Venom

Cronos - bass, song Antton - drums Rage - guitar
Fan of punk and heavy metal Conrad Lant worked in a recording studio in Newcastle when in 1979 he met Jeff Dunn, then guitarist of a band named Guillotine. The power is passing right away. He was invited to join the training as a rhythm guitarist to make up for Dave Rutherford's departure. It was also during this period that Clive Archer and Tony Bray, respectively singer and drummer of Oberon, joined the band. Very quickly, Guillotine found herself under the cut of the trio Cronos-Mantas-Abaddon, pseudos chosen respectively by Lant, Dunn and Bray, which made the void around him. Following one of the first concerts, Alan Winston suddenly left the band, forcing Cronos to drop the guitar for the bass. Clive Archer leaves shortly afterwards. Venom was born.
Quite poorly produced, the group's first recordings do not give the desired results, especially with the Neat Records label, not packed more than this by the trio of Newcastle. Whatever the matter, Cronos insists and succeeds in convincing Dave Wood and Mike Sweeney to graciously offer their services for the recording of £50 Demos which this time get the favors of some media and especially Goeff Barton who includes them in his playlist for several weeks. Flaring the good blow, Neat Records offers Venom to record a first single, In League with Satan , followed in 1981 by Welcome to Hell , the first album that propels the band in a frantic way on the English scene. Therefore, the ascension of Venom is inevitable. A year later the famous Black Metal , acclaimed by the metal world, was released, followed by At War with Satan in 1984, which confirmed Newcastle's band as a leading band on the English scene. It was also that year that Venom performed his first concert at Hammersmith Odeon. As a result, the band is turning more and more intensely, offering fans cataclysmic performances, whose organ point is a US tour with Slayer . But gradually things disintegrate between the members. Mantas becomes more and more distant and his cold involvement on Possessed is hardly of the taste of Cronos and Abaddon. In fact, the release of the fourth album turns out to be a failure that precipitates his departure to new horizons. Not wanting to let go, Cronos and Abaddon recruited two guitarists, Mike Hickey and Jimmy Clare, for the recording of Calm Before the Storm in 1987. But the worm is in the fruit. A year later, Cronos folded the gaules, took the two scratches in his luggage and left to form Cronos. Hence the end of Venom seems inevitable. Yet Abaddon and Mantas do not seem determined to draw a definitive line on the group. A time both evolving under the surname of Sons Of Satan, the duo recruited Al Barnes (guitar) and Tony Dolan (bass, singing) and released Venom's sixth album, Prime Evil , in 1989. Two more albums will follow, Temple of Ice and The Waste Lands. In 1992, Al Barnes was replaced by Steve White and the band offered a synth before returning to the Dolan-Mantas-Abaddon trio. Venom splits soon after.
Except for a best of recorded by Cronos, Mike Hickey and Mark Wharton (Cathedral) during the studio sessions of Cronos, the Newcastle band seems permanently buried. Yet, against all expectations, Venom was reformed under its original line up in 1996, performing a remarkable performance at the Dynamo Festival, which followed two albums, Cast In Stone and Resurrection. The Venom machine seems to be relaunched but it is soon to be caught up by its old demons. Abaddon finally left the band in 2000, replaced by Anthony Lant, Cronos' brother. Worse, an accident forced the latter, two years later, to observe a forced rest of several months that Mantas took advantage of to leave Venom and reactivate his project, Mantas 666. He is replaced by Mike Hickey who works on Skeletons in the Closet. In 2007, to promote the release of Metal Black , Venom launched successfully on European roads, demonstrating that its motivation, 25 years later, remains intact.