Venom "Black Metal"

Black Metal is the second album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in November 1982, during the great flourishing of metal music in the UK that was the new wave of British heavy metal, and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Although lending its name to the latter subgenre of heavy metal, today it is still debated if the album's music is thrash metal or black metal. AllMusic has described it as "extreme metal", while Moynihan & Søderlind in their book affirm that the album "carved in stone some of [black metal's] essential features". Nevertheless, its lyrics and imagery were a major influence on the early Norwegian black metal scene.

The cover art was made by the band's bassist and singer Conrad "Cronos" Lant.

In 1998, it was voted the 52nd among the 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by the British magazine Kerrang! readers.

It was included in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

The title track was featured on the soundtrack of the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bray/Dunn/Lant.

Side A ("Black") 

1. "Black Metal" 3:40 
2. "To Hell and Back" 3:00 
3. "Buried Alive" 4:16 
4. "Raise the Dead" 2:45 
5. "Teacher's Pet" 4:41 

Side B ("Metal") 

1. "Leave Me in Hell" 3:33 
2. "Sacrifice" 4:27 
3. "Heaven's on Fire" 3:40 
4. "Countess Bathory" 3:44 
5. "Don't Burn the Witch" 3:20 
6. "At War with Satan (preview)" 2:14 

1st UK pressing came with a poster, lyric insert, and an embossed cover bearing the words "Venom" and "Black Metal" - both embossed, not printed.

Recording information: 

Recorded at Impulse Studios, Newcastle, England. 

Mastered at Utopia Studios, London, England.