This blog has a simple purpose: I’m a huge fan of the British Black/Thrash metal band Venom.

In 1981, Venom released their debut album Welcome to Hell, arguably the heaviest and most influential of the NWOBHM scene. In 1982, Venom released thier genre-shaping and defining album Black Metal, which notably had two tracks that inspired Metallica’s breakout single, “One”, from their 1988 album …And Justice for All. In 1983, Venom released the highly progressive At War With Satan. The 20 minute long title track showcased Venom’s many influences and technical abilities. In 1985, Venom released their less-than-perfect-but-still-awesome Possessed, an album of Welcome to Hellite thrashers with influences taken from their aforementioned At War With Satan. In the mid-late 80s the band splintered, with guitarist Mantas leaving, vocalist Cronos leaving, and then the return of Mantas.

In the 1990s, the original line-up reunited for Cast in Stone. The last album from the original line-up was 2000’s Ressurrection. With new guitarist Mykvs, Venom released their “comeback album”, Metal Black, word play on Black Metal. In 2008, Venom released their album Hell, and this is where I come in.

I’ve been a Venom fan since 2006. In 2005, my uncle Raymond gave me a vinyl LP of Welcome to Hell that had been signed by the band. In 2006 I started listening to, and enjoying, the record. Also in 2006, my uncle Raymond died. Before he died I got the chance to call him up and tell him how much I enjoyed Welcome to Hell. He was, apparently, so happy that he decided to put it in his will that I was to receive his Venom collection.

This collection included three vinyl LPs of each Venom album from 1981 to 1983, each signed by a different member of the band. I never found out when he got them signed, but I’m sure it was around 1985 when they came to America and toured with Slayer. Metallica, too?

Sadly, in early 2008 my Venom collection was destroyed when the storage room I had them stored in caught on fire. I also lost albums by other bands, including Rage Against the Machine, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath. But none meant as much to me as the Venom records I lost.

Anyway, in 2007 I started obsessively listening to the Venom album Metal Black as well as both Welcome to Hell and Black Metal. Listening to those two made Metal Black seem abysmal at best. In fact, it was. I noticed a lot of problems with Metal Black that I hoped would be corrected in Venom’s next album.

But these problems weren’t. Venom’s 2008 release, Hell, was about the same as Metal Black, though arguably slightly better.

There was a time when Venom really spoke to me. They told long tales of hellfire and brimstone in a climactic way that the Bible’s greatest champions could have only dreamed of. The two bands in my entire life that have been able to paint visual imagery as I listened were Sabbath and early Venom. While Sabbath’s whole discography up until Technical Ecastasy and continued at Heaven and Hell can fulfill this need to present, only Venom’s first four albums, from 1981 to 1985, do the trick for me.

This is not to say there’s no hope for a more interesting future. Sabbath could release more excellent albums. Venom is the band I’m not so sure about. As Cronos has produced the past two albums, I’m sure he’s very proud of himself, and as he should be! It’s not everyone who is in a band that influences legions upon legions of others and creates a genre of music. However, the simple message I need to get across is that this is not the Venom I know and love.

On certain tracks, such as Straight to Hell, I get visual imagery of olde, but even then it’s vague and rather stale to my mind. What Venom needs is someone to kick them back into shape and get them making good albums like in the past, and that’s where I come in: I’m your man.

I have no professional recording experience, I’ve never entered a recording studio, and I’ve never consulted with any bands.

This is why I’m perfect for the job. As a fan and a critic of the band, I know what needs to be corrected. As a production novice, I have the flair that the original Venom possessed that made them so great. There is such a thing as overproduction, and early Venom avoided this with some awful production. But that made them who they were!

So I present a challenge to the current members of the band Venom, especially one Conrad “Cronos” Lant: let a fan step in to help out.

This blog will be the place where I list all the reasons why I should produce the next Venom album until either Cronos or related parties contact me on behalf of the band so that I can produce it or until the next album comes out and I have another one to be a vehement critic of.

This is the beginning.