Venom – Live From Hammersmith Odeon
Venom – Live From Hammersmith Odeon
Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 27/10/23
Running Time: 57:43
Review by Simon Black
7/10
Venom, with that amazing thing known as hindsight, turned out to be one of the most influential bands of the early 80’s, but you really would not have known that at the time, as the major press rarely gave them the time of day, and when they did, were often far from kind. Given that their second album, “Black Metal” inspired a whole musical sub-genre, and many of its very metal children, it’s quite odd that their sound actually bears very little resemblance to the movements they inspired, which oddly enough have more to do with some fairly cheap and cheerful studio recording than an intentional new sound. At the time Venom were more interested in being more extreme than anyone else as a publicity thing, and in this dusted down live offering you can clearly hear live that their sound is a direct fusion of both the British Punk and NWOBHM movements that dominated the late 70’s.
This album was touring their fourth studio album “Possessed”, which has always been a divisive one amongst fans who often cite it as the dropping off point in terms of quality (although ironically a lot of the material was originally written earlier and held back), but it’s a set in the main comprised of the belters you would expect from “Welcome to Hell”, “Black Metal” and “At War with Satan”. The one thing this live recording has going for it is a far fatter and richer sound than a lot of the early studio albums, and you can really get a sense of why they became so influential. I suspect the drummer from the support band that night, one L. Ulrich from Denmark, was no doubt standing in the wings making many mental notes…
Performance wise, the Punk influence dominates, so speed and attitude are what stands out here, rather than a focus on technical delivery at a pace, which is what the emerging Thrash movement added to their sounds and made their own, but it rattles along at a furious and energetic pace. The only thing that sounds amiss is some of the overdubbing of crowd sounds is a little obvious, but it doesn’t detract from the performance, and this positively rips by.
Being a Cherry Red reissue, this means that this version is more about the opportunity to get both the CD and live DVD of the concert, which was deleted on VHS really early on, and been something fans have been reverentially praying to come back out again ever since. Sadly, I can’t comment on that, as I’ve only got access to the MP3’s for review purposes but judging by the sounds it’s worth the investment for the cleaned up visual version alone. Not long after wards, this classis line up would be over, so it’s a marvellous piece of history of one of the most influential metal acts ever.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Too Loud (For The Crowd)
02. Black Metal
03. Nightmare
04. Countess Bathory
05. Seven Gates Of Hell
06. Bass Solo
07. Buried Alive
08. Don’t Burn The Witch
09. In Nomine Satanas
10. Welcome To The Hell
11. Warhead
12. Schizo
13. Satanachist
14. Bloodlust
15. Witching Hour
LINE-UP:
Cronos – Bass guitar, vocals
Mantas – Guitar
Abaddon – Drums
LINKS:
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