“Our practice room was a church. The vicar used to let us in and then leave. We ransacked the place, basically”: How Venom made their unholy masterpiece Black Metal and changed the course of metal

Venom posing for a photograph in 1982.

Venom’s 1982 album Black Metal is one of the most influential records in history, detonating a chain reaction that would result in thrash, death metal and, of course, black metal itself – even if it was roundly mocked at the time. In 2011, Venom singer and bass-bludgeoner Cronos looked back on the making of a twisted masterpiece.

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