VENOM, KINGS OF BLACK METAL

Review Score: (10/10)
"Plunge the dagger in her breast--I insist," snarls Cronos in the second verse of "Sacrifice." It is a moment when the B-horror-movie imagery and pulp satanica almost get the better of him--he's in the borderland between earnestness and parody. But somehow Cronos sounds just serious enough to make us ask, "Is this on the level?" and that is what makes this album so much fun. That and the music, which has enough evil riffs and speed to keep fans of Mot?rhead, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden happy.

No virgins were harmed in the making of BLACK METAL. That the album's two best songs--"Sacrifice" and "Raise the Dead"--are paeans to pseudo-medieval necromancy tells us how seriously we should take the lyrics. Unlike the psychopaths, white supremacists, and mildly retarded Norwegian pyromaniacs who later gravitated to Black Metal, Venom understands that Satan is just pretend. But they never step out of character. They don't wink at the audience, and they don't let on that they are anything other than blood-chugging demi-demons who party in the eleventh circle of Hell. Satan may not have actually recorded the first note--as the band claims--but BLACK METAL is as devilish as it gets.

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