siLLy puPPy
The beginning of all things extreme metal can be traced back to this single demo released by VENOM in 1980 appropriately titled DEMON. While the early classic lineup consisted of Cronos (Conrad Lant) on vocals and bass, Mantas (Jeff Dunn) on guitars and Abaddon (Tony Bray) on drums, this three track cassette-only demo is the only VENOM release to feature Clive Archer aka Jesus Christ on vocals. Yep, JC dropped down from heaven to lend a hand at creating the big bang of everything thrash, death and black in the metal universe to follow! Saviors have their work cut out for them, ya know.
Despite what seems like a rather generic black metal album cover from the future with the inverted pentagram complete with a blurred goat depiction and black background with white font, DEMON is much more in the NWOBHM realms but don’t expect Angel Witch or Iron Maiden here. VENOM started out with an interest in Satanic shock value lyrics from the beginning. While very much rooted in the 70s blues oriented heavy rock scene, VENOM does turn up the steam a bit more than their contemporaries with heavier distortion on guitars and bass along with more pummeling rhythmic and percussive attacks. Also JC delivers some decent growly vocals at this early year sounding somewhat like a more talented Lemmy from Motorhead.
While “Angel Dust” and “Red Light Fever” would end up on the debut release “Welcome To Hell,” “Raise The Dead” would end up on the second release “Black Metal.” Of course all of these would be re-recorded with Chronos picking up JC’s savior torch. Despite this being rare and never re-released and ground zero for an entire sub-universe of the metal kingdom, it is hardly an essential release for listening purposes as the differences between the second versions are of much higher quality and Chronos’ vocals sound pretty much exactly the same as JC. This demo is merely of historical importance for its opening up the Pandora’s Box of extreme metal. Worth a listen on YouTube, for sure.