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VENOM. Welcome To Hell. Original 1981 Vinyl LP. Cronos/Mantas/Abaddon.
See photo for damage to spine.
Welcome to Hell by  ReleasedDecember 1981RecordedAugust 1981StudioImpulse Studios in , England Length39:26, Keith Nichol and Venom chronologyWelcome to Hell
(1981)
(1982)

Welcome to Hell is the debut studio album by English  band . It was released in December 1981, through , and recorded at Impulse Studios during the  movement. Much of the material on the album was written prior to the bands formation, and was primarily written by vocalist and bassist  and guitarist . At the time, Lant worked as an assistant engineer and tape operator at Impulse Studios and managed to get the band studio time to record and release two demos in 1980, as well as the bands first single,  in April 1981. Following a positive reception and strong sales of the bands single, Venom were asked by Neat to record and mix all the material they had written in just three days. These re-recorded demos were hastily bundled together and would be released as the band's debut album, unpolished and with little production value.

Due to the band members thinking they were recording a simple demo and not an actual album during their three days in the studio, the raw and unpolished production quality of the album served as an inspiration for many  bands who considered its powerful and technically basic sound to be the first true statement of the  genre. Welcome to Hell if often described as a mix of , , and . It's lyrics and imagery draw heavily from  and , with the song's lyrics dealing mostly with dark topics including hedonism, sexual depravity, serial killing, witchcraft, and . The cover artwork, designed by drummer , features an inverted golden  star with the , symbol of the , inside of it. 

Welcome to Hell received generally positive reviews from critics. Much of the album's praise coming later on in the band's career as its recognized influence on a whole plethora of extreme metal bands and genres including , , and black metal lead to the album being considered a historically significant record in metal. Some critics were not as enthusiastic about the album, questioning the group's technical skill as well as the poor production quality. Nonetheless, Venoms inability, particularly early on in their career, to emulate the more technically proficient metal of their predecessors or peers, along with the bands sonically raw and under-produced sound, pushed them to focus on sheer speed, creating music that was inspired by earlier metal, yet simultaneously innovative and influential. 

The album was re-released by  in 2002