At War with Satan

At War with Satan
Studio album from Venom
Publication (s)	April 16, 1984
Label (s)	Neat Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Black Metal , Thrash Metal , Extreme Metal
Title (number)	7th
running time	39min 45s
occupation	Vocals , electric bass : Conrad Lant (alias Cronos) Lead guitar : Jeffrey Dunn (aka Mantas) Drums : Anthony Bray (aka Abaddon)
production	Venom
chronology Black Metal (1982) At War with Satan Possessed (1985)

At War with Satan is the third music album by the British metal band Venom . It was released in April 1984 and is musically positioned between Black Metal and Thrash Metal . As a concept album , it told the story of the war between heaven and hell, with the latter winning. It was touted as Venom's transition to mainstream rock music , but it failed. The British music retail chain HMV withdrew the album from its offer shortly after its release because of its anti-Christian content.

background

The inspiration to write a song that takes up an entire vinyl page came from Rush's 1976 album 2112 , according to Venom bassist Cronos . At War with Satan is about the character Abaddon (also aka Venom's drummer Tony Bray) , the guardian of the gates of hell. Cronos and Abaddon began writing a story "how an insurrection in hell led to the takeover of heaven and God ended up in hell" earlier in school. A story that later appeared in the 20-minute song "At War with Satan". The storyline around the title track mainly relates to the Revelation of John and John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost from the 17th century, combined with postmodern horror elements.

While the entire A-side is occupied by the title track, the B-side consists of “furiously compact two and three minute scorchers”, for which the band is known. Songs like Cry Wolf also show how much Venom have matured in their songwriting while remaining true to their style.

Artwork

Cover art for At War with Satan
Venom
Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

At War with Satan came in the form of a leather-bound book. Originally it was planned to publish a book of about a hundred pages ( The Book of Armageddon ) parallel to the album release, but this never happened. The Swiss label Disctrade tried to get the band excited about HR Giger's Satan I (1977) as a possible album cover, but without success. The painting later became cover art for Celtic Frost's second album To Mega Therion (1985).

reception

By the time At War with Satan hit the record stores, a turning point in the band's career had been reached. Critics took the view that Venom's third album should have promoted the band into the heavy metal mainstream due to the rising competition, which however did not happen. At the same time, numerous thrash metal bands , which later became very successful, experienced an enormous surge in popularity, such as Metallica , who first appeared in Europe two months before the release of At War with Satan in the opening act for Venom's Seven Dates of Hell tour. About a year later, Venom toured with Slayer and Exodus as support acts on their Combat Tour in North America.

The big music magazines were mostly positive about At War with Satan . Neil Jeffries of the British Melody Maker claimed for example: "Proof positive that Venom are the best heavy metal band in the world" ("Proof has been provided that Venom are the best heavy metal band in the world"). Garry Bushell wrote in Sounds : "It will definitely go down in history as the ultimate heavy metal headbanging" ( "It's definitely as the ultimate in headbang go down in history of heavy metal."). In the Kerrang , the album was called the last big one in the band's history.

The overly long title track received mixed reviews. Chad Bowar of About.com described the song At War with Satan on the one hand very ambitious and bloated, on the other hand it was "so over-the-top and so dramatic that it somehow worked" ("so exuberant and so dramatic that it worked") which makes the album a often overlooked gem in the metal genre. The criticism of Allmusic was much more negative, so the song was labeled "ill-advised anomaly" and mostly "decidedly crap".

With the rise of the metal genre in the 1980s, there was an increased emergence of politically conservative organizations. B. the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Christian campaigns by politically influential groups in the USA against offensive content in rock music spread to Great Britain. Venom was one of its victims: the British music retail chain HMV stopped selling At War with Satan as a precaution to avoid being prosecuted by the profanity law. PMRC put the title track on the Filthy Fifteen list ( "The Dirty Fifteen" ) in 1985 after the release of the next Venom album Possessed .

Track list

All songs by cronos and mantas.

page A

1. At War with Satan - 19:57

Side B

2. Rip Ride - 3:09
3. Genocide - 2:59
4. Cry Wolf - 4:19
5. Stand Up (And Be Counted) - 3:32
6. Women, Leather and Hell - 3:21
7. Aaaaaarrghh - 2:25

Bonus songs on the 2002 re-release

8. At War with Satan (TV Adverts) - 1:04
9. Warhead (12 "version) - 3:40
10. Lady Lust (12 "version) - 2:48
11. The Seven Gates of Hell (12 "version) - 5:28
12. Manitou (12 "version) - 4:42
13. Woman (12 "version) - 2:56
14. Dead of the Night (12 "version) - 4:09
15. Manitou (Abbey Road uncut mix) - 4:49

supporting documents

1. ↑ Venom's Cronos: The Guitar World Interview. Guitar World , November 19, 2008, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
2. ^ Kupfer, Thomas (2012): Venom. Jesus had to go. In: Rock Hard , no. 304, p. 40.
3. ↑ An Interview with Abaddon. Richard Karsmakers, January 1995, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Venom's Cronos: The Guitar World Interview. Guitar World , November 19, 2008, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Lee Baron: Milton's infernal majesty: Postmodern poetics withinVenom's At War With Satan. Chapter & Verse, 2004, archived from the original on March 4, 2014 ; accessed on December 28, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Venom, At War with Satan AllMusic Review. AllMusic , accessed December 28, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Jeff: Venom - At War With Satan Review. MetalReviews.com, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Frank Stöver: Interview with Cronos. From The Darkside, December 4, 2000; accessed December 28, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Tom Gabriel Fischer, Martin Eric Ain: Only death is real: An illustrated history of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost 1981-1985 . Brazillion Points, 2010, ISBN 0-9796163-9-5 , pp. 148-149 .
10. ↑ Tom Gabriel Fischer, Martin Eric Ain: Only death is real: An illustrated history of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost 1981-1985 . Brazillion Points, 2010, ISBN 0-9796163-9-5 , pp. 227 .
11. ^ Joel McIver: Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica . Omnibus Press, 2009, ISBN 1-84772-797-2 , p. 115 .
12. ^ Joel McIver: Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica . Omnibus Press, 2009, ISBN 1-84772-797-2 , p. 64-65 .
13. ↑ Venom Quotes. Venom Collector, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
14. ^ Venom, At War with Satan Critics. Kerrang , archived from the original on August 31, 2011 ; accessed on December 28, 2015 . 
15. ↑ Chad Bowar: Retro Recommendation: Venom - At War With Satan. About.com , September 17, 2010, archived from the original on April 13, 2014 ; accessed on December 28, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Venom, At War with Satan AllMusic Review. AllMusic , accessed December 28, 2015 . 
17. ↑ Malcolm Dome : Battle of the Bans. Kerrang , 1985, accessed December 28, 2015 . 
18. ^ Jonathon Green, Nicholas J Karolides: Encyclopedia Of Censorship . Facts on File, 2005, ISBN 0-8160-4464-3 , pp. 625 .