Venom was the loudest live band I've ever seen. I saw them when they were touring Possessed, and they both had two full stacks each. I literally couldn't hear right for a week afterwards.
Mantas is such an underrated guitarist he came up with some really exotic soundscapes and crazy solos like on flytrap. Eine Kleine Nacht Musik is their shining moment in my opinion. Its my favorite live album of all time. its got so much atmosphere.
For thirty years I've been very carefully stockpiling vintage bathtubs and old boombox tape recorders specifically to recreate that classic sound perfectly. I shall soon become filthy rich selling them to tone snobs...
I don't care if Venom is "lo fi" or "badly recorded" there's plenty of bands that supposedly are and sound like trash. Welcome to Hell especially sounds awesome, loud everything and harsh. Sounds perfect. Also I appreciate what you're doing from my own interest in audio engineering, this is a great RU-vid series.
I like the rant on black metal and the overhyped origins. You hear a guy like Hellhammer or especially Necrobutcher talk like they were gods among men while they were just a bunch of gatekeeping creepy kids in a recordstore basement
The main comment from Cronos that stood out to me in about 84 was "Why would you want to sacrifice a virgin?'. Something along those lines. For the record I was just kidding about Iommi with a hello kitty strat on the middle pickup. It doesnt have a middle pickup. Its an honor to get roasted by Tony. You got damn close with the neck.
When I came back with the "At War With Satan" LP that actually looked like it was leather bound, my parents had THE TALK with me about my music choices and punk rocker looks... Jeez, they thought it would make me change... 😈 that's when I actually joined a heavy metal band and I am still playing in a metal band ever since!!!
That's how it happens for the most part. I guess I was very lucky that my parents were amazing and pretty much let me choose my own path in life in regards to everything.
Do the guitar tones on Discharges 'hear nothing see nothing say nothing'now that would be interesting also. This album was out at the same time as black metal, and blew everything out of the water at the time😎
ahhh , Venom. one of my favorites. I remember the first time I put that album on my turntable and being blown away with how brutal they sounded, good times. can you do a video on Celtic Frost, early W.A.S.P. or Testament next ? love your channel , keep up the great work.
Hey O...I once sat next to one of the original members of the Circle Jerks flying to Europe...talked punk rock and the SF Bay Area Punk Rock Scene the whole way...I think his mane was Dave...played Sax...was living in Pacifica, CA at the time... had his address and everything but never caught up with him...regret that now man! What a cool dude! Thanks again for sharing these awesome stories! 😎🎸
Thanks so much for posting this. The classic Venom is one of my all time favorite bands and one of the bands that introduced me to extreme music. Always wondered how Mantas achieved such a crazy tone. Thanks again mate!
Thanks for this! Everybody I know wants to hate on them for being "such terrible musicians" etc. So what? I still like how the music sounds and how it makes me feel. I'd rather listen to all of Venom's "worst" stuff than to listen to any of Steve Vai's "best" stuff.
When I started listening we already had early Slayer, Possessed, etc. But they just seemed like some regular dudes from California. The guys in Venom had a reputation and image of being scary deviants. :D
I bought my first Venom album (and many others) in a small town record store in Wisconsin that also happened to be the only place in town where you could buy VHS porno tapes, and they only accepted cash. Rumor had it the owner also sold weed and shitty coke, but I didn't really know him and never worked up the guts to ask. I felt dirty and ashamed just for walking into that dump, and by gawd that's the way it *should* be. It was a far fucking cry from buying "underground" music at a brightly-lit, spotlessly clean store or ordering it with the click of a mouse with mommy's credit card, that's for sure.
@@dystopiagear6999 I lived in the Twin Cities, so I think I just got my vinyl Welcome To Hell at the Great American Music in the suburban mall LOL. But the mall store would only stock one or two of an album like this so I used to have to scour the racks frequently to avoid missing the few interesting metal albums they got in stock.
It's a shame Mantas had the visa issues during the taping of the Ultimate Revenge VHS release. It would have been great to see live Venom from Studio 54 on that release. I always wondered why it was only Cronos and Abaddon during the interview.
Came for the tone, stayed for the beautiful historical analysis of black metal. That bit was awesome. Elitists rather than Revolutionaries. The best definition to fit for black metalheads
I recommend "Neat & Tidy" by John Tucker for an accurate portrayal of early Venom/ Conrad Lant at Impulse Studios. Snakepit Mag also had some interesting information as well.
I remember them commenting that the metal of the time was so safe sounding - that they wanted to make a hellish racket, that was not a musical statement,really fuck things up , they definitely achieved that.
The MXR Blue Box was a sub octave fuzz. You can dial it in for sub octave or more like a regular fuzz/overdrive. I bet it that pedal because it was available at the time.
Vox ac 30 with treble booster. many boosted warm clean tones. Major to big for studio. Fender strat with yabby cs69 single coil. He also had humbuckers in a strat early. There's pic from Manchester 74 gig.
Thanks. We came up with a few of those on the facebook group when I started a thread about it but nobody mentioned the zonk machine so I'll put it on the list.
Reminds me of how Samhain recorded and it sounded bad but great. The dude recording them didn't do rock bands he did like disco etc which explains the weird but amazing atmosphere and also the harsh di guitars on some of the songs because it was a guitar into a dod250 straight into the board.
@@CIRCLEOFTONE I asked Pete (Damien) on Facebook once what he used and he mentioned it along with his Marshall 1987 model, and some of the guitars like his Iceman, his SG, and also the aluminum neck Kramer axe owned by Eerie and Steve which that was used on Unholy passion. There also used to be an interview of him here on RU-vid but I can't seem to find it now it might've been taken down. In it he also showed some of the chords to some of the songs as well which is why I looked it up to try and learn them but couldn't find it.There is also this video where they supposedly have Damien's actual pedal signed by him and they're using it direct as you can hear like it is on the album somewhat. I find all the gear and recording of Samhain very interesting because in studio it was just very ambient and dark and weird but still in your face with those di guitars mixed in and then live it was full unbridled ripping Marshall tone and aggression. Even in some of the live footage with bad sound you can hear it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MvwRA3e2OXc.htmlsi=Xy9ErDok2AatlV4L Crazy to think they almost toured with Metallica on the master of puppets tour in Europe in 86... Wouldve been some insane shows and probably a true fourth Samhain album called Grim. Just based on rumored track listings it could've been insane, like a Samhain sequel to walk among us. We technically got it in a way if you count the reel platinum versions of misfits songs done by Samhain and some of the tracks off final descent. It's all rumors I have nothing to back that info but it's cool to imagine Apologies for my ramblings hopefully some of this was helpful to you. Maybe you can hit up Pete on Facebook like I did he might be willing to tell you more ?
The only big blue fuzz I can think of from back then would be a JHS (John Hornby Skewes) FZ III Fuzz, which was a rebranded JEN fuzz pedal manufactured in Italy, and basically a form of Tonebender.
Yep that came up in the facebook group when I was trying to find out. This is what we speculated: MXR Blue box octive fuzz (sons of Satan etc had an octive effect) Dan armstrong BLUE Clipper (too small) FUZZ FACE Fresh Fuzz Super Fuzz (octive and LOTS in the UK) Park Fuzz Jen Fuzz AKA JHS/JHS FZ III Fuzz Colour sound solar sound Fuzz sound Honey Special Fuzz
I like how it's the big show... The cameras the expensive drum riser, the pyro etc etc and Cronos breaks a bass string on black metal and you can't even tell the difference in sound. Haha.
@@CIRCLEOFTONE Forgot about the bass string.... Have not watched the video in almost 20 years. Yeah dude they are playing a huge rock concert that is Judas Priest sized. VENOM.... Of all bands to pull it off heh heh
I went over to a buddies in 81-82(??) He was listening to venom and mercyful fate I heard the venom and figgered priest was better and dismissed the mercyful unfortunately now 40 yrs later I'm a big king diamond fan 🙏🙏🤟🤟🤟🤟 You had to've been there black metal to us kids was actually a bit dangerous
Hi Owen. I am interested in all the gear the bands used to record. As a bassplayer I naturally would love to hear more about the bass gear. A friend of mine has the verry same Acoustic 220 solid state head, bought it in the mid/end of the 1970's. He still plays it. And I bought a copy of that amp, made in China, in 1978. It was the exact same amp, just with another name, and the color sceme was red and white. First I played it over the built in speaker of my bass combo, then together with a Marshall 118" cab. Next I made a deal and got a 215" for the huge and heavy Marshall Cab. So it all started.
Almost all early norwegian bm bands copied every aspect of Bathory in their earlier demos before finding their own voice. That says a lot for these pioneers.
I think Henry Rollins talked about touring with Venom at one point and he said they were very Spinal Tap. Compartmentalized like Slash, but also barely able to play their instruments. No idea if it’s true, don’t really care. The image in my head is glorious either way and I can still listen to Venom and enjoy it. Cronos’ voice is still a killer instrument, as evidenced on Dave Grohl’s Probot album.
You may have jogged my memory. I think he talked about that when I saw him do his first story set tour about 12 years ago. May not have been venom but I remember him talking about the METUL!!! aspect of some of the bands from back in the day.
CIRCLE OF TONE. Or maybe it was Buzzo? I dunno, for some odd reason him and Henry sort of occupy the same space in my brain. Ooh, maybe a tonal deep dive into Buzz/ Melvins? The guitar part wouldn’t take too too much work. His rig is pretty simple overall. Hasn’t changed too much over the years, either. When I saw them in Boston I think he was still using beta lead heads and custom cabs (which at one point he joked about badging as “Blown” so whenever someone asked him what cabs he’s using he’d say ‘blown ones!’). Anyhosers, I appreciate you and your content. Cheers!
Nice work! The other night I saw a local cover band of old farts who all had *very* expensive custom shop & vintage repro gear, and once again I was reminded what a complete crock of shit that is. Nearly all the true innovators of rock & metal used whatever the hell they could get their hands on, and much of it was quite cheap. Some of them modified or boosted it however they could with whatever they had. They all still stand out today because they sound unique. Barely any of the awesome classic tones you study and recreate would ever make it onto an album now, because almost none of them are "perfect" enough. Fuck perfection. Rock'n'roll should have sonic warts and scars and sound like it's just about to utterly fall apart.
Interesting you say this sounded like it was recorded underground - I always had that though about Into the Crypts of Rays by Celtic Frost - ever since I heard it when I was 13 in 1987 - I could never think of a better way to describe it and still cant - I have never heard anyone else use that term so I'm stoked.
Saw Venom in October '85 at the Brum Odeon. Great night. Cronos and co. just owned the crowd. Quite surprised they didn't burn the place down with the pyros! To keep a balance, two months later it was Marillion at the NEC. haha :)
The Odeon survived V because enom's pyro's were not fired as planned that night as they had been banned by the Birmingham Odeon Fire Officers. They did however trigger some silver sparks during Bloodlust. It was a great night though, I agree.
cronos is actually a really good bass player on venom songs. his live bass "solo" not so much. but if you listen to what he's doing during the mantas solos, its some pretty intricate stuff.
"Bulldozer bass was born, playing a bass throught a guitar amp" Haven't Lemmy done it for years before which I think Motorhead had a big influence on Venom?
I saw interview where Venom said that they kind of heard the album The Destroyer album from Kiss and kind of base their sound on that but just made it faster
Good show! Venom came into the NWOBHM scene later on, as bands like Tygers of pan tang, Angelwitch(both epic!) or Vardis and Diamond Head were much more earlier front runners. Early Venom was really very different from the "musicality" of NWOBHM. I saw the band in late 82' and early 84' with a world of difference between them. As far as i can remember both Cronos and Mantas did not have a pedal board in front of them, it was basically volume driven amps in utter relentless fashion! At the time , there were not many bands in this genre who could afford Gibsons or Fenders, and a lot of the Japanese copies were (ARE!)at the time(Electra,Aria, Hondo,etc..) really great sounding guitars for a small buck! I dig the rawness(lo-fi garage sound) and the harder sound they had in the beginning, later on they became much like a cartoon version of themselves, basically the same happened with the Norwegian scene.If you isten to early Mayhem and Burzum you simply can not get rid of a persistent "déja-vu" feeling so I lost interest very quickly. Might be interesting to do a feature on "hybrid" sounding bands or guitarists, there lies a real challenge! ;)
Diamond Head were so good. If anyone knows what they used let me know. I love the TV performances. I don't know why they didn't blow up. I actually suggested the V may be the Electra James Hetfield used but the knobs did not align. Good info though. Speaking of Mayhem, I'm doing Bathory soon ;-)
Cronos buys Gibson bass that used to used by Free and smashes it on stage: that's the most metal thing ever! And black metal never got any better after that! Hahaha!
I became curious about Glary basses, so I ordered two P style basses - in yellow. They are € 85,-- in Germany. I have to say that I only found two things that are not that great: the fretts have sharp ends, and the saddle is cut in a hurry. The neck feels like it has the same profile as my MiM Fender Precision 50's Classic. I sanded down the backsides a bit, because they had a rough feel, just to make them feel smooth. The tone is a Precision bass tone, no doubt, the PU has not a lot of output. But this is where amps come in. After 30 minutes of work (for every bass) I now have a decent bass, cheap enough to sit in the rehearsal room without thinking "what about it gets stolen", just to have a bass there if you want to play a spontaneous session. The second bass is for a friend that quit bass playing because two kids have been comming 25 years back. He wants to start again and likes the bass a lot. I say, it is a decent bass, not much better than a cheap Fender Squier you find in Kickstarter sets, but good enough for a beginner or as a backup. My friend and I talked, and we would have loved it to have a bass like this back in the mid 1970's. You either had to buy a fucking expensive Fender, Gibson, Rick or (living in Germany) Hoefner, Hohner or Hopf, or you had to find (and to buy) "the used bass" you found by accident, because there was no used market. The cheaper MiJ copys came to Germany end of the 1970's/beginning of the 1980's. We would have given an arm and a leg for an affordable like those Glarys bass back in the days.
Do you mean the nut? (you called it a saddle). If so I agree. When I did my bass review on the P bass the only issue I reported was the nut was a bit soft. I did need to do the fret ends of my Glarry strat though. In general the necks are pretty thirsty and I used wax n feed. This is what I do with most of my guitars regardless of cost: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8bjoA4LLqgg.html
This was great..I even remember a band that I loved which was close to Venom and they were Bathory, which was also a Venom song. The lead singer even claimed to be a vampire..I used to think he was the real Lestat when Lestat was a rockstar in the Vampire Chronicles..great stuff. I could never find any Bathory actual recordings ..all I ever had were recopies of cassettes but I loved it. Very early Sepultura were great and sounded identical.I just read that Quorthon had a heart attack and died in 2004..guess he wasn't a vampire after all huh? Bad News was awesome. So funny.
this vid series reminds me in some respects of vh1's 'behind the music' insofar as the show is so good i enjoy it even if it's an artist i'm not into. i like VENOM, btw.
