Black Metal

Black Metal is the second album by the English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in November 1982, during the great flourishing of metal music in the UK that was the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s. Although lending its name to the latter genre, today the album is often regarded as thrash metal rather than black metal. All Music Guide described it as "proto-thrash". Nevertheless, its lyrics and imagery were a major influence on the early Norwegian black metal scene. The original cover art was made by the band's bassist and singer Conrad "Cronos" Lant.