I wrote about my general Metallica history, and we should really drill into my general Venom history next. I got into Metallica at age 13, and Venom followed pretty quickly thereafter. I don’t know if I was 13 or 14 to be honest, but I think I was 14, and it was maybe the summer just before high school. I knew of King Diamond at age 13 and even had a dubbed copy of Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break the Oath album. (King Diamond’s band before he went solo.)

King Diamond is relevant because he was a self-described “Satanist.” (According to his wiki page, a February 2006 interview reveals he gave up believing in anything religious.) Age 13 is fairly young to first learn about anyone who says they are a “Satanist.” And there is kind of a Satan-connection with Metallica. First of all, Metallica has always credited Venom as being one of their influences. (Venom and Motörhead were “somehow” mentioned a lot in the same sentence in metal magazine articles… such as “Metal Maniacs Magazine.” Motörhead was often called the Godfathers of thrash. Now, it appears Venom were also “Godfathers.” Godfathers definitely to black metal, but undeniably also partly to thrash metal.) Second, drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica is from Denmark, which is where King Diamond is from – and I guess they knew each other? Before King Diamond started his solo career he was in a band called Mercyful Fate, and Metallica was well aware of that band. How does anyone know? Well, the 80’s thrash metal world was small and every band in it knew every other band and this was especially apparent if you were into reading the liner notes on any of the cassettes you were buying. Matter of fact, you could kind of learn which bands you should check out just by which bands were referenced on another band’s liner notes. So Metallica had a 2-pronged “Satanic connection.” King Diamond, and Venom. Matter of fact, Metallica did a small tour with Venom back in their Kill ‘Em All days. There is a legendary Venom and Metallica poster commemorating it. (I used to have a copy of this poster, and I have no idea how my parents let me own it, lol.) I suppose it’s worthwhile to mention here that Metallica does have at least one “Satanic” song called “Jump in the Fire” on their KEA album. I digress.

If I recall correctly, I first heard Slayer’s Reign In Blood album before I heard anything from Venom. (I’ll write about Slayer later.) I can’t remember exactly when I first heard heard Venom, but I can guess. I do remember there was a record store called “Dudley’s” at a mall in Portland called “Mall 205,” and I am guessing that was the store that I bought my first Venom album from. And by album I mean CASSETTE.

We need to comb over a little bit about what was happening in my life at that time. It was a weird, unholy mix of crap, to be honest.

1. My heart had been very brutally crushed by a cute girl for the first time at age 13 and I was not coping very well with it. At all.
2. I had a “best friend” who was a very troubled middle-child from a large Mormon family.
3. Because of my teenage boy hormones, I was often sneaking out of the house late at night and getting into shit-tons of mischief. About 98% of it I actually got away with, but that’s a different story.
4. My parents were not happy with Portland’s public school system anymore and were sending my sister and I to separate Catholic schools.
5. I started drinking coffee in high school…

I bring these up because these are all factors.

So… the first Venom album I got was Welcome to Hell. The second one was Black Metal. And then I was hooked and had to get every Venom album I could. And so I did. If there was a toss-up between which was the better band, Venom or Slayer, I would pick Venom. Sure, Slayer had Reign In Blood, and Show No Mercy, and Hell Awaits, but they just didn’t have the same catchiness that Venom had. And I’m not saying those Slayer albums aren’t catchy, because they are. It’s just that Venom was catchier.

What makes Venom catchy? Well, the songwriting was fantastic. And, there was tons and tons and tons of Satanic “low-hanging-fruit.” Nobody else was writing lyrics about Satanic stuff in a direct kind of way, so Venom stepped up to the plate and said: “We’ll take it. We’ll take it all.” My favorite example of this is this song Bitch Witch. Why was that song written? Because witches are “satanic” and the word “bitch” rhymes with “witch” so it’s like obviously this song has to be written someday, so Venom woke up one day and said, “Today’s the day.” That is the best I can figure as to how and why that song was writen.

And then there are the vocals of Cronos. Nobody fucking sings quite as bad-assedly as Cronos. Even just listening to him screaming is rad as fuck. At the end of the song “Black Metal,” for example, or the beginning of the song “Warhead” as another example. You can imitate that for decades, but never duplicate it.

But as quickly as I got into Venom, I was almost just as quickly no-longer-into-Venom. Because Catholicism, the Catholic school I went to, the movie The Exorcist, and Geraldo’s October 1988 episode about Satanism. Somewhere around 1989 I started taking Christianity much more seriously. My Christendom escalated in the early 90’s at a Lutheran college, and by 1992 I disposed of my Venom cassette collection.

But, by 1993 I self-converted to atheism. (For years I described myself as an “atheist-based Buddhist.”) I didn’t really start revisiting Venom until about 2006. That is to say that even though I was atheist I wasn’t fully convinced that “the devil” didn’t exist. Weird? Yes, I’ll admit it. However, my opinion is most atheists are “fair-weather” atheists.

Another weird thing is, Cronos is stereotyped as an unintellectual and humorous “knuckle-dragger” yet my own brain was working overtime trying to intellectually and spiritually deal with Abrahamic religions and Satanism. Other people could have fun listening to Venom but I had to freak out a bit – almost parallel with Dave Mustaine’s religious “concern.” (For readers that don’t know, Mustaine is Christian.)

I should be clear with you-the-reader about where I stand on the topic of Satanism. I’ll get right to it and give you my opinions of what most people want to know a metalhead’s opinions about. “Does God exist?” My opinion: “Yes.” I can’t prove it, but that’s part of the point of it being my opinion. I’m not Christian, but I switched to theism around 2020 or so. (It’s really hard to keep track of what-did-I-belive-in-when type of dates.) “Is demonic possession a real thing?” My opinion: “Yes.” It appears to be incredibly rare, but in my opinion this is an actual thing. Now if you’ve read my old “About” page, you also know that I don’t believe Jesus ever existed. However, that is not to say I believe exorcisms aren’t a real thing or that Christian exorcisms can’t work. In my opinion, exorcisms are a real thing and, oddly, religious historicity is technically not the mechanism that makes them work. These topics are worthy of their own article, but it’s important here because it’s really FUCKED with my Venom listening experience.

Let me give you an example. Lyrics to the song “Die Hard.” This is the most punk rock song you would ever want to be played at your funeral. It starts with:

“Satan! Father! Help me from this grave!”
(Do an internet search for the rest of the lyrics.)

This is like the Vyvyan approach to the atom bomb in the kitchen…

I gotta say, there is something pretty funny and awesome about both of these strategies. But by funny, I also mean these aren’t serious strategies. You’re not supposed to ask for Satan’s help when you’re dead, and you’re not supposed to try and detonate the atom bomb in your kitchen. Hell is supposed to suck balls, it’s not supposed to be some vogue, attractive, desirable thing. This kind of inversion is what Edgar Allen Poe called Imp of the Perverse, and what psychologists call perverse impulse. It is defined as “the urge to do the exact wrong thing in a given situation for the sole reason that it is possible for wrong to be done.” Your psychology 101 professor probably doesn’t even know about it, but you should bring it up just for fun.

I mentioned I had started drinking coffee in high school. Caffeine doesn’t just lead to panic attacks. In my opinion caffeine also has a connection to perverse impulse. My negative opinions about caffeine are also worthy of a separate article. But it is mentioned here because it’s part of my teenage Venom-listening experience.

I have heard of Satanists calling themselves “atheist-based Satanists” and I suppose this is concurrent with beliefs in naturalism. An internet search reveals: “Naturalism is the belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Instead of using supernatural or spiritual explanations, naturalism focuses on explanations that come from the laws of nature.” My opinion is this is a wrong-headed philosophy.

So when you hear Cronos singing, you really can’t think about any of this heady kind of spiritual stuff. Because if you do, you have to think: “What the fuck are you singing this for, Cronos? Are you trying to get us all fucked by the Devil?” The only way I can enjoy Venom now is by putting myself in a mindset similar to watching Yosemite Sam in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It’s badass, and it’s funny, and it’s cool.

So now that I got all of that out of the way, let’s talk more about Venom. So right now there’s two Venoms. One with Cronos and one without Cronos that is called “Venom Inc.” I don’t have anything bad to say about Venom Inc., at least not for this article. But for me, Cronos’s vocals are what makes Venom, Venom. They are perfect metal vocals and nobody can deny this. So let’s review their discography.

Welcome to Hell – 1981.
Black Metal – 1982.
At War with Satan – 1984.

These three are quintessential.

Possessed – 1985.

This album sucks, gotta say. It’s so bad, you would have thought this was their first album that was released in 1980. Y’know, like the shitty album where bands are trying figure out their sound before they get it right. There’s some interesting riffs and ideas on it, but musically, the album blows.

Eine kleine Nachtmusik – 1986. Live album.

This is a must-have. I don’t know if you could say it holds up over time (musically), but it is still rad and has the capacity to take you back in time.

Calm Before the Storm – 1987.

I really like this album. But in all honestly, it’s like a 50%-er. Half of these songs are majestic as fuck, and the other half just don’t cut the mustard. BUT, it’s worth owning this album just to get to the good songs. Guitarist Mantas was discharged from the group by this time, and this album has two guitarists for his replacement.

The rest of the albums, to be honest I’ve kind of lost track. Newer Venom albums still have the vintage Cronos vocalisms on them, and the songs are usually pretty good. Of the ones I’ve listened to, 2000’s Resurrection album, in my opinion, only the title track was bitchin’ but everything else on it was just “ok.” 2015’s From the Very Depths was alright. Albums I still need to give a serious listen: 1997’s Cast in Stone, 2006’s Metal Black, 2008’s Hell, 2011’s Fallen Angels, and 2018’s Storm the Gates. They’re all on my to-listen-to list. There is also Cronos’s solo career band on my list.

I actually did see Venom once in Denver. August 30th, 2006 at the Bluebird Theater. They were touring for the 2006 Metal Black album. Cronos’s brother was on drums. He wasn’t a bad drummer, but he also wasn’t as bitchin’ as I would’ve preferred, nor as bitchin’ as what I think Venom deserves.

But speaking of which, if you are spiritually “spooked” about Venom, one easy way to dispel yourself of that is to become a musician yourself. You will learn that Venom wasn’t always musically tight. I kind of blame their first drummer Abaddon for this. Sometimes Abaddon was on, and sometimes he was off. He was kind of 50/50.

Right now, Cronos has solved his drummer problem. The current Venom drummer, Dante, is a badass motherfucker. Always on beat, and has tons of stick twirling flash to boot. He is fucking rad. Sometimes I wish Venom would add a second guitarist. Right now, the only flaw in Venom’s live sound is Cronos kinda turns up the bass volume louder than it needs to be. Now, that’s not to say I dislike Cronos’s bass playing and bass style. Some of his stylings on the early albums were so interesting, you’d think they recorded them in the 70’s. But I do think some of the bass lines that are playing alongside the guitar riffs could be buried a bit further back in the mix with a second guitarist. But, fuckit. At this point if you’re lucky enough to see Venom, fucking enjoy the shit out of it no matter what they sound like.

What I would love to see someday is a complete performance of the track “At War with Satan.” Yeah, it’s 20 minutes, but it’s 20 minutes of amaze-balls. That would also make for an amaze-balls theatrical music video.