One of the original bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that sprang up in the late '70s, Venom played a menacingly fast style of black metal that, in the decades to follow, would be ripped off by bands from across the metal spectrum. The band's bountiful use of satanic imagery was inspired by Black Sabbath but took on a life and style all its own, best displayed on 1981's Welcome to Hell and the following year's Black Metal. In short, Venom were every parent's worst nightmare and every disaffected metalhead's dream come true. Although infamous frontman Cronos left the band in the late '80s, Venom soldiered on and Cronos returned years later to lead the devil's hordes into the new millennium.