.[1]

This article is about the Venom album. For the skateboarding video, see Toy Machine.

Welcome to Hell
Studio album by
Venom
ReleasedDecember 1981
RecordedAugust 1981
StudioImpulse Studios in Newcastle, England
Genre
Length39:26
LabelNeat (UK)
Combat(US)
ProducerKeith Nichol and Venom
Venom chronology
Welcome to Hell
(1981)		 Black Metal
(1982)

The unpolished sound is a result of it being recorded in only three days. According to author Dayal Patterson, the relatively low-fidelity of Welcome to Hell inspired other Norwegian metal bands, who considered it black metal. Patterson says that Welcome to Hell and Black Metal were both the genesis for the black metal genre, with the earlier album "where it was born."[2][3]

The album was re-released by Sanctuary Records in 2002.[1]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[4]
Sounds[5]

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' ".[5] According to AllMusic 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] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff wrote that "Welcome to Hell got a certain fabulously stupid impetus to it, despite the sub-bootleg quality recording, and Cronos quickly establishing himself as the most annoying voice in rock"; it should be considered "a record of historical metal relevance", but "not the band's most listenable product".[4]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bray/Dunn/Lant.

Side A
No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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
Bonus tracks in 1985 re-release by Combat Records
No.TitleLength
12."In Nomine Satanas"3:28
13."Bursting Out"2:56
Bonus tracks in 2002 re-release by Castle/Sanctuary
No.TitleLength
12."Angel Dust" (Lead Weight version)3:03
13."In League with Satan" (7-inch version)3:31
14."Live Like an Angel" (7-inch version)3:54
15."Bloodlust" (7-inch version)2:59
16."In Nomine Satanas" (7-inch version)3:29
17."Angel Dust" (Demo)3:10
18."Raise the Dead" (Demo)3:29
19."Red Light Fever" (Demo)4:51
20."Welcome to Hell" (Demo)4:57
21."Bitch Witch" (Out-take)3:08
22."Snots Shit" (Out-take)2:06

Legacy

In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Welcome to Hell as 74th on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.'[6]

The black metal band Mayhem borrowed their name from the instrumental track "Mayhem with Mercy"[7] and covered the song "Witching Hour" on their EP Deathcrush. The German thrash metal band Sodom also reportedly named themselves in reference to the song "One Thousand Days in Sodom".

In addition to covering the song, Canadian parody metal band Zimmers Hole references "In League with Satan" in the title of their album When You Were Shouting at the Devil... We Were in League with Satan.

Credits

References
  1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Welcome to Hell – Venom : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : Allmusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  2. Horsley, Jonathan (11 November 2013). "Dayal Patterson, author of Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult give us his Top 10 BM albums". Decibel. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  3. Patterson, Dayal (2013). Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult. Feral House. pp. 6–16. ISBN 9781936239764.
  4. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 395. ISBN 978-1894959315.
  5. Barton, Geoff (December 1981). "Venom: Welcome to Hell (Neat)". Sounds.
  6. "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  7. The Dark Past.
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