Venom are a heavy metal band, formed in late 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Considered a seminal influence for thrash and black metal and coming to prominence towards the end of the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal', Venom have found little mainstream success or critical acclaim, but are widely regarded as highly influential, particularly for their first two albums, Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982).

The title of Venom's second album would become influential and definitive enough to describe an entire subgenre called black metal, a category under which the band is most commonly referred. The nature of Venom's high-pitch guitars, harsh vocals, use of pseudonyms, and unrelenting emphasis on Satanic lyrics and imagery is considered the template for the subgenre's later successes, and arguably for the broader extreme metal movement in general. .

There is more than one artist with this name: 1) Venom, formed in 1979, basically kickstarted the extreme metal movement, although in retrospect their raw Satanic speed metal sound was not too dissimilar from a few of their NWOBHM comrades. At their prime Venom seemed the heaviest and most menacing band out there, and were a big influence to virtually all early extreme metal bands. Their seminal album Black Metal lent its name to the up and coming subgenre of the same name. Indeed Black Metal is