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Venom - Black Metal - Guitar Tab

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Key E minor
Venom - Black Metal guitar tab video
Guillaume Vrac
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Amp Settings

Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
AI tone preset

AI-selected preset based on genre and era — adjust the knobs to taste.

Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
In League With Satan album cover
In League With Satan
1981 3:44
Listen on Spotify
Venom Heavy Metal 1981 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Black Metal

Few riffs in Heavy Metal history hit as hard and as bluntly as the one driving this track. Venom built "Black Metal" on a relentlessly forward-moving E minor riff at 160 BPM, and the key to nailing it is locking that picking hand into a tight, aggressive alternate-picking groove without letting the tempo pull you into sloppiness. The tuning is standard E, so there are no setup complications, but the speed and the raw, slightly chaotic feel of the original mean you need to commit to both precision and attitude at the same time. The chord work is largely power-chord based, but transitions happen fast and any hesitation will stick out immediately. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main riff slowed down until your fretting hand can land every change cleanly before you push the tempo back up. Once the riff is solid, pay attention to the palm muting depth because getting that thick, grinding tone is as much about right-hand control as anything else.

  • The main riff sits in E minor and uses power chords driven hard with palm muting, giving it that thick, grinding low-end tone.
  • At 160 BPM, clean alternate picking is essential for keeping the riff tight and preventing the notes from blurring together.
  • Playing in standard E tuning means no retuning is needed, but matching the raw, aggressive feel of the original requires firm pick attack and controlled palm muting.

How to Play Black Metal

Tuning: E Standard · Key: E minor · Tempo: 160 BPM

Loop the hardest passage and creep the speed up from around 70 percent until it holds at 160 BPM.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Mantas switched to the Les Paul Standard for later Venom albums, leveraging its thicker body and stock PAF humbuckers to generate sustain-rich droning lead tones. The guitar's weight and resonance complemented his transition toward longer, wailing solos while maintaining the clarity needed to cut through Marshall saturation.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

The Les Paul Custom shares the same tonal DNA as Mantas' Standard: thick body resonance, warm humbuckers, and sustained leads ideal for black metal's droning aesthetic. Though less documented in his rig, the Custom offers comparable sustain and compression for his minimalist, vibrato-driven soloing approach.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

Venom's early signature sound relied on the Gibson Explorer's angular body and aggressive weight, which suited Mantas' punishing downpicking style and raw distortion attack. The Explorer's solid construction and stock humbuckers delivered the sharp, cutting aggression that defined Venom's primitive black metal assault.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The Marshall JCM800 2203 is the heart of Mantas' tone, delivering thick power-tube saturation at high volumes with minimal EQ tweaking. Running the amp cranked at 7-8 volume forced him to rely on picking dynamics and vibrato for tone shaping, creating Venom's signature compressed, uncontrollable wall of distortion.

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