Moving along to the “V” in our Heavy Metal alphabet, two bands spring to mind that are almost as different from each other as you can get within the metal genre: Van Halen and Venom. Van Halen, the American band of Dutch origin was the first big Hair Metal band, making metal mainstream, while Venom was the founding band of the Black Metal subgenre, which revels in satanism and shocking the bourgeoisie. Both are bands I like a couple of songs quite a lot of, while the rest of their oeuvre leaves me cold.
So, which songs do you think about when Van Halen is mentioned? No you pervs, not “Hot for Teacher” but these two:
Jump:
And “Running with the Devil”:
Venom has never been a, well, a very good band; it’s more the sort of band you put on to shock your mother.
Yet the band does have a certain charm and attraction, as shown here in “Welcome to Hell”:
“Countess Bathory”: