Venom is a heavy metal band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK in 1979. Coming to prominence towards the end of the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal', Venom's first two albums – Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982) – are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general. Venom's second album proved influential enough that its title was used as the name of an extreme metal subgenre: black metal.
