After Black Sabbath and Motorhead, I consider that Venom are the third most influential metal band; few bands have inspired and influenced three genres of metal, black metal, death metal and thrash metal. The first two Venom albums, ‘Welcome To Hell’ and ‘Black Metal’ are essential for any metal fans collection.
Now, many years later, we find two versions of Venom. The Mantas led Venom Inc seems to have gathered a lot of ‘true spirit of Venom’ style reviews, which I would agree with, but I’d also say that ‘Storm The Gates’ is very much an excellent Venom album. Of course, the playing is much better than on the 80s album but that is to be expected – musicians progress.
This is a powerful well-played, well-produced metal album, that would put many more lauded bands to shame.
Spinefarm Records
