Welcome to Hell

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
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	6/10^[2]
Sounds	^[3]

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'".^[3] 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] 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 estiblishing 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".^[2]

Track listing

All tracks written by Bray/Dunn/Lant.

Side A
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sons of Satan"	3:38
2.	"Welcome to Hell"	3:15
3.	"Schizo"	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

Bonus tracks in 1985 re-release by Combat Records
No.	Title	Length
12.	"In Nomine Satanas"	3:28
13.	"Bursting Out"	2:56

Bonus tracks in 2002 re-release by Castle/Sanctuary
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Angel Dust (Lead Weight version)"	3:03
13.	"In League with Satan (7" version)"	3:31
14.	"Live Like an Angel (7" version)"	3:54
15.	"Bloodlust (7" version)"	2:59
16.	"In Nomine Satanas (7" 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 (Outtake)"	3:08
22.	"Snots Shit (Outtake)"	2:06

Legacy

The black metal band Mayhem borrowed their name from the instrumental track "Mayhem with Mercy"^[4] and covered the song "Witching Hour" on their EP Deathcrush.
The American death metal band Six Feet Under covered the song "In League with Satan" on their first cover album Graveyard Classics. The Brazilian death metal band Krisiun also covered this song on their fifth studio album Works of Carnage.
Stoner metal group High on Fire covered the song "Witching Hour" on their limited edition live album Live from the Relapse Contamination Festival as the closing track.
The hardcore punk band The Meatmen covered "In League with Satan" on their 1996 album War of the Superbikes, Vol. 2.
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.
Sodom covered the song "One Thousand Days in Sodom" in their compilation Ten Black Years.
The Canadian metal band Voivod covered the song "In League With Satan" on the live album Lives.
Swedish heavy metal band Enforcer covered "Bursting Out" in 2013 and released it on the Japanese edition of their album From Beyond in 2014.^[5]

Credits

Venom – producer, performer
- Conrad "Cronos" Lant – bass guitar, vocals
- Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn – guitar
- Tony "Abaddon" Bray – drums
Keith Nichol – producer, engineer

References

1 2 3 Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Welcome to Hell – Venom : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : Allmusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
1 2 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.
1 2 Barton, Geoff (December 1981). "Venom: Welcome to Hell (Neat)". Sounds.
↑ The Dark Past.
↑ http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Enforcer/From_Beyond/500608

External links

Welcome to Hell info on venomcollector.com

Venom

Cronos La Rage Dante Mantas Abaddon James Clare War Maniac Big Al Jesus Christ Demolition Man Mykvs Antton

Studio albums	Welcome to Hell (1981) Black Metal (1982) At War with Satan (1984) Possessed (1985) Calm Before the Storm (1987) Prime Evil (1989) Temples of Ice (1991) The Waste Lands (1992) Cast in Stone (1997) Resurrection (2000) Metal Black (2006) Hell (2008) Fallen Angels (2011) From the Very Depths (2015)

EPs	Hell at Hammersmith (1985) Nightmare (1985) Tear Your Soul Apart (1990) Venom '96 (1996)

Live albums	Official Bootleg (1986) Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1986) The Second Coming (1997) Bitten (2002) Witching Hour (2003)

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