Review by JD on November 5, 2008.

Venom is one of my all time bands, and I was looking forward to seeing my Black Metal gods in all of their glory... but the DVD turns out to be very deceptive. It has the Venom name tacked on it, but it is not what it looks like. Like the worst Christmas ever... you wanted the most popular toy in the world and had bugged people about it for months... and you ended up getting underwear instead.

At first glance, it seemed to be totally awe inspiring documentary all about the Black Metal pioneers, the three piece aberration that is the mighty Venom. What the DVD turns out to be is... well.. Let me just say, one of the biggest let downs I have ever came across to date. What it turns out to be is a collection of out-takes of shows and amateurish footage from different bands living in the same area of Britain as the hellspawn trio is from.

Eighty's bands such as Warfare, Avenger and Saracen all on this very loose documentary format style, a format that honestly does not have any direction to it whatsoever. I wanted Venom, live and kicking my ass in the way they always did... not a collection of metal bands that are footnotes in the history of Metal. It was sort of good to hear the old style school of metal the when it was cutting it's teeth before taking over the world, but that does not really fix what is fifty eight minutes of purely boring and completely uninspired documentary pap that is misleading in it's packaging.

My only redeeming thing is that I can daydream that the boys from Venom find the people who shot this all... and start to kick their wimpy asses all over England for doing this to them.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 4( For Venom... long may they thrash)
Atmosphere: 3
Production: 3
Originality:5
Overall: 3


Rating: 3.8 out of 10