Historians look back on the first wave of black metal as a mostly European phenomenon: the unwitting coalition of Celtic Frost, Bathory, Venom and others, who inspired the notorious Norwegian scene. But, a hemisphere away from the rest, another band made an indelible mark.
Despite not releasing their debut album until 2012, and not being anywhere near as famous as many contemporaries, Von birthed American black metal, gave Watain their name and went on to be covered by Dark Funeral. Varg Vikernes, the former Mayhem bassist who killed bandleader Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, even wore one of their shirts to his 1994 murder trial.
Von’s story is a knotted tapestry with no single, universally accepted version of events. According to the biography on singer/bassist Jason “Venien” Ventura’s website, he and vocalist/guitarist Shawn “Goat” Calizo formed the band in Hawaii in 1987. Their drummer, known only as Brent or “Snake”, completed the lineup not long afterwards. Venien said in 2012 that their DNA was built out of punk and classic rock, and they wanted to be even nastier than fellow black metal inspirations Venom and Sodom.
“In high school, I was into punk rock, and when I moved with my dad for his work to Honolulu in freshman year, I got a job where I met Shawn,” he told Abysmal Hymns. “We hooked up and were jamming in the garage. At the time, he was more into classic rock like Led Zeppelin. Working in a factory one summer, I met Brent, and we got him to come in and just smash on buckets to create this really raw brutal sound.”
After a handful of shows in the Aloha State, the lineup relocated to San Francisco: the adopted hometown of Metallica and the capital of the American thrash metal scene. However, the move did little to accelerate their career. “We were the band nobody wanted to book,” Venien recalled, “because everyone was into thrash.”
The band recorded one demo, 1989’s Satanic. It made every other extreme metal band of the time sound like Enya by comparison, but it’s easy to notice the sonic and aesthetic choices that would become black metal hallmarks. The songs were savage, not to mention frosty-sounding, thanks to the extraordinarily lo-fi recording. The monochrome artwork depicted hand-drawn pentagrams and flames. Eviler than evil, and unmistakably DIY.
Shortly after Satanic, Venien left Von and returned to Hawaii due to a family emergency. There were two further demos in his absence, Satanic Blood and Blood Angel, plus more lineup unrest. Eventually, in 1992, Venien and Goat reunited and agreed to end things. Goat became an actor and joined pop groups, and Venien enlisted in the military. That, it seemed, was that.
But Von lived on. Thanks to the wonders of the heavy metal tape-trading network in the 80s and 90s, their scrappy-as-a-pitbull, raw-as-uncooked-steak demos made it all around the world. In 1996, Dark Funeral made a cover of the song Satanic Blood track 10 on their debut album, The Secrets Of The Black Arts. The same year, a bootleg fell onto the lap of Swedish musician Erik Danielsson, and he was so inspired that he later formed a band named after one of their songs: Watain.
“In 1996 I was deep into my [musical] explorations and thought I had experienced everything,” Danielsson recalled in 2010. “[Von] took it to an even more primal state of expression. That’s as far as human music can go.”
Similarly, in 2019, Darkthrone drummer Fenriz named Von as “pioneers” of black metal, alongside Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, early Morbid Angel and others. Evoking Von’s earlier aesthetic choices, Darkthrone’s first black metal albums – A Blaze In The North Sky, Under A Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger – were stripped-back to the rawest possible degree and bore black-and-white covers.
In 2010, at the behest of Watain’s Danielsson, Venien and Goat reunited as Von and headlined the Armageddon festival, playing their first gig together in 20 years. This is where things get complicated. Venien and Goat parted ways again in 2012, but the bassist kept the band going with a new lineup, assumed Goat’s position as vocalist and released their official debut, named Satanic Blood after their old demo and containing 17 tracks, largely re-recordings.
The continuation sans Goat proved controversial. In their review of the Satanic Blood album, Pitchfork said that Von had been “bastardised”. But, furore be damned, Venien’s new collective ploughed on, releasing two further albums: Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves (2013) and Dark Gods: Birth Of The Architects (2017). Venien said in 2012 that he wanted this Dark Gods series to become a trilogy, but as of 2026, there’s not as much as a whisper of a finale.
Von may have once again descended into inactivity, but their influence on the black metal world is unquestionable, and worthy of more discussion. They’re as big a part of the first wave as any of the more famous names – even if it did take them 25 years to release a debut album.
