VENOM - Possessed (1985)

MM

I always remember Cronos bemoaning the fact that this came out the same day as 'Hell Awaits' and possibly 'Bonded by Blood', which probably wouldn't have mattered so much if this album didn't suck balls. First off, the cover is shit, really shit. Secondly the production takes the tinny sound first utilised in a less extreme form on 'At War With Satan' and pushes it even further into irritating clankiness. And once again Venom took their best song of the period and released it as a single, leaving it off an album which could dearly have used a song as good as 'Nightmare'. I do remember getting this through the post the same day as 'Hell Awaits', I played 'Hell Awaits' four times, played this once, then went back to 'Hell Awaits' there was just no contest.

VENOM - At War With Satan (1984)

MMMM

A difficult album, and one which relies disproportionately on it's first half for the majority of it's marks. Side one should give it a 5, side two should score 3, so it evens out to a very fair 4. Side two isn't completely without merit, but there is undoubtedly filler lurking towards the end of the side. Rip Ride is great though, and you can't help wondering why Venom always used most of their best songs on singles that didn't feature on their albums...

VENOM - Black Metal (1982)

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Though the supposed inspiration for the whole Black Metal scene (I think Bathory deserve 90% of that credit), this was always acknowledged as being part of the Thrash scene, even though it kinda predated that whole explosion by a year or so. Still a magnificent album, despite it's slightly murky production.