Quote:
Originally Posted by nordicdusk
(Post 435256)
The voyage of discovery can be very exciting. How did people react to this in the early 80s?
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In the early '80's, there was no such thing as "Black Metal". There was just "heavy metal", which was Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard (before they sold out) and Saxon and "hard rock", which was Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rush (before they became prog), Magnum etc
From Heavy Metal came 'Thrash', which was used for an umbrella term for louder and faster music, which took it's influence from punk as well as the classic rock bands of the 60's and 70's
The big 4 bands of this movement were all American - Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth.
However, in England, something was stirring.
This something was called Venom!
At the time, Venom were the most extreme band there was. Most people (fans and critics) despised them because they were considered to be just noise and, if you are being honest, the albums 'Welcome To Hell' and 'Black Metal' are just that - noise with no redeeming featured whatsoever
Unless they listened to Tommy Vance or read Kerrang and Sounds, this is probably the first exposure that people had to Venom, which was broadcast on CH4 television at about 5:45pm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataihQOKQyY
As far as I can remember, the only critic who originally championed speed and thrash metal in Kerrang magazine was a guy called Xavier Russell, who was the son of Ken Russell!
But from small seeds, big trees grow, and slowly 'Black Metal' became more popular, especially in Norway in the 90's
