Description

Reduced price due to cover being ex and vinyl being vg+

Original 1983 English Neat records pressing

Newcastle natives Venom had exploded across the U.K. in 1981, unleashing one of the most reviled, unapproachable, and, well, toxic debuts in rock history with their landmark Welcome to Hell opus. An unprecedented example of sonic excess applied to the lowest fidelity recording available (or even imaginable), the album wielded its satanic subject matter and uncontrolled speed like a weapon against all that was considered tasteful and refined in music — a true Frankenstein’s Monster, even by heavy metal standards. Needless to say, it was ruthlessly derided and ultimately doomed commercially, but amazingly influential nevertheless, sowing the seeds of much that would be referred to as “extreme metal” in the coming decades. The band followed it up with ‘Black Metal’ and ‘At War With Satain’. And a few months after unleashing ‘At War With Satan’, Venom began releasing a lot of singles, mini-albums and compilations. The first of these was ‘Die Hard’, released in August 1983. Oddly enough, with the number of songs put out during this period, they could have issued them all on one full-length. It certainly would have been superior to ‘Possessed’. It wouldn’t be until 1986 when they caught on to this and released ‘The Singles: 80-86’. At any rate, what we have here are three solid Venom tunes that are worthy of being in anyone’s collection. ‘Die Hard’ begins with a dark thrash riff, a slow build of the drums and a maniacal laugh. The pace isn’t necessarily fast, but it’s far from slow. It’s more of the ‘relaxed’ Venom tempo that is found on songs like ‘Welcome To Hell’. There’s some interesting bass work, in the middle, just before and during the guitar solo. It adds a certain depth to the sound. Anyone that has seen Cronos, live, knows he can really shred on the bass when given the opportunity. Of course, the lyrics reflect the band’s Satanic image, right from the first lines: ‘Satan, Father Help me from this grave Demons, Warriors Ever be my slaves’ The next song is ‘Acid Queen’. This one burst forth with increased speed, yet the intensity is ephemeral as the verse is more subdued. Cronos sounds out of his mind on this one, and the lyrics seem to cover drug use from an evil perspective. ‘Demon controls my mind – leaves the real world behind’ The song speeds up for a bit, featuring a lethargic lead solo as the depraved vocals rage over the trademark Venom guitar sound. The best description of this would be nasty or ugly, rather than dark or evil. All in all, these songs could have been saved for a full length album but they go well together and they create an interesting release and add nicely to the stockpile of Venom tunes.

Track listing:
1. Die Dard
2. Acid Queen