I was pretty sure that metal is referring to music from heavy metal bands like AC/DC, KISS, Judas Priest, Metallica, maybe even Led Zeppelin. But now I'm hearing all of these lesser new bands calling their music metal and it is not at all the same.It irritates me, so I'm wondering if I have the wrong definition all together, or if this new music is just trying to latch on to older and better bands.Thanks
No, they're not. I see no resemblance between Venom and black metal. Their style of music was closer to thrash metal and heavy metal than anything else. They had a album titled 'Black Metal' but that doesn't really mean anything, it's just that they were popular around the time black metal was getting into the scene, so they would be considered some kind of pioneers of the black metal sub-genre. As Metal Injection article claims: ''Their album 'Black Metal' gave birth to a sub-genre unlike the world has ever known before. Although the music style of the LP remains more reminiscent of thrash, the lyrics and imagery associated with the record turned out to be the single biggest influence in spawning the early Norwegian Black Metal scene nearly 10 years later.'' Mayhem, Burzum, Immortal and Emperor cite Venom as true originators of the black metal message. Still, I don't think this is the reason to call them black metal because they sound nothing like it, and let's be honest; black metal is mostly characterized by its screamed, harsh vocals and raw guitar riffs. Venom doesn't have these aspects within their music. Some people consider them to be black metal which is just pathetic. Just because they influenced the sub-genre, it doesn't mean they belong to it. Musically and lyrically, they may have had some influence on black metal, but I still wouldn't consider them to be black metal. To add, the vocals are certainly NOT black metal. Cronos uses thrash type of vocals, not screamed and harsh black metal vocals. I think that bands like Bathory and Celtic Frost had a far greater influence on black metal than Venom ever did.
No. They're not black metal. They're alright. I like their aesthetic, especially. But there's several things that make a band black metal (beyond saying it), and Venom never were any of those things. The first is in the beats, and Venom played really down tempo, old school heavy metal beats. Even their fast songs would be considered slow for black metal. Secondly, their chord progressions are old school. They even use 12-bar blues progressions on certain songs… like Chuck Berry, or Elvis. Black metal doesn't do that. Thirdly, the vocals aren't black metal at all. And that may be the most important thing. There are black metal fans out there who call acoustic folk music black metal… just because it has black metal vocals. Black metal vocals are screamed, really-highed pitched harsh. Goblincore… Venom doesn't sound anything like that. Listen to Gorgoroth. Early Gorgoroth… with Pest as their singer. It's like nails on a chalkboard… which black metal fans, including myself, like. Granted, not all black metal vocals are that high-pitched, but they're always harsh. And if they're too low, they'll get labeled death metal shunned
