Venom

On Tour
Play Radio
Listen to Venom Radio, featuring artists like Sodom, Hellhammer, Possessed, Bathory and more…

5,233,671 plays (215,376 listeners)

Shop now at Amazon | Send Venom Ringtones to Cell
More options
Add to my Library

Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, United Kingdom (1979 – present)

Venom is a metal band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK in 1979.

Coming to prominence towards the end of the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’, Venom’s first two albums – Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982) – are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general. Venom’s second album proved influential enough that its title was used as the name of an extreme metal subgenre: black metal.

Venom’s original personnel came from three different bands: Guillotine, Oberon and DwarfStar. The original Guillotine featured Jeffrey Dunn and Dave Rutherford on guitars, Dean Hewitt on bass guitar, Dave Blackman on vocals and Chris Mercaters on drums. Blackman and Mercater were replaced by drummer Anthony Bray and vocalist Clive Archer of Oberon and soon after, Dean Hewitt was replaced by Alan Winston on bass. Around the summer of 1979, Conrad “Cronos” Lant from the bands DwarfStar and Album Graecum replaced Rutherford. Around this time, the band adopted the Venom moniker.

Prime influences of the formative band were Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead and Kiss. Other bands cited by Venom as an inspiration are Queen, The Who, Deep Purple, Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Tubes and The Rolling Stones.

A few days before a show at a local church hall, Winston left the band. To fill in, Lant borrowed a bass guitar from Steve Thompson (later to become Venom’s first producer). Playing the show with the borrowed bass plugged into his Marshall guitar amp and effects pedals, he created an unnerving racket and the ‘Bulldozer Bass’ was born.
Read more… Edit

Popular tags: black metal, thrash metal, heavy metal, nwobhm, metal  See more

Shouts: 2,085 shouts

Share this artist:

Top Albums

See more

Top Tracks

1
847
2
503
3
450
4
428
5
427
6
420
7
372
8
347
9
332
10
315
11
313
12
293
12
293
14
290
15
274
Buy all tracks at Amazon MP3
See more

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).

  • XtremeBrutality

    Pedal to the Metal !!

    Wednesday afternoon

  • somemusicdude

    Fistful of Metal kicks ass.

    Monday evening

  • Glamaster

    Venom and thrash like Sodom and Slayer are both good. Anthrax is gay.

    Monday evening

  • somemusicdude

    Venom and thrash are both good. Venom influenced a lot of good thrash.

    Monday evening

  • Ugly13

    VENOM is supreme... but old SLAYER and SODOM are fucking great too.. I cannot say if I prefer "Obsessed by Cruelty" or "Show no Mercy", two classics...

    Monday morning

  • MetallicMadman

    Thrash is gay, Venom is amazing.

    Monday morning

  • DESPERA666

    the Chronicles of the Pain : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uRrnUKZbHY

    Sunday afternoon

  • Ascendence

    "Sodom after the first album is at best a 2nd rate Bay Area act." um no, what the fuck are you even talking about?

    Sunday morning

  • Matheuscorin

    THRASH METAL!

    Saturday afternoon

  • ThrashZone666

    V Anthrax isn't bad

    Saturday morning

  • JupiterAss

    v Anthrax? You should stick to your Wiz Khalifa .

    Friday evening

  • athousandsuns

    Sodom trumps Slayer, especially in their old school days. nothing beats Anthrax and Venom though

    Friday morning

  • crazydude1992

    Sodom better than Slayer? NO [4] Sodom after the first album is at best a 2nd rate Bay Area act.

    last week

  • Raphael_Ramone

    UP http://www.lastfm.com.br/music/Venom/+images/72999312

    last week

  • nikkirocker

    Venom es de muy putamadre!

    last week

  • JupiterAss

    V But Sodom kicks Slayer's ass since the release of Seasons in the Abyss, Slayer had copied the same music style and lyrics since 20 years now, not to mention the influence from the nu-metal scene to release Diabolus and God Hate's Us All.

    last week

  • Kyanksye

    FODA! FODA! FODA! \m/

    last week

  • Ritual_Suicide

    Sodom better than Slayer? YES [3] Especially in the '90s and '00s.

    last week

  • Metalistruth

    Venom used the term black metal to describe their music as there was no genre for what they played at the time. So technically Bathory aren't actually black metal metal but an entirely different genre. But Venom and Bathory sound very alike if you listen closely. so basically what i am saying is Venom invented black metal and Bathory gave a nordic spin on it. That is why all black metal bands sound like Bathory and Venom

    last week

  • neoxx07

    venom never was black metal, they are heavy/speed metal with satanic lyrics. bathory is black metal

    last week
See all 2,085 shouts

Videos

See more

Events

See more Add event

Listening Now

Top Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more

Groups (478)

See more

More Information

Links
Band Members
Labels

Email Newsletter

Universal Music Group Get exclusive tour, release & promotion updates on Venom from Universal Music.

“I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Last.fm.”

More Last.fm Sites: Blog | Music Manager | Build | Playground (Subscriber VIP zone) | Best of 2011

© 2012 Last.fm Ltd. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | Updated Feb 11, 2009
Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
Text may also be available under the GNU Free Documentation License.