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Venom, the
band credited as the original inventors and founders of Black Metal, the
larger than life Singer and Bassist, [Cronos] is widely credited as the creator
of Thrash, Speed, Death and Power Metal, creating the deadliest force ever to hit
the music scene, the original sinner playing the Devil's music at its highest
intensity, in the ultimate Rock n' Roll metal punk band in the universe,
Venom.
It all started way back in the 1970's
in the north of England, a young Heavy Metal / Punk Rocker called
Conrad Lant [aka: Cronos] started working in a recording studio [Impulse Studios] as the assistant
engineer after leaving school, he had been interested in music from an
early age, growing up in London in the early 1960's and living close to
bands such as The Who and The Rolling Stones, who he remembers seeing
while walking back and forth to school with his mother, and again on the
tv during their early performances. Moving up to the North East of
England in the early 70's, he learned to play guitar at school due
to a music teacher seeing his interest, and giving him extra tuition
during lunch breaks, and giving him full access to the school's
instruments. He played in a few different bands throughout his school
days, with the idea of creating a band that was heavier and more over the
top than anything anyone had ever seen or heard before, more Satanic than Black
Sabbath, louder than Motörhead, with a pyrotechnic show to rival
Kiss, and with even more leather and studs than Judas
Priest, the ultimate ingredients for the Ultimate Metal
Band.
Venom detonated the whole black metal
explosion with one stroke by releasing an album with that title in 1982. The story
of Venom's leader and singer / bassist:
'Cronos', is one of the most
amazing in the history of music, seemingly rising from impossible
conditions, he moulded and steered the band to become
one of the main cornerstones of the modern
metal sound. Think about it,
how many bands have actually
inspired and named a whole area of music, almost single-handedly?
How many bands are there that can truly say
they have no rivals? No competition? There has never been or ever
will be such a unique band as Venom. Cronos totally rewrote the rule book and laid
waste to the disbelievers who said it could never be done, but Venom take
no prisoners, and Cronos rode his mighty ship of Black Metal sailing
through the thunderstorms and turbulent high seas of the music industry,
with the Legions of followers at the oars, an unstoppable force for decades to come.
Venom
aren’t a band prepared to
compromise.
Cronos holds firm the principles of never surrender, even if at times this
might have cost them significant rewards. For instance, they always
boasted that their stage show was so massive they’d never play a UK date
until they could be satisfied on being booked into a venue that could
house every last pyro and effect. That’s why they made their debut at the
legendary Hammersmith Odeon in London on June 1, 1984. Go on, name one
other UK band whose first ever live performance was at such a prestigious
venue. Easy, isn’t it? No, There is no other.
“I wanted to shove two
fingers up at the music industry" recalls Cronos.
"I was told by every
other musician I
spoke to... there was a certain way of doing things in this industry. You had
to pay your dues, right? You had to get in a van and do all the shit
hole clubs. Then, and only then, could you
consider moving up to bigger venues. That was the way it worked – and
there was no other way. Oh yeah? I said
‘Bollocks!!!, then booked the Hammersmith Odeon in London and
sold it out. Our
first proper British gig – well, apart from a couple in local church halls in the
very early days, but I consider them warm up shows for what was to
come. Now what did the know-it-alls
have to say? Zilch!"
“I've always broke the rules, taking risks, that's the way
I roll. I
started out as a tape operator
/ assistant engineer in
a
small recording Studio in Newcastle, [Impulse Studios] which was owned by some local folk
musicians [Lindisfarne]. I had to
work with many different types of bands
and solo artists who
came
to lay down their songs, and
you'd get the bands that said they wanted to sound like Judas Priest
or Saxon, or even bloody Shirley Bassey or Frank
Sinatra. They wanted this song to be like one band, and another to be
like this other happening act of the day. And there was me, in the corner,
saying, ‘Hey I’ve got a band too!’, and being ignored. All these local
musicians were convinced they were the ones
most likely to succeed. But there
was no originality there. It’s typical of the
inner
city mentality. It’s club land, where
everyone knows the words to ‘We Are The World’. Where’s the originality?
You think back to all those
NWOHM bands at the time: They all sounded like someone else, with boring riffs and predictable lyrics. We didn’t want to be part of that, even if it meant
people didn't like what we were doing at first, coz it was different".
“From
the very start when I decided to become a musician instead
of an actor, I wanted to be different,
larger than life, to stand apart and bring something new to the music scene. I had been in a couple of bands while I
was at school, one band was named: 'Album Graecum' which I had read in the school
library meant Petrified Dog Shit, we were a cross punk and rock music
outfit. I played Guitar and tried writing some songs with the singer, but
it was difficult to get the rest of the band interested in new material, so
in rehearsals we ended up playing songs by the Pistols, the Clash,
T/Rex, Bowie, UFO and of course, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Motorhead, but
all along I kept writing my own ideas".
But the young Cronos was always on the look out for other musicians to
work with, and after a while he
formed another group called 'Dwarfstar', a lot more rock / metal than punk
and with the first signs of Satanic influences, writing song titles such
as 'Sons of Satan', 'Bloodlust' and 'Welcome To Hell'". I
designed the bands logos and started incorporating pentagrams and dark satanic imagery into my art".
"Working at the studio was long hours and a lot of the days were booked by Folk
Artistes and
Session musicians, recording cover songs for the local clubs, although I
was focused on learning how the studio equipment worked through the day,
and writing song ideas at night. I started taking over recording
duties quite quick really, learning how to operate the studio equipment
came to me quite naturally, so when the in house engineer was off sick one day,
as they didn't want to cancel the booked session, I said 'hey I'll do it'.
The session went great and they released their recording as an EP on
vinyl. The studio building became a bit of a hang out place for the local
ageing club singers, and that's when I made friends with was a singer in a
band called 'Geordie' called 'Brian Johnson', who is now the singer with
the band AC/DC".
"I'd been playing live shows
for a number of years at this point, starting out at a community centre
where we played a few times a week. We had a mate with two boxes
with 6 coloured bulbs and a strobe light. We used a recording of a
witch describing an orgy as our intro tape, which I got
from a Bowie bootleg".
So who
are Venom? Where do they come from? And how did they become so
influential without achieving the enormous commerciality that was surely
their birthright. Ah, now here lies a soap opera. So, come with me, back
to 1979, when the world was very different. When mobile phones and the
Internet were figments of fevered comic book superheroes. And when the New
Wave Of British Heavy Metal was starting to make its presence felt.
"About 6 months or more after I
started working at Impulse Studios in Wallsend", recalls Cronos; "I met a girl in a burger
bar and she invited me round her house one evening, she was there with another girl
and her boyfriend, he told me he was a guitarist, [Jeff Dunn] and so I got talking to him
about music etc and that I was looking for other musicians for a new band
idea, he said he was working with some other musicians doing cover songs but wasn't happy
with all of them, so he invited me to check out what he was doing at a rehearsal.
When
I first
saw
his band they called themselves Guillotine and
were a sort of Judas Priest tribute / cover band.
The guitarist even had long blond hair and looked the spitting image of KK Downing. He
may deny it now, but he knows it’s true. They sounded like shit and were all over the
place. Little did they know but as I was working as A&R for Neat Records,
and I
had already heard most of the new bands in the area, so believe me when I
say these guys sucked big time, with the drums being the worst, totally
out of time and just plain sloppy. I thought if I had any chance of
working with these people then the first thing I need to do is knock
the cover band attitude out of them. The thing was, the drummer and singer
worked in a steel factory and the guitarist was a petrol pump attendant,
so they knew nothing about recording studios or concert halls etc, or
anything to do with recording or playing live etc etc, but even though
they were terrible musicians, there was something about them that I liked,
plus it seemed to me like I had a plain slate with these guys, so I could
influence the direction they were headed. They
didn't take themselves too seriously and seemed to be having fun and enjoyed playing, so I thought
what the hell, I'll give these jokers a chance and see what comes of it”.
“I
decided to
go to more rehearsals taking my guitar, and
started getting up and playing with them, this is how the band formed into a five-piece, I
was playing rhythm guitar. The guy they had previously had short
curly hair and just didn't look the part, so I took over on rhythm guitar.
After a couple of rehearsals playing Priest and Motohead covers, I
mentioned I had some new song ideas of my own. This got a bit of a mixed
reaction, so I basically laid it on the line and said my goal is to be in
a band that plays original material, and so if their only intention is to
play covers then I'd have to leave. They agreed to working on new songs as
by this point they knew I worked in a studio, so were keen to keep me in
the band”.
"The drummer and I were talking about the band name one day and both
agreed it was shit, we had a roady at the time who also drove the van, and
he suggested the band name 'Venom', I know the guitarist wasn't too
keen on the name at first, but with pressure from the other members he
succumbed to influence and that was it, we were now called VENOM". (there are
variations on this part of the story, but this is the way the band
themselves recall it in various past magazine interviews).
“We decided on
using stage names very early on. I
thought it would be
lame to be singing about Satan and
Demons and all the dark forces, and to have basic normal names.
I felt
it wasn't right, we needed names to fit the
personalities, something more formidable and demonic. That was always my problem with Ozzy. He’d sing
about dark figures then spoilt it all by going,
'Oh God,
help me!’ Duh, Wrong! That was stopping one step short of where I wanted to
take this band. We were prepared to go beyond the Hammer Horror of Black
Sabbath”.
For the record,
the name Cronos comes from Greek mythology and was
one of the first gods, the original Titans, the generation that
preceded Zeus and the Olympian gods. He was the son of Uranus and Gaia.
"I wanted to come up with a stage name that
had some meaning or connection to myself, and as my birth sign is
Capricorn, and my planet is Saturn, then the god of Saturn is Cronos. For the other
band members, they didn't really put much thought into it, they just took their names
from the Satanic bible, from the infernal names. it seems
they just took the first names they
thought sounded cool without giving it much thought".
“I switched from
rhythm guitar when our bassist left one week before our
first gig, we
couldn’t play a gig without a bass player, and we didn’t have time to teach
a new one the songs, so I agreed to switch,” says Cronos with that
trademark hyper-speed verbal delivery that matches the velocity of the
music.
“We had a
singer at the time, Clive Archer, he had the idea of calling himself Jesus Christ as
his stage name [?] which wasn't really in tune with the rest of our names,
but hey it was his choice. One cool thing he did though was he used
to put tons of wet lime powder on his face and let it dry,
a bit like a girls face mask which set pure white, then he'd move his face and let it crack, it was the birth of corpse
paint, although a lot more gruesome. Archer
didn’t exactly endear himself to the rest of the band when he chose an
inappropriate stage name and
hated the Satanic element.
That in itself
was enough to get himself fired".
During the weeks of rehearsing new song ideas, Cronos was working at the
studio trying to convince the studio owner to sign some rock / metal
bands, but that wasn't going to be easy as the MD had no knowledge or
interest in 'heavy metal', and preferred to run a few small folk labels
and hire the studio to session musicians etc.
"Getting into the studio to record was quite a challenge for me, I used to pester the managing director about bringing my
band 'DwarfStar' into the studio when I first got the job, although without any joy, then when I
formed Venom I tried again, although without any recordings for the MD to
hear, he wasn't going to entertain my ideas at all. So one day at our
Church Hall rehearsals I set up an old crappy cassette player and recorded
our rehearsal, it was terrible, the hall was way to big, and so the
recordings sounded really distant and booming, a right racket, but anyway I played it to
everyone at the studio and they hated it, and not surprising as
the big church hall reverb didn’t do justice to our sound,
and we sounded terrible. [yeah :)] Soon after I
came up with the idea of trying to
convince the engineer (Mickey Sweeney) to work a short session for free if I'd stay back
every night in the studio and help him with other sessions, he agreed, so I now just had to try to
persuade the studio boss (Dave Wood) to give me a
few hours for free also, again agreeing to
do all sorts of extra [unpaid] work around the studio. Eventually he
agreed and this was when I finally got 4 hours session time so e could
record the 3 track demo, at last we had a good-ish
quality recording our ourselves to play to the world, and
I made as many copies as I could to mail out to all sorts of labels and
magazines, and one mag in particular was 'Sounds Magazine',
which one of the editors; Geoff Barton decided to
put
all 3 tracks in his weekly play list, and for a few weeks
running, he claimed he loved
them so much he didn't want 3 different artists like the other journalists
put in their play lists, he put all 3 of our songs from the demo
tape".
During talks with the label; Neat
Records, it was decided at this time that as there were so many [skint] bands
around that all needed to record, that he would put an affordable deal
together called the '£50 Demos’, this was 4 hours in the
studio to record as many live songs as possible straight to 2 track
master, no fancy 16 or 24 track recording with a mix later, oh no, just
set up the equipment, get a basic sound on everything, then go for it,
about as live as you can get in a studio. But £50 was still way to
much for us in those days, I remember I only got about £20 a week
wages. So again I promised to work impossibly long
hours in the studio to pay for the session,
and eventually after much grovelling, I was
finally given the go ahead to bring the band in to the studio to record
the ‘£50 Demos’.
So on the 10th October
1980 we entered the studio, we recorded 6 tracks in the 4 hours we were
given.
Sons Of Satan, In League With Satan, Angel Dust, Live Like An
Angel, Schizo and the band song Venom. When it was time to record
Live Like An Angel Jeff asked me if I'd have a
go singing
it, I said "Hell Yeah", although at the end of the session we had a band meeting and
the guitarist and drummer said that they preferred my vocal style to Clive’s.
I must say he was very big about the whole situation even though he had in
reality just been sacked, he said we could keep his PA for me to sing
through,
and his parting words were something like; ‘I fucking love this band, I
really hope you guys make it”.
So with
these
demos and the fact that
the old singer was out meant Neat Records finally agreed to take a
chance and let Venom record a
single. “Geoff Barton (then of ‘Sounds’ magazine, a strong supporter
of Venom in their early years) ended a review of the (self-titled) White
Spirit album by saying; “in closing can I just politely suggest that
Neat Records should release a single by the virulent Venom, and soon”.
That seemed to help our cause a little bit, as Neat were surprised that a
classic rock fan like Geoff would like the band. [Neat thought we had
bribed him?] Anyway, this was when the band
first shocked an unsuspecting public with the
single ‘In League With Satan’,
[c/w: Live Like An Angel ~ Die Like A Devil] a seven inch EP that was so savage
it made Iron Maiden sound like grannies with dyspepsia.
“I had to really work hard in the studio to
get us enough time to cut that single. We were asked by Neat to work with a guy called Steve Thompson as pop producer – and we hated
him with a vengeance. He didn’t get what we were about at all, he was just some
old 'know-it-all' fat guy who
hung out in the building doing sessions for crap club singers [never been's
and never will be's] and the like, he
knew nothing about rock or metal or anything really, we
were gonna tie him up and lock him a flight case, but we knew he had no
sense of humor and wouldn't
find it funny and he'd cry like a baby. The original mix of the single
was awful; it sounded nothing like us. So I did something that nearly got
me fired from the studio as well as blowing the chance of getting the
single released. When nobody was book to record one day, I put the 16 track
master tape back on the machine
and completely re-mixed it, just went for it without permission. I then
swapped the newly mixed tape that I'd done with the
other tape the
other guy had mixed. So it was my mix that got pressed up into the
singles, and it was only when the label was
playing the first batch of discs that arrived at the office that the
producer said,
‘Hang on, that’s not my mix’. I just came clean straight away and admitted, ‘No, it’s not, it’s mine! Honestly, I nearly lost my job over that… the label people were livid. But I stand by what I did. The single
sounded raw, hard and very much the way it should have been. I’ve still
got the original tape at home – it’s nothing like
us, I should probably just destroy it so it never gets out.”
That same year, 1981, the band’s
debut album, Welcome To Hell was unleashed - the audio
equivalent of rubbing a tab of salt into a gaping wound. Actually,
what a lot of people don’t realise is that the album was really no more than a collection of
demos! It wasn’t a true album, which is why there’s such a huge difference
in sound quality between 'Welcome To Hell' and the next album, 'Black Metal'.”
In a strange way, the
very demo quality of the record probably did much to boost Venom’s
growing popularity as the uncrowned kings of the rapidly expanding metal
underground.
“Neat Records were very
surprised at how well the single was selling and asked me if we had any
more songs, “loads” I said, so Neat asked if we
would record everything we had so they could hear all our tracks.
We went back
into the studio and recorded what we thought were a bunch of demos. Then,
Neat Records said, ‘You know, we could stick a cover on these and put them
out as an album’. We thought, ‘Great idea. We’ll go back in and re-record
the songs properly with more care and attention etc, and then turn the songs into a proper record’. Er, that wasn’t the way Neat saw it at
all. They literally meant that they wanted to release our demos,
warts n' all, as the first
album!”
Despite a lack of production
values, the album did give Venom a strong foothold for the band on
the metal scene. The fearsome trio were no longer just another band for the masses – they had
substance and real potential. Their roar was ferocious, unnerving and
utterly vitriolic.
“Funnily enough, because of the
first album’s very basic style, we got a reputation for not being able to
play our instruments at all. Of course, we used to play up to that like
crazy. We’d do 50 interviews in a day, and at first we’d be sayings things
like, ‘Nah, we can’t play a note. We’re shite, really’. Then we’d take
completely the opposite approach and tell the journalists, ‘Of course we
can play. We’re all classically trained virtuosos. I can play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
easily. I’m a genius’. It was all a laugh. Something to break the monotony
of having to answer the same questions all day".
“But
there were loads of people who thought that Venom were incapable of
actually playing a decent note. Now look, I would be the first to admit
that we had a drummer who wasn’t exactly a good time-keeper, but then so
do Metallica. Come on, everyone knows that about Lars Ulrich. But does it
matter? Did it hold them back? No. You work with what you’ve got, and
that’s the way it
is.”
The stories of their shows they
played [destroyed] in old church halls as the band were forming were
becoming well known, then a chance opportunity to make a show in Belgium
arose and they set off to play a sports hall in a town called Popperinge.
"We wanted to get away from the UK" said Cronos, "It was important for us
to see how we were accepted away from the constraints of the people who
judged us without even seeing or hearing us, we knew we'd have to get out
into the world to see if we really had a chance at this or not".
The show was a great success, and so the band set their sights on going
even further, but the turn of events that eventually saw Venom heading off
to the USA couldn't have been dreamt up....
A small time importer from New York called Johnny Z ordered a
few boxes of Venom's first album from Neat Records to sell on his record
stall in a shopping mal. Venom decided to sign some of the albums but got
carried away and started defacing the albums, eventually smashing and
tearing them into pieces. Not wanting to show Neat the damage they just
packed everything into the boxes, and so Neat sent them to the US. But
instead of complaints Johnny ordered more? As time went by he asked
Neat if Venom would be interested in coming to the US for a few shows.....
"I remember when Neat told us of this guy in the US who wanted to organize
some shows" said Cronos, "The first thing we talked about was how we could
get our show [pyros etc] to the US, and who we could get to open for us.
A friend of mine was a bootlegger and used to import loads of rare Kiss
bootlegs etc and he had shown me a shitty quality video of a new band from
San Francisco where the guitarist was wearing a Venom tee shirt". [Metallica]
The first US shows were great for Venom, they had asked Johnny Z to get
Metallica to open for them. "It was great to see that both Europe and the
US were very into what we were doing" explained Cronos, "the UK didn't
really give a shit about our metal, but we figured that was always the
case with people always wanting bands from somewhere else, rather than
appreciating your own bands, but we had a blast in the States, we started
planning our return before we even left.
Not all of the band liked the foreign shows though, our guitarsit
really hated the US
for some reason of his own, it was like something spooked him, he nicknamed himself 'Anti Septic' and even decided to stay in a
hotel room on his own to get away from everyone, a bit sad really".
A year later, having now
established themselves as pariahs of the metal world, yet conversely building a strong fan base among those who
worshipped hardcore metal, Venom returned with arguably their most important
album… Black
Metal
“We knew that
together we had an original sound, the unholy din that came at you when we
kicked into a track was truly tremendous, trying to get this mayhem down
onto tape in a studio was another matter, I tried my best with all of the
skills I had learned as a studio engineer, I just went for the heaviest
sound I could get, I mean there was no way I was ever going to make Venom
sound like Lynyrd Skynyrd now was there? It was pure mayhem from start to
finish".
“The
Venom sound came about more through time constraints than anything else.
We only spent three days on Welcome To Hell, and about
7 days at
the Studios for Black Metal, this is all the time that
Neat would allow us in the studio actually. I always had more to
do with the production than anyone else,
and that was because I had
studio experience. I was there from dawn to dusk, from the first equipment
being brought into the building, to the final tapes being taken out. I would
work alongside the studio
engineer for the recordings but preferred to mix
without anyone else there.
The studio equipment was old
and we didn’t have anything like SSL, (programmable desks)”.
For
Cronos this period was a somewhat frustrating time, being in a band
gaining momentum, yet also forced to work with others on the
label.
“The
period of time leading up to the Black Metal era was
quite
infuriating
for me. Why? Because, as I said before, I was in the studio as
an engineer with bands like White Spirit, Fist and Raven
etc,
they all thought they
were the dog’s bollocks, but I
found it odd that most of them were just trying to be like bands that
already existed, and not many of them had much of their own originality. I
actually got most of them signed as the label didn't have a clue about
this type of music. I started working as A&R for Neat, and I'd
go to the clubs around the north east and check out all the local up and
coming Rock / Metal bands, I'd then advise Neat which bands I thought
were possibly worth a single for the label. I'd also sit in on all the
sessions so I could check out their potential, or not. A lot of
these
bands were just
local wannabe Rock Stars.
They were getting their first taste of attention to test their merit, and unfortunately for some of them, it went to
their heads, and this is when all the rivalry started..... some of them
thought they
could treat
people
with disrespect, they all started stabbing
each other in the backs and it went way beyond a joke".
"The bullshit even
came in Venom's direction with certain
bands getting us banned from certain rehearsal rooms in the area, so I'd have to book the studios under different
band names to get some rehearsal time, until we
finally ended up rehearsing in a
church, it was the only place left who'd hire to
us".
"I used to think, 'oh yeah that's the thanks I
get for helping you fuckers get a record out', but I don't really give a shit anymore, they had their chance to make a career in music,
but they blew it,
now where are they?
Their biggest enemy was with themselves, bigoted attitudes and self
defeating principles, they were happy slogging up and down the country
hitting the clubs for fifty quid a night, but I was thinking on an international scale, even though I
probably didn't know it at the time.”
"I always thought the music and the
songs were the main reason to be in a band, there had to be an energy that
existed within the songs like nothing else, a new direction. I've been
writing music and lyrics since I was very young, and the order in which
songs are recorded doesn't really matter, I could be writing songs for a
new album and think 'oh yeah' I've got that idea I came up with 5 years
ago that I'll have a go at".
Not all of the songs for
what was to become one of the definitive metal albums
of all time were brand new
either, with
the compositional ink barely dry on the proverbial pages. ‘Buried Alive’
and ‘Raise The Dead’, for instance, had dried mud on their
boots. “There’s a tape of Clive Archer
singing ‘Raise The Dead’,” laughs Cronos. “And we had ‘Buried Alive’
written for the first album, but didn’t feel we were capable of doing it
justice at the time when we
recorded the first album demos.”
‘Buried Alive’ saw Cronos, with his studio
experience, taking a real perfectionist’s attitude.
“I didn’t want
BBC-type effects for the intro, with cabbages being cut up to sound like
earth shoveled onto a coffin – I wanted the real thing. So, we brought in
a cardboard box and loads of mud, put microphones into the box and used
spades to throw the mud into the box. And Keith Nichol, our engineer
(given a co-production credit on the record) was brilliant about it. We
called him Woody Woodpecker, because he was about three foot tall and had
red hair, but he’d go the extra mile to get us what we wanted.”
One
other song on Black Metal had a bit of history to it, as the
bassist explains.
“One day in the studio,
the drummer was very late for the session,
the guitarist and I were jamming through some new riffs and
I started to work the words out. One of our roadies came in the room and jumped behind
the kit, we started to mess around with the
ideas and the song ‘Countess Bathory’ was
born. The drummer later came in and we played the new
song for him, he then got behind the kit and tried to make up a new drum
pattern, but the one the roady had played worked best, he was furious that we
ganged up on him and made him play
the roadies beats, he wanted to put his own
stamp on the track but none of his beats were working, he hated the song
for ages".
"Mention of
the old drummer brings up an
itch that Cronos is willing to scratch. “His
role, or lack of it, in the songwriting process caused a lot of
arguments in the band later on. You see,
he never wrote anything, despite getting credits. It was
always down to me and sometimes the guitarist to write the songs. I would
either just introduce a new song to everyone
or sometimes I'd go to the guitarists house and share our ideas, he
would show me his new songs and any spare riffs he had composed that he
wanted me to put lyrics to, and I would teach him the riffs for my songs,
but the drummer was never there and never wrote
any songs".
The album ends
with something highly unusual – a song that’s a taster for things to come,
namely a sneak preview of the title track for what was to be the band’s
third album, At War With Satan, eventually released in
1984.
“The At War With Satan
album
idea
started off as a story
I wrote while I was still at school. It
was going to be a Satanic Bible type idea that I wanted to have published as a
novel,”
explains Cronos. “It was about the battle between
Heaven and Hell. I had the whole idea mapped out. And then it turned into
this concept album. I suppose it was our equivalent of ‘Rush’s ‘2112’,
although theirs was more about oppression. Anyway, I thought it would be
cool to do a teaser at the end of the Black Metal record, just to
warn the fans what was to come. And we did do the concept album. In fact,
we devoted the whole of the first side of our At War With Satan
album to the title song, which was unheard of back then for a band like
us! And, if there’s some real trivia freaks reading, get this:
when I originally mastered the tracks in the
studio and put
together the AWWS Intro track that ends Black Metal with the full song ‘At War
With Satan’, it
came to 21 minutes and 12 seconds… 2112 on the audio
data file, cool eh!”
Black Metal was released later in 1982, to a massive acclaim from the
metal underground, and even the mainstream started to take some notice.
For Cronos, there was a sense of vindication, although critical acceptance
never bothered him. The man’s dream was coming true, even it was a
nightmare for others.
By time
the Black Metal album hit the shops, Venom were planning their next Live
event! The stories of their shows they played [destroyed] in old
church halls as the band were forming were well known, then a chance
opportunity to make a show in Belgium arose and they set off.
Explains Cronos “I was always frustrated that Black Sabbath
never took things a stage further. They might sing about Satan, but still
asked God to help them! You know, people go to watch Dracula movies, but
none of them want to be the vampire. In Venom I wanted to be the devil, to be the vampires!” What’s more, this
young metal punk from Newcastle tilted the metal world off
its axis.
Although Cronos maintained,
“I always had a vision. Most bands starting out were playing pubs. That
was never for me. We did a video for the songs ‘Witching Hour’ and ‘Bloodlust’ (from Welcome To Hell) to show
promoters what sort of stage show we wanted – and they’d all say, ‘But if
you do that then you’ll be skint’. Did we care? Did we fuck! All these
other artists would spend any money they got from gigs on beer. We spent
it on bigger and better pyros – and who had the last
laugh?”
But we should leave the last word
on Black Metal to a man who understands the legacy of the
album better than most – Slayer’s Kerry King:
“I know the guys won’t mind me saying that they were
the best band in the world with the worst musicians. I still listen to Black Metal and it’s still awesome. I see Cronos occasionally, and
he’s like Superman. He might be dressed casually, but you just know that
underneath he’s got on the spikes and studs!”
But how to follow a
masterpiece? As hinted at above, it was with a conceptual piece, At
War With Satan.
“That’s a title you can take two ways. On
the one hand, you could say it’s about going to war with Satan, in other
words being on his side. On the other hand, you could take it as
suggesting a war against Satan. Depends on the way you wanna take it. The
album actually ends with the angels being cast down into hell, and
planning to fight their way out. They’d become the outcasts. It’s all down to your
point of view".
In a 2004 interview, Cronos explained; "I deliberately kept
people guessing, I didn't even explain the meaning of the song to the
other band members, they haven't got a clue. I think one should read
the story and make one's own mind up how you envisage the meaning. I
actually started writing the story when I was a teenager, we had a history
lesson at school and had to talk about the bible and what we thought
certain sections meant etc. I decided to write a story on the war
between heaven and hell, and writing from the perspective of a
continuation of the end of the bible, so my At War With Satan story starts
where the bible ends, as a continuation".
"The music was a fantastic challenge, although it was a very
difficult song to teach the drummer and guitarist. I started showing
them sections while we were rehearsing the songs for the Black Metal
album, and this is how we were able to record the into section for the end
of the album. Recording the actual album was and we had to record it
in sections which I edited together after I'd mixed the track".
“Loads of people were amazed that
a band like us decided to do a concept album, but to me it was no big
deal. So what? It’s just a collection of songs and sounds. Like any other
record. The difference with this was that every song linked into what went
before. Maybe it was because of the very idea that a
musician like myself would even think about writing a
story, then turn it into a ‘concept’ album, that’s only for REAL bands who
can play their instruments, not the likes of
Venom, ha.”
In truth, At War With Satan
was a glorious
failure in some peoples minds, the sweeping strokes of the concept setting up the music in a
manner that demands a huge production, one that sadly the band were unable
to deliver, because of budgetary constraints. Now, if Jim Steinman, or Bob Ezrin had been on the case…ah, but such was the lot of Venom in the
early 1980s, constantly learning to experiment and to be creative within
the limited confines of their independent status.
"And
that's exactly where I disagree", snaps
Cronos
"I feel that in actuality, Venom’s music was actually enhanced by
not having an enormous budget, to think of that album with an Americanised
production would have killed it, the raw sound was what made it real for
me, real musicians playing real music".
“I always favoured individuality. For
me, it was the theatrics of Alice Cooper or Kiss, and the music of Jethro
Tull, Black Sabbath and Bowie that was important. Sure, I loved Judas
Priest and Motörhead, but madcap individuality really made a mark on me. I
was fucking determined that Venom would always do what we considered to be
right at the time. No giving in to pressure from outsiders. There were –
still are – too many who think that the way forward is to be part of the
pack. Yeah, you might get a little bit of success, but can you look at
yourself in the mirror, knowing that you’ve always done what’s right,
rather than something that just earns easy
money, whoever said 'I did it my way'?.
“I know that Venom never played
anybody’s game. We were always true to just one thing:
VENOM. Whether
we succeeded or failed, it was on our own terms. I can’t stress that
enough, because it’s the creed that defines us. I always tell whoever is in the band,
look, Venom is more important than any one member of the band, no
matter how cool you think you are, bollocks, its only really Venom
that matters, and whoever is in the band needs to compliment Venom,
and not the other way around.”
As I write these word for the new Venom box
set I think about the time, and it was around this time
– 1983 – that I first met Venom. Having championed their cause in
various magazines for a couple of years, I finally came face to
metaphorical cowl with them at a photo shoot in North London. Cronos
immediately made an impression. He seemed to be the only one who
fitted
the media analysis of the Venom psyche, although he was obviously
the ideas man, the one who had the big picture, the vision to steer this
band into the right direction. He had little time for any contemporaries whom he dismissed with an
almost imperious wave of his hand, and espoused
the Venom determination to remain unbowed and untethered by
trends.
By contrast, the guitarist was quietly spoken and
seemed almost uncomfortable with the music scene, speaking about
everyone who was involved in the industry as 'liggers'.
He started refusing to do interviews and would only come out of his hotel
room to go to the show and then straight back afterwards, he'd say 'I
don't want to know anything, just point me to the stage'.
Maybe it was the first stirrings on an unrest that would see him quit the
band within a couple of years, but he wasn’t the rock demon we’d all
expected – and anticipated. Meanwhile,
the drummer
who started out looking like Animal
from the muppet show with the words 'fucking cunt' plastered across his
kick drum skins, ended up looking like he should
have joined Deep Purple, the road crew used to call him David Cover-version.
While he may not have been the
greatest drummer in the world, he so clearly understood what it took to
smash his drum kit.
It was a strange trio
to say the least. A band who were like no others around.
And all held together by the singers
aura of invincibility.
Strange to tell that the next twist in the
story is one that amazed everyone – and took us all by surprise. The band
decided to record a single called ‘Warhead’. Nothing weird there, except
that it got airplay on the Radio One Breakfast
Show! Cronos recalls: “We didn’t do the
single with that in mind at all. But Tommy Vance picked up on the song and
loved it so much he started to give us a lot of
airplay.” The upshot was that Mike Reid, at
the time doing the aforementioned Breakfast Show, decided to play a
snippet from the song each day for a week, building up to airing the whole
track, much to the shock of many used to smoother fare with their bacon
and eggs.
“It wasn’t a gimmick, because that was never something
I
wanted, or expected. All
I did was record what
I felt was a true metal
song, something that
stomped, had energy and growled in the usual manner of
a
Venom
metal song. The fact that others picked up on it was a bonus.
You know, a lot of supposed metal or hard rock bands record
singles that are designed for radio airplay. That’s an abomination to
me. So,
I went in completely the opposite way, and
it
seemed to hit the right
note with someone".
“There were also those who objected to the
song’s title, because they thought we were advocating war as being
something cool. Fuck ’em! That wasn’t in our minds at all. To us, this was
entertainment, and about as serious as violent horror movies. You don’t
take them to task do you? Well, you shouldn’t. But it’s typical of some
sections of our society who think they’re intelligent, and yet are easily
fooled into making idiots of themselves by missing the whole point of
something like ‘Warhead’. It was a fucking song, not a statement. Did
anyone think we walked around with nuclear warheads under our arms? Oh
sure!”
With the success of the record being played on the main
radio station in the UK, it ensured that, Venom were synonymous with metal in the minds of the mainstream British public, those
who remained oblivious to the charms of Iron Maiden or
Motörhead. But things were starting to get a little fraught in the
Venom camp, with
the guitarist starting to lose the plot.
In 1985 with the imminent release of their
fourth album 'Possessed', the band decided to organise a headline tour of America, [*note: this is the tour that saw
Slayer supporting them] although a week or so before the tour
started
the guitarist contacted the label to say he
had an illness and couldn't
do the tour, so they scoured Newcastle searching for a replacement as the
tour was to important to cancel. This was when they came across Dave Irwin
from the band Fist, although as time was short he didn't feel he
could learn the full set, so they also hired Les Cheetham from the band
Avenger to learn
the second
half the live set. The two new guys played just
over half the tour before
the guitarist flew out to join the last few
shows.
The US press reported that they thought the shows with the two new guys
worked better.
It was reported at the show in Los Angeles that the journalist was amused to notice that the assorted members of Slayer were at the
front of the stage headbanging furiously when Venom roared into
their set. To Slayer and a whole generation of young American
metalheads, the Newcastle nutters were genuine heroes – they provided a
way forward, the sound for a new generation.
“I don’t think I
realised how much we meant to Americans, until this tour,” Cronos said at
the time. “But we seem to have become the godfathers of an extreme sound,
one that has a lot of American input right now. Crazy isn’t it? We’re
bigger in the US and Europe than we are at home.”
For all their
impetus and momentum in America, Venom clearly lacked the financial
wherewithal to make the move to the next level. And, if that American tour
proved one thing it was that the road ahead was gonna be
tough, although Cronos was completely understanding of this fact;
"I knew when we started to realize we could make a career out of Venom
that the day would come when we had to make a decision, when we'd have to
meet the devil at the crossroads, and that was to either sell out to the
majors or keep our integrity and stick to our guns. I'd seen other Neat
bands 'sign the deal' and then disappear after one album, and this is coz
the majors will make you change, to make you commercial, to alter what
your about to increase 'sales', but this will change what your about and
destroy everything you've made. I could only ever work with a major
if they let me keep full artistic control, because I'm not gonna let
anyone destroy Venom, maybe one day they will realize this, but for
now they think they know it all, but I disagree".
I've interviewed many musicians over the
years, and always find it interesting the way Cronos refers to
Venom as 'we', when in fact he is talking about his own ideas. I've
spoke to other journalists about this, and it seems as if he unconsciously
thinks of Venom as a separate entity, like something he is part of rather
than something he created. No matter which members are in the band or
which line up he's talking about, he will say 'we did this or we wanted
that etc'. "I've always preferred the idea of being in a band" says
Cronos, "I really enjoy working with other musicians and creating music
with other band members. Even when I create most of the music I'll
still share the credit with the musicians I'm working with so its a band
effort. I've been corrected a few times by journalists over the
years when they say 'you mean you created this or you made that', but old
habits die hard, and I still say 'we' when I speak of Venom".
"I know it can annoy my close friends when I speak about the ideas that
'we' had
for Venom
in the early days, when my friends know I had
these ideas before I met the original members. They were playing in
a cover band with no vision of any direction they wanted to go in. I
introduced them to writing original songs and booked the studio I worked
in so we could make some demos. I'm not sure if those guys would
have even been able to get a deal if I hadn't motivated everyone into
getting their shit together. Neat most certainly would never have offered
them a deal, and the only other label in the area 'Guardian Studios' were
only working with the bands they knew on a very small scale".
By the end of the US tour, Cronos was getting
more and more frustrated with the way the guitarist was distancing himself
from the rest of the band, so he started looking for a new guitarist. He was getting tired of his attitude and was clearly distracted at times. He seemed to lack
the ambition and focus, and
as
the band were recording
their
latest album, Possessed, his contribution was almost at
a standstill.
“He’d lost touch with
reality and was acting like a diva with
bullshit demands", said the singer. "His input wasn’t really what was needed and he didn’t have any passion. We also made a big
mistake by hiring a swanky Stately Home to work on the album.
We were used to
old church halls and
basements, where we’d work up the songs in the past. Now, we were in the
wrong environment for the music we wanted to make. When we arrived
the guitarist
thought he could just lie around and do fuck all thinking he was lord of
the manor, but we were there to make an album so it was wrong for the spirit of
Venom. He had no new song ideas at all, I've no idea how he thought
the album was gonna be created, maybe he was hoping I'd do everything, and
it's bloody lucky I did have a shit load of ideas. The only song
we'd all worked on was the title track, I'd came up with this during the
writing of the first album, although the riff was originally the riff for
Manitou, although I swapped lyrics as it worked better the other way
around.”
It’s no surprise that
Possessed got something of a muted response from critics and
fans alike when it was released in 1985, but on reflection the album is
actually better than seemed to be the case at the
time.
“I like the songs on
Possessed,” agrees Cronos. “What let it down was the production
and the bands aggressive
input, or lack of it, we should have rehearsed the songs before going
into the studio, the way we did the other albums, the songs are good songs,
but I just had to record the album by showing
them
each song, then once they had a grasp of
the tune we'd record it, then I put all the singing on later, so the songs
don't really get a chance to settle and find their true speed etc. I do
think the songs on that album are good, yeah they could have been recorded
better, and the album got a bad press from people at the time, and it
deserves better.”
“After we released the double live album [Eine
Kleine Nacht Musik] We started work on
the 5th
studio album that
I was gonna call Deadline, but all
the ideas
from the guitarist were just wrong, not Venom at all. They were
terrible guitar pieces he
ended up using on his solo stuff – and not at all right
for Venom.” And so, the
guitarist
was asked
to leave, he'd become visibly depressed, and his selfish and costly demands were
causing friction between the members, so it was decided he had to go. And
so where did this leave the
band? Simple, doing what Motörhead had recently done, namely
replacing one guitarist with two
others.
The
two men in question were American Mike Hickey and
Englishman Jim Clare. It was a case of the band taking advantage
of their changed circumstances to expand their
sound.
Now a four-piece,
Venom found that they could try different things musically. As
Motörhead discovered when they brought in Wurzel and Phil Campbell, potentially there’s a new dimension to the
approach.
“Having two guitarists in the line-up did
take us in a different direction. It was an exciting time because it gave
us a real shot in the arm, a
shot of enthusiasm from the new guys.
Mind you, it had a down side for me personally. With two guitars there, I was
suddenly faced with my bass lines being a little swamped, and that did not
please me at all!”
The new look Venom released
just one album, 1987’s Calm Before The Storm. Now, this was
a period when the whole thrash movement was at its height, and the genre
was starting to fragment. Some bands were becoming more sophisticated,
while others were delving into altogether more extreme areas of music. It
was an easy time for Venom, because they were
unique and ground breakers, so a
controversial new direction was perfect to keep the fans guessing as to
what the band will do next.
Determined to stick firmly to their own path, they
certainly opened up their sound somewhat with Calm…,
and
probably enough to attract a new audience. However, they were
sufficiently removed from the roots of the band to
please some diehards,
as even those who would only be satisfied with a repetition of the Black Metal
formula, they saw that Cronos was again taking a chance and
pushing the boundaries of what makes a band great, for such is the price of success and
reputation.
While the sound of the album still
had a brutal edge, nonetheless the dark imagery of the past had given way
to a more sophisticated approach. And it worked extremely. As so many other bands have found in
the past when changes do occur to the delicate mechanism that is a rock or
metal band – especially one as important as Venom had been – it’s
as if a chain reaction has been set in motion; the restive spirit suddenly
takes over, and with it comes a succession of changes,
and as the rot that had set into the late guitarist spread to the drummer,
the singer knew his replacement was only a matter of time. Venom toured
in Japan and South America, but Cronos and the
two guitarists were getting frustrated by the drummers lack of commitment,
and he stated cancelling rehearsals and refusing to get together to plan
bands future.
Cronos had the American guitarist living at his house at the time, and it
was becoming too much for both of them to just sit around all day bored, then at
the end of 1988
Cronos said he'd had enough, and asked the guitarist to go home to the
States and find a new drummer, which he did.
So the front man – who had become the figurehead of
Venom over the years, decided it was time to move on,
he declared he was forming a new band with the two
guitarists, intent on starting a new career, by forming a
new band with a new
direction
called…Cronos.
“That
name wasn’t my intention. I never really saw the new project as being something
of a solo band, I prefer the concept of ‘The Band’ rather than a one
person deal, but I could have looked like a solo artiste to the outside
world, because it had my name on it. I had a whole list of band names
drawn up, including Ghost or Transatlantic. In
the end, though, I was persuaded – against my better judgement – to go for
Cronos as the name of the new project.”
"I moved
over to America
and we began to work the band, write
new songs and tour. I thought it was important to start in the US as if it
wasn't going to work, then I'd find out quick over there as they have no
time for losers, plus the States was one of the first countries to really
'get' Venom back in the day".
Wherever contact
was made
with the underground metal
scene, Venom were the guv’nors. To those who worshipped an ever
increasing desire to go beyond the bounds of normality in metal,
Venom represented the apogee. They were the band who’d inspired so
many to pick up guitars and try their luck. On the East Coast, the West
Coast, in Texas…wherever you may have roamed, the spectre of
Venom
loomed. You spoke to young bands just beginning, and within a few minutes
you just knew they’d be mentioning the hallowed name of ‘Venom’ in hushed
tones. It was astonishing to think of the
bands impact.
The secret of Venom
lies locked partially in serendipity, partly in belief, yet largely in a
mythology that’s built on the solid foundations
of ideas created by Cronos.
It was
Cronos
who always
had the attitude and psychology to
stand apart, determined to bring the sort of success to the band that
nobody ever felt was possible, and it was he who had the vision to
motivate the band into the studio and march the band forward, without him
they would have never made the step forward. Cronos would have undoubtedly
followed his instincts and bust his way onto the metal scene regardless of
if he'd met the others or not, he was already working with other musicians
before Venom so it was only a matter of time, and considering he also
created the artwork that helped establish the image of the band, I guess
Venom or a version of was always going to be, it was his destiny, and
obvious now as he is the only original member still going strong and
creating venomous metal after
over 30 years in the business, the others
just didn't have the staying power.
Maybe,
to some extent, he was fuelled by a hatred of the way in which he was
ignored by his local peers. Perhaps there was a certain one-faceted
fanaticism which drove him on, maybe he had the unique vision of fusing
rock with punk to create a totally unique sound to call his own, or maybe
he's on of the last of the true originals, the larger than life front men
like Ozzy or Lemmy or Elvis [?], but whatever it
was, Cronos knew there was
a way forward – and he was ready to take it.
Cronos, therefore,
had the vision, and every successful band needs that one person who has
the will, guts and sheer stubbornness to stand against the odds.
Some believe that, with bigger budgets, better production
values and more market savvy Venom would have achieved so much
more. But that is to completely miss the point. What made them so
important was that they were so much of the street. Their music had much
in common with the punks of a few years earlier,
and rock musicians of today. They inspired so many to start their own bands, because
they seemed within reach.
Moreover, they dared to make bold, brash
statements that were shocking yet also true. They dismissed so many of
their contemporaries for differing reasons, and time has proven them to be
correct. While many who were hailed as future heroes in the early 1980s
disappeared, the Venom legend has gone from strength to strength,
their achievements multiplied in the telling.
At the start of the 1990s,
a new sub-genre of black metal began to spread in Scandinavia.
At first all the young bands in Norway were hailing
Venom as their godfathers,
and their inspiration.
By 1994 Cronos had released 3 albums and been hard at work with his band throughout,
content to release his albums and play all manner of sized venues
worldwide. Cronos had recruited new drummer
Mark Wharton of Cathedral
and they went into the studio to lay down the demos for the new album, during
this session, and at the request of Mark who was a massive Venom
fan, they recorded some of the old Venom classics. Neat Records
immediately asked if they could use the tracks on a compilation album,
it was the Cronos album entitled
Venom. This not only
featured new material with a classic Venom approach. But also
re-visits such old Venom favourites as ‘1000 Days In Sodom’, ‘7
Gates Of Hell’ and ‘At war With Satan’. It was a project that re-ignited
the bassist/vocalist’s love for
Venom.
“It was my third album under the
Cronos band name (following on from 1990’s Dancing In The Fire and
Rock ’N’ Roll Disease three years later), and playing those old
Venom songs again with Mark on drums was fucking brilliant. He gave them a
new twist, and had a real passion for them".
“Doing this
album did get me
thinking about getting the classic Venom line-up back again. But
by that point, there hadn't been a Venom for more
than 5 years or so, the band had already split up again after a disastrous attempt to make things
work with a different singer. So, I had a good
think about it, and I discussed the pros and cons with a couple of lawyer
friends of mine in London who were great at offering practical
advice. I thought I might be able to re-capture the past magic again
and continue where we left off in 1986, I knew there was
no messy problem with having to get rid of anyone as they'd all
went their separate ways. so I finally decided to
make contact, just to see if we could do the right
thing, who knows? it could be great
fun.”
Cronos made contact with his old
band mates, and eventually the re-union
got off the ground. But not without teething
problems. "I stated from the start that if anyone
didn't taker this 100% serious I was going to end the project, I wasn't in
the game of making a joke of this. I wanted to show the world what a
mature original Venom could produce, although I think the other two had
actually undergone lobotomies rather than maturing into better musicians".
“I had to drag them forward a bit.
the guitarist [Jeff] had cut his hair off, so the old lifestyle wasn’t
something which appealed to him. [by 'old lifestyle' I mean the long studio
hours and touring etc, not the partying, as he never partied anyway]
And
as expected, the old arguments
soon resurfaced. But for a short
time, we got it back
together, and we were able to
headline the Dynamo Festival.” (with
89,000
fans).
The revived trio released one
album, 1997’s Cast In Stone, but were soon submerged by
problems that seemed to overshadow any rapport they might have.
Even during the recording of the album there
were issues which the engineer mentioned in an interview. "I decided to
set up a click track to help keep the drums in time, although during the
recording of one of the tracks the kit kept speeding up, and so they had
to start over time and time again. When one of the frustrated band members
asked what the problem was, the drummer said that the 'click was moving',
:) yeah Classic".
These any many other issues followed, until
not long after the album launch, there was a standoff between Cronos and
the drummer that eventually led to the
latter leaving.
“We had problems,” admits
Cronos. “We really weren’t getting on. Then one day,
the drummer sent me a letter to tell me 'your services are
no longer required', ha, the cheeky twat obviously forgot who he was
fuckin with, and thus sealed his fate, my response was, ‘You can’t kick the Devil out of
hell, I’m firing you!’. We had
this crazy situation where both of us felt we could kick the
other out of the
band.”
Ultimately, it was Cronos who came out on top, with
the drummer quitting to pursue a job
on a building site,
leaving the frontman and the
guitarist to move forward. Cronos
hired a nu-metal
drummer who hadn't been doing much with any other bands, so he jumped
at the chance pf playing for Venom. The trio flew to Germany to
record the 'Resurrection' album, then played some shows in Germany
and Holland. But of course, this is Venom, so
nothing stays stable for very long.
In February 2002,
Cronos had a climbing accident while out
mountaineering with his old mates from the
Marines in Wales, this meant he couldn’t play bass, sing or anything as he
was wearing a neck brace etc,
and the Doctors had estimated a year or two of
recovery, Cronos told the guitarist to get on with whatever he could and
make the most of this time, he knew he'd been talking about making another
solo album, so
the guitarist decided to start
his own band – then after he recorded his album a press statement was
released declaring that he wasn’t going to
return to Venom, and
as he'd invested a lot of
time in his new band he wanted to
pursue his new direction, leaving Cronos to carry on with the name Venom.
"I figured he wouldn't return
to Venom anyway" stated Cronos, "I could smell it in the air
starting from the last gigs we did in around 1997. The show offers
were drying up and the labels weren't exactly fighting over themselves for
us, so once the drummer pulled a fast one and jumped ship during the
recording of Resurrection, I knew it was only a matter of time before the
guitarist found an excuse to run like fuck from the sinking ship.
The thing is, they have no staying power, no vision of the future and no
balls, they don't have the ideas I have for Venom, and they certainly
don't want to put the hard work into it, I reckon they'd still be playing
Judas Priest cover songs in an old damp rehearsal room if I hadn't
motivated them. I could make a prediction now and say I'll bet that
once I get Venom up and running and start recording and playing live, I
wouldn't be surprised if they got in touch begging to reform the original
band again, basically trying to jump on the band wagon of my hard work.
Bollocks, I will never work with those cowards ever again, fact".
Once Cronos
got the 'all clear' from his Doctors, he
started to mastermind the
return of Venom, but this time it was all or nothing, as his time away
from the band had given him a better perspective of what Venom was all
about, and what was needed to make Venom great again.
Cronos decided to contact the American guitarist who
played on the 'Calm Before The Storm' album, and asked if he'd be up for
helping him reform the group
Venom. Both the guitarist and
the drummer off the 'Resurrection' album agreed to help Cronos re-establish
the band, although Cronos knew they wouldn't be in the band for the long haul, Cronos needed to keep his eyes peeled for
other permanent members.
They started work on a new Venom album, [Metal Black] which Cronos described as 21st Century Black Metal.
The album came out in March 2006 on
the Sanctuary Group Music label followed by the Single / EP of Antechrist
c/w Metal Black.
It’s been a long, strange, and somewhat twisted
trip for Cronos. Full of amazing stories and
astounding tales, plus he remains philosophical about the decision to again work with the
original members, even though it didn't work out second time around, as one thing is now definitely for sure, there will never
be an original members line up reunion ever again.
That's a fact that
Cronos made very clear in a recent interview: "The itch has
been scratched, there's no reason to ever repeat a dead idea, it
didn't work with the 'second coming', and so in my opinion it will never
work, so we can hammer the nails into that coffin well and truly shut. I agreed to reform the band out of curiosity really, I wanted to see if we could
re-capture the drive and passion I thought we had when we started, but now
I know it will never be and we can't turn back the clock. We are very
different people with different ideas of what the band is about, so now
its over, I don't see the point of trying again, as it will now always just
be arguments, frustration and lies, not to mention I really don't like who they've
become as people, and I will never trust anything they say ever again, too many lies
were told and too much bad happened during the reformation".
The most important thing for me though is the actual integrity of the
band.... I work hard to create an extreme music the fans can be proud of,
although it annoys me that the others are complacent about the
professionalism of what we create, both in the studio and live. I
refuse play with musicians who are sloppy and don't care about being the
best they can be, I don't see playing Black Metal as a chore, quite the
reverse, its a joy and a challenge, so to me I cannot tolerate laziness
and lousy musicians, it's unacceptable. So my quest continues, the
reason I wanted to be in a band since I was a kid in the 1960's, and that is to find
other musicians who have a similar drive and understanding as I do to play
extreme metal, musicians who want to be the best they can be, and to make
awesome albums and play killer shows, and until I find these people, I
will continue to replace the members of Venom until that goal is reached,
and with no compromises".
“What am I most proud of achieving
with Venom?” asks Cronos rhetorically. “Standing apart from
all the sheep in the music industry. You look at the music business,
and most bands want to copy other artists’ success, they are scared to do something original
and make something new in case other people don't like it, and we know
that most people don't like change, they are happiest in their comfort
zones, any new idea or different is usually shunned at first until people can put it in
a box with a label, so most musicians out there would rather copy a style
that's already established. But did
I ever do that? NO chance!
I might have made mistakes,
yeah but all of the ideas were all
mine, and
I made it from my own incentive and
not because
I
was
trying to be a clone of someone else".
With Venom there
is always some controversy, and there
are two crucial areas
that need to be broached, namely the controversy that arose with
Metallica, and also just how did they come up with the name
‘Black Metal’?
Let’s start with the
whole Metallica scenario…
In February 1984,
Metallica came over to Europe for the first time. They toured as
support to Venom. But any suggestion that the two bands would bond
was soon dispelled. Even during the tour, Venom had a certain
dismissive attitude to the young Bay Area upstarts. Metallica had
never made any secret of the fact that Venom were a significant
influence on them – in their early days, they regularly wore Venom
T-shirts, and have always had the utmost respect for Venom’s
importance:
“Black
metal, speed metal, death metal - Venom started it all!”
says Lars
Ulrich.
"As for that ‘Black
Metal’
tag…
It was Venom’s own determination to be
different that led to them coming up with the term ‘black
metal’…
as well as a ton
of other titles in an attempt to describe their music which they felt was
like nothing else around at that
time."".
“You see, back then everyone with long hair was called ‘heavy
metal’,” explains Cronos. “So, we were lumped in with bands like Journey
and Foreigner – we were all ‘heavy metal’. There were none of these genres
like thrash, death and speed metal as we have now. We didn’t want anything
to do with those bands at all. In fact, we slagged almost everyone off
during interviews."
“We were interviewed by a magazine one day, and
the journalist just said, ‘OK, if you’re not heavy metal, what are you?’.
So I just said, ‘We’re black
metal’. I never thought for a moment that the thing would stick
and grow into something so massive, even though what’s known as ‘black
metal’ these days has no connection with what we did nearly 25 years
ago.”
“I think the term ‘black metal’ was just one of a number we
threw out to that journalist at the time. We started off calling ourselves
‘long haired punks’, and then ‘power metal’, ‘death metal’, ‘thrash
metal’. But the ‘black metal’ thing struck some sort of chord. What
finally convinced me that we didn’t want anything to do with ‘heavy metal’
was when Eddie Van Halen did that single ‘Beat It’ with Michael Jackson –
it got in the metal charts, for fuck’s sake! We decided then that Venom
was no longer ‘heavy metal’. Let bands like Raven be called that – we had
to stand apart. We didn’t want to call ourselves New Wave Of British Heavy
Metal, because that was a mouthful, so we invented our own
genre".
“And guess what? The song ‘Black Metal’ itself is
actually about playing live, it’s
about a Satanic band (Venom) playing live! With power amps set to
explode, in Hell!"
Venom are a band who
still sell enormous quantities of T-shirts that bear the album covers and
logos which are the artwork of Cronos, the man who invented the emblems
for the band and created that look to go with their unholy sound, and even
today a massive amount of people still want to wear those classic designs,
and Venom albums
continue to inspire more young bands even today.
“One thing I
was delighted about was that a small label recently put out a Venom
tribute record,” says Cronos. “What I loved about it was
that the bands all did something unique and different with our songs –
they weren’t trying to copy what we’d done. They understood the spirit of
Venom. If you’re going to do a cover, then make damn sure you
inject
your own
vibe on the song. Otherwise, what’s the
point?
“If we’ve taught people anything then that would
be, Don’t try to sound
like or be like Venom if you record a cover of one of our songs, be
yourself, record the song the way you would had YOU wrote it, use what we
did as an inspiration if you want, but be true to
yourself.” |
|
In March 2006,
Venom released a new album in called
Metal Black, and Cronos
stated that this is Venom for the 21st century, with a sound and
intensity of the 80's Venom, this was an obvious title said Cronos "I
put the new line-up together and rehearsed a whole load of the early songs
for about three months before I starting to write the album, so the songs
emerged in that style, the style of Black Metal, the original name for the
album was to be 'Maleficarvm' which is the name of one of the tracks, but
people said they couldn't pronounce it (?) so we went for the next option,
the controversial one, the name that is already starting fights, people
are going nuts fighting over this, although it makes perfect sense to me,
Venom play Black Metal which means our Metal is Black, seems fucking
obvious to me really, it's the 'same difference', ha, there's another
to scratch your heads over?".
Cronos increased his Live appearances with
Venom in 2006, after
the launch of the album, starting with a UK Tour in
March, Venom received a great response from their Legions, and as Cronos
hadn't appeared live on UK soil with Venom for almost 20 years, he wasn't sure of
what reaction he would get, but he received a great response from the
audiences which also had a lot of fans from Europe who'd travelled to the
UK to add their support. The band were also invited to the BBC to
record a session at Maida Vale Studios, it had been the Tommy Vance Friday
Rock Show which first saw Venom at the BBC in 1985.
The album sales
were going very well so far, so the label released the track
'Antechrist'
as a single. The band then headed for the summer Festivals with four
main appearances across Europe. They were bombarded with interview
requests from the world press, so
Cronos flew to Germany for a week so he could deal with
all of the European press in one go, there wouldn't be time to do all of
the interviews during the time they had set aside for touring. Venom
loaded up the pyrotechnics and started in Italy by headlining the 'Gods Of Metal
Festival', long time friend
Phil Anselmo (Pantera / Down) made a guest appearance on
stage and joined in with the song Die Hard, the next stop was in Sweden where they
headlined the sold out 'Sweden Rock
Festival', Venom were so pleased to
have finally played in front of their Swedish Legions, as this was one of
the territories the band had never been. Finland came next and Venom
headlined the sold out 'Tuska Rock
Festival', it had been around 21
years since Venom had last headlined a Finish Festival and the Legions
were out in force, then last but certainly not least came Germany on the
21st of July, Venom headlined the 'Earthshaker Festival', the band nearly didn't get to play when an hour
or so before they were due to hit the stage the skies went black and the
biggest thunderstorm erupted, forcing the police to move the entire
audience to a safe place, luckily the event was next to a huge indoor
horse show venue that the massive crowd could fit in. Venom eventually hit
the stage an hour or so late but all fired up ready for a great show for
the German Legions.
Sanctuary also released the 1997 'Cast In Stone' album in June to the delight of Venom's fans,
the album had been almost impossible to get hold of for a number of years,
Cronos re mastered the recordings and added some extra
bonus material from the 'Venom 96' Limited Edition mini album.
Sanctuary also released the 2 CD 'Cronos Anthology' later the same year which compiled all of the
Cronos recordings from the original Neat Records releases, again mastered
by Cronos, he included live bonus tracks recordings of the
Cronos band
playing songs from the Venom 'Calm Before The Storm' album.
In
September Venom started their long awaited American Tour. The band had already completed a
successful tour of the UK earlier
in the year and had taken Europe by storm with their appearances at four
major sell out festivals, so their assault on America had everyone waiting
with baited breath.
When Venom's management were in discussions with the agents in the US for
the tour, they explained that no announcements should be made until
Cronos had
dealt with some
serious personal family matters he had to attend to, so he couldn't commit to any
dates until he had sorted out his affairs. [the details of which are
private and not for public knowledge], although somehow the information
was leaked which had people guessing about the dates.
The next problem with this was that some of the promoters thought if they
went ahead and advertised some dates that the band would have to turn up,
wrong! There were also some bands being told they had the opening
support slots even though no bands had been approved by Venom or their
management.
The mess that followed nearly had Venom refusing to tour the US at all,
but in the end the band decided to select 10 dates, firstly; so they could
finally play for their US Legions who had waited so long for the band to
go back to the States, but also to hopefully teach future promoters and
agents an important lesson, and that is "no one tells Venom what to do",
period.
By August the band were
able to go to the US Embassy to get their work permits, they announced
their tour dates and contacted a young up and coming new band called; Goatwhore
to support them. they kicked off the tour in Arizona on the west coast to
an ecstatic crowd, the band continued with Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Denver, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Springfield and Philadelphia.
The American Legions came out in force and the tour was a great success.
The 2006 'Sweden Rock
Festival' DVD was released in September featuring a live track (Black
Metal) from Venom, the band agreed to let it out without any dubs so you
get the real feel of a live show, complete with out of tune guitarist.
(hey nice one mike??? not!) The DVD also featured some of the other
artists who played at the festival such as Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, The
Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Doro, and many others. Def Leppard
also played at the festival but don't feature on the DVD.
January
2007, Venom announced their new guitarist RAGE, a
hardcore Metal guitarist from the very depths of Newcastle, he had stood
in for the bands previous American guitarist who had to commute back and
forth states, leaving Cronos without a guitarist to rehearse
with during many months of the year, but the band wasted no time in
getting down to work with the new blood, they began writing the new demos
for their next album and planning their next live
shows.
Journalists who have followed Venom's career throughout the
years for both their jobs and as fans have varying degrees of acceptance
over the various past members of the band, and one journalist recently
wrote: "I for one was never really
convinced with the American guy being back in the band, he worked better
in the Cronos band for my liking but never in Venom, I always wondered
whether Cronos got him in just to help get the ball rolling after his
climbing accident, same with the drummer really, nepotism isn't always a
good thing. I think they are ok as musicians don't get me wrong, but
I've interviewed Venom many times, even the ill fated 90's line-up, and
there's something not right about an interview when the only person with
any answers is the singer? The others looked nervous with that 'please
don't ask me any questions' look on their faces, but hey, correct me if
I'm wrong, it's just my opinion".
Cronos was
back in the Townhouse mastering room with the 'Resurrection' album re-release to make sure it stood up to the sharp
production quality. Sanctuary released the album in April with
additional sleeve notes and unseen photos and artwork.
Sanctuary Records Group also announcement that Venom's "Black Metal" album
is the biggest selling album on the entire Castle Music label.
The album was released by
Castle in 2002 after Sanctuary took control of the entire
Neat Records back catalogue, in fact they bought the label. The Neat label
were doomed when they lost the likes of Venom, the only band on the label
making any money, and as they were unable to continue
to release any bands worth talking about, they were forced to declare
bankruptcy.
By April of 2007
Venom had spent the first part of the year working on
the new demos and rehearsing with their new guitarist, they decided to
organise some shows get the new blood up on stage in front of the Legions,
this would surely prove he was the man for the job. Venom then
embarked on a 7 Date Tour of Scandinavia
at the end of May playing in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, this
long awaited tour helped forge the new band and prepare them for the
upcoming album recording.
The internet plays an important part in
many peoples lives in these days, and Venom's Legions have embraced this medium
with great enthusiasm, the website 'youtube' receives a fresh batch of
mobile phone camera videos from the Venom tour, the quality of the 'phone
cams' is poor but there an appeal to this new format, there's something
about the videos that give you a sense of the show from the audiences
point of view, we get used to seeing highly polished top production videos
of bands concerts, but to see the back of someone's head getting in the
way of the unsteady unprofessional shaking camera work is fantastic.
Cronos has commented that he has seen the videos and thinks they capture
something you couldn't get with a 10 camera shoot, the sound quality is
terrible as the tiny microphones can't handle the volume created by the
mega pa systems, but the videos have an honesty about them, they are
usually distorted and break up in sections, but it's the nearest thing to
'Reality TV' your gonna get.
By the end of the year Venom's label
'Sanctuary Group' merge with 'Universal Music', adding more weight to the
Venom back catalogue distribution, as well as increased online
availability. Venom's 'Black Metal'
album is revealed as the top selling album out of all the Castle
Music catalogues releases. 'Black Metal' was released by
Castle in 2002 who then went on to release the rest of the Venom
back catalogue.
Venom
announce that the new album is finally completed, the Universal Music 'Noise' Label release the new album entitled:
HELL in May 2008. HELL is a
fierce collection of intense black metal in true Venom style. The positive
reviews speak of an increased intensity in the music, the new guitarist
Rages through the riffs while Cronos snarls
and spits every word, slamming his bass lines down in a fury of blackest
metal. The metal-press have a very positive response to Rage in Venom. and
mention how he brings a sense of the old and new to the band, exactly what
Cronos had stated after their first shows together.
Rage is possibly the first guitarist to join the band
since the original line up who doesn't feel trapped by the styles of other
players. He isn't trying to emanate any other musicians, he's just
trying o be the greatest guitarist in Venom, and doing a great job so far
:)
A select number of special summer festival shows
begin with Venom
headlining day one of the 'Hellfest'
three
day festival in France, this is Venom's first show in France in 23
years. Other bands on the bill include: Slayer, Motorhead, Dimmu
Borgir & Testament, to name a few. The concert goes down a
storm, and Metallian Magazine release their yearly DVD of the festival
called "Hellfest 2008" complete with a track from Venom = 'Welcome To
Hell" [fest].
Venom also
headline the 'Rock Em All
Festival' in Athens, Greece.
The band have been eager to return to Greece since their last show in
1997, and Cronos is amazed at their ever increasing younger fans who cram
the front of the stage chanting along with all the Venom classics, "most
of these kids weren't even born when the 'Welcome To Hell' or
'Black Metal' albums were released", exclaims Cronos to a Greek
magazine, "it just shows that what the fans really want is a great band of
musicians playing a great live set, none of these kids give a fuck about
the original line-up or any of that, they know all the words to the songs
from the latest albums we've released as well as the early material, they
are all enthusiastic as hell about metal and eat, drink and sleep this
stuff, fucking hell yeah, isn't that a fucking fantastic thing".
Universal Music release 2 limited edition Venom albums for the
Japanese market by the end of the year, with "Welcome To Hell" and "Black Metal" being released by the label in special
cardboard sleeves as part of their NWOBHM The Hall Of
Fame Collection. Then by early
2009 Cronos starts work on a special edition release of
the Black Metal album to coincide with 30th anniversary of the
formation of Venom. The album is released in late August worldwide
with a DVD of the "7th Date Of Hell"
show, the legendary video of the
concert the band played at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1984. The
video has only ever been released on VHS so for the DVD the footage has
been digitally re-mastered.
Danté is officially named as the new drummer in Venom
after weeks of auditions, the band spend the next few months locked in the
studio rehearsing the new line-up. "I believe everything happens for a
reason" comments Cronos, "when one door shuts another opens, and the
timing was right for this change as we've gained a fresh new perspective,
Danté brings exactly that adding an
even higher level of intensity to the sound of the band, his knowledge of
rock and metal drumming is exactly where the original Venom drummer's
influences came from. We've started writing the new songs for
the next album, although were
mainly concentrating on rehearsing the tracks for the live set, I want to
get this line up ready to get out on the road, I believe that if we get
out live then Dante will truly get the feel of what Venom is really a;;
about before we record an album. It is also important for the
Legions to see the band live so they can see and hear how amazing this
change is, I'm truly amazed at how well this line up has gelled in the
short time we've been together, its as if we've been playing for years,
seriously, I'm sure he's telepathic [laughs]. Were also having a
great time together and firing new ideas back and forth, I'd be prepared
to go out on a limb and say this line up is the closest to the original
members since the band started, I mean we have the same goals and
attitude, and most importantly are all in this for the right reason... the
music. I'm in talks with the management now to start negotiating our
live shows as I can't wait to get out there, I just know that were gonna
be awesome live, and were ready to go as soon as possible which will
definitely be before the end of the
year".
Venom get set for their "South American
Dates Of Hell Tour 2009".
This tour has been in the planning for
many years, and it has now finally came together thanks to the efforts of
the bands Management who contacted the South American Promoters, they have
been organising many tours up and down the country, the whole of South
America is opening up for bands to tour and the timing is now right for a
Venom tour.
The tour started in early December 2009 in
Mexico, then moved onto Colombia, Chile,
Argentina and then Brazil. Venom last toured in
Brazil in 1987 and Cronos said at the time that the Brazilian fans were
one of the most hardcore metal audiences he'd ever played for, so the band
were eager to play for the other Latin American countries, and they we not
disappointed, they were all just as hardcore as Brazil, in fact the
audiences were so loud at times that it was hard to hear the band over the
sheer volume of the crowds chants. In Argentina the crowd stopped
the show for several minutes while they chanted a modified football song
for Venom, leaving the band stood on stage in sheer disbelief, unable to
continue until the crowd had finished singing, "an amazing experience
and a fantastic honour" said Cronos, "the sheer volume and passion of
those fans sent shivers down my spine, they were so happy to see Venom and
had waited so long, that emotions were high, as the temperature rose and
the fans sang along with every word, it was such a satisfying feeling to
know how much these people appreciate what we do, I can't wait to return
to this incredible country".
During a radio station interview in Brazil, Dante and Rage
spoke about their time on the Latin tour and their thoughts on Venom's
Latin Legions; "It is truly mind blowing touring in South America" said
Dante, "I've played in this part of the world over the past few years with other bands, but
I
haven't experienced anything like a Venom crowd, I have never heard such
loud audiences in all my life, the Legions here can sing louder than the
bloody PA system, and these guys are so dedicated to Metal, the rest of the world should
take note. This is my first tour with Venom and I'm hooked, apart
from really enjoying the shows with Cronos and Rage, I really feel that
what we are doing is something special, I've never been as fired up about
playing as I have with this band, and I can't wait to start recording the new
album". Rage continued; "Our schedules have been very busy with all
long flights between countries and no sleep, [ha] but we were lucky enough
to still have a few meet-n-greets with the Legions, and they are the best,
the most honest people with a true love for all things Metal. I'm
honoured to meet the fans and really appreciate that they have accepted me
and Dante into the band, they speak from the heart and tell us of their
joy to finally see Venom live in their country, the feeling is mutual, I
can't wait to return to South America and play live for these very special
people again".
By the start of 2010
Venom decided to officially recognise one of their many fan sites "The
Venom Collector" as an official fan site. (
www.venomcollector.com
) Not only is this the longest running fan site, but the
administrator 'Martin Bjorklund' has been a fan of Venom for longer than
anyone. His website has the most varied knowledge of Venom than any
other, and a unique unbiased attitude to the band.
Martin was promoted to 'Legions Representative' and now works closely with
the fans, helping to inform them about upcoming releases and concerts etc,
plus he also handles all the mail, sending autographed photos of the band
and other Venom paraphernalia to any fan who contacts him with requests.
Cronos commented: "There are
unfortunately one or two so called 'old' fans who try to dictate to other fans
about what it is to be a Legion, which is a bigoted and pathetic attitude.
We jokingly call them the Black Metal police. They
have the arrogance to criticise other younger fans who haven't collected as
many Venom albums as they have, which is totally
obnoxious, I mean who do they think they are? I would consider
someone who has only one album as much of a fan as someone who has collected many.
To think you will get more respect from Venom for buying a bootleg is
nonsense, for me the more dedicated fan is one who doesn't buy bootlegs
and respects the official releases authorised by the band.
It is not a competition to see who can collect the most Venom stuff.
The saddest part is that most of the information on their websites is pure nonsense
and lies, they spread bullshit instead of facts, which
completely rubbishes their websites doing no good at all. Our label were going to close them down,
but after checking their web stats they saw that that they sadly only have two or three visitors per
year, so they really aren't worth the time or effort".
As the year kicks off the bands management
announced the first of their concerts for 2010. Other virgin
territories are now on the cards to witness the mighty Venom live for
the very first time, starting with Bulgaria in May then
followed by Poland and Russia.
Other festival
headline shows were confirmed for the Czech Republic, Sweden,
Finland and Norway, plus a surprise show in Germany at
the 'With Full Force Festival XVII', where the band played a very
special concert for the Legions. This show was recorded for a DVD release
and the band are now working on featuring footage from some of the others
shows they played this year also, and maybe even some footage from their
South American tour.
The band headed straight back into the studio
on their return from their last show in Ukraine, headlining the 'Global
East Festival' to continue work on their next album, which the band
excitedly stated is "sounding killer and feeling
great".
"The band are really fired up for the recording of the new album" revealed
Cronos, "we've been concentrating most of our energy into the live shows
since we first announced the current line up wit Rage and Dante, and the
band have formed an amazing bond while touring live and are now so
incredibly tight, it makes everything feel and sound so much heavier.
So now we are gonna put the same energy into the new album, it does
however mean we won't be playing live as much in the coming year as its
been difficult to keep jumping from touring to studio work, and I want
everyone's concentration 100% on the new songs.
Venom took a break from recording in April 2011 to headline the
'SWR Barroselas Metalfest XIV' in Portugal, which is another territory
the band had never played live. The show was amazing, but after that
the band headed straight back to the studio to continue recording.
"We've
got a lot of fantastic ideas for this next release", revealed Cronos
in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, "we've
all contributed to the writing of the songs as a group over
several months, I prefer to let the songs mature so they find their true
speed and feel etc, that way you get the best results. We've been
playing the songs in a live environment so we can add, subtract, tweak and
change the songs to achieve their full potential, and I've noticed other
bands opting for this method lately also, even Dave Grohl [singer of the
Foo Fighters] has recorded his
new album in his basement to get a real raw feel with a back to basics
approach, and this is because everyone is getting very bored with samples
and triggers etc, it's old hat now, were hearing the same old shit being
poured out year after year from many bands who are all sounding the same, whereas what people really
want is the true sound of a band, the individuality, the originality, like
how a band sounds live, so the best way to do this is
to put microphones on a real drum kit and record the real drum sound, duh?
sounds obvious doesn't it, just
throw away the samples and let's hear the real instruments. This is
the way we recorded the first albums, set up the equipment and play like a
live show, all together in the same room, and without a doubt the album
not only sounds a thousand times better, but it means the feel and
intensity is raw and ferocious, I much prefer this by far. I have always said there are no throw away songs on
my albums, and that's because I always write more tracks than are needed
so I can then choose the best ones for the album, and this album is no
exception, all of the songs are being composed by all of the band members,
so everyone feels part of the end result".
The new album entitled
"Fallen Angels" is released in November 2011 with a
staggering 15 songs on the album. The release receives incredible reviews
from the media who hail the album as a return to form, with the magazine
Metal Hammer streaming one of the tracks from their online website and
Terrorizer featuring a track on the magazine cd release. Venom's Legions
are also pleased to see a large number of the new songs feature in the
upcoming shows live set.
Plans for a promo video
of one of the songs from the new album came to an abrupt halt, with
the strange disappearance of the video's director. Rumours started
that he'd been taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack, and then
he'd been sectioned in an asylum, although he then vanished, with close
friends and family not knowing where? He was also rumoured to be involved
with some other bands albums and videos, although they have also had no
news of his whereabouts. Who knows? Maybe he decided to walk to Cairo
instead of taking the train, or maybe he flew over the cuckoo's nest.
Venom quickly backed up the new albums release with a Live show in
Bucharest / Romania by headlining the 'Rock In Concert Festival'
on 12 November, then headed off to Lichtenfels in Germany to
headline the 'Christmas Metal Fest' at the Stadthalle on 26
November. The band were eager to play live again after
recording the new album, and to play the new album songs live for their Legions.
2012 starts with a bang as the band hit the ground running, they appear
live on the cruise ship festival 70,000 Ton Of Metal, which sailed
from Miami to the Cayman Isles and back and saw Venom playing two live sets
on the journey. The first set, on the way to the Caymans took place
in the ships theatre, and saw the band laying down the law with a classic
Venom set, then in a totally unprecedented
move, the bands second live set saw them playing on the open pool deck,
complete with 100mph winds, and in a more casual approach, the band
dressed in black leather trousers and shirts, and unleashed their alternative set featuring some never before played live tracks,
[as well as others which
haven't been in a live set in over 20 years] such as: 'Teachers Pet' and
'Heavens on Fire' to name a few.
Check out the Venom You Tube website for lots of live footage from
various shows, plus some fan shot videos from the
cruise.
<
http://www.youtube.com/venom >
Disaster struck in April as their planned South American invasion is
cancelled at the eleventh hour, this was due to the promoter breaching the
contract and failing to obtain work visas for the band and crew, the
entire organisation was a complete mess and was also reported on Brazilian
news channels. This not only affected Venom but many many other bands who
were also forced to cancel their shows. A truly sad time for Latin Metal
Music Fans.
In a message to the fans Cronos announced; "We don't want people to think
we will never return to South America just because of this disaster, we
just hope the promoters can learn from their mistakes and do a better job
next time. We are in talks with our management and label about our future
plans for touring in South America, and we hope to be able to work out new
touring plans soon.
In July
Venom unleash their new live set list entitled:
'Black Angles', [with songs mainly from the Black Metal & Fallen
Angels albums] playing at the 'Getaway Festival' in Sweden and
headlining the 'Bang Your Head Festival' in Germany, the band
then headed off to Canada in September to headline the 'Noctis V
Festival' in Calgary, a special show for both Venom and their fans as
this is Venom's first Canadian show in 27 years, as their last appearance
was during their 'Possession Tour' in 1985 with Slayer supporting.
The band headed back to the UK and hit the studio to continue writing for their next album;
"we started coming up with new song ideas for the next album as soon as
we'd finished the last album" explained Rage, "its a continual
process really, there's no start or finish, we just come up with new
ideas all the time, its the way we work together. We want to keep the same
approach as the last album, with all three members writing and rehearsing
the songs in a live environment, and we
want to keep the same raw and powerful dynamics, although expect a few
surprises as usual".
The label [UMG / Spinefarm Records] have set a release date of 2014.
Early
2013 and the management announce news of upcoming concerts for the year, starting with a
headline show in the USA in May at the 'Maryland Deathfest XI' in
Baltimore, which will be the bands first show in the America since their
'Commandments Tour' in 2006. The band then returned to Finland to
headline the 'Hammer Open Air Festival' in July, and then in August
the Legions were treated t an explosive headline show at Germany's 'Party.San Metal Open Air
Festival', featuring a one-off 'old-school' live set of old classics, plus a show at the 'Leyendas del Rock Festival
VIII' near Alicante in Spain. Then there's a
headline show at 'Masters @ Rock Festival' in Belgium on 31 August.
The 20th Relentless Kerrang! Awards 2013
was held on 13 June. Cronos was presented with the Icon Award
for Venom. Other award winners at the event were Kerry
King of Slayer, Phil
Anselmo of Pantera / Down, Brian May & Roger Taylor
of Queen, and many others.
Venom continue work on their new album throughout the early months
of 2014, planning a release schedule for either the fall of 2014 or the
start of 2015 - to be confirmed. The management announce the start of the bands live shows,
with Venom appearing at the 9th edition of the 'Amnesia Rockfest'
near Montreal, Canada's largest Metal festival which attracted a massive
200,000 people this year, hell f'kin yeah !!!. As the Venom
show was going so well, Cronos decided to try out a normally
unthinkable idea, and that was to ask the crowd to join in with a new song
they had ever heard before. [what?] Cronos explained to the crowd that he wanted to record the
Legions so he could include them on the new album. Cronos told us; "I must
admit, I had every faith in the Legions, they never let me down. I
basically explained that we would play a new song, and I told them which parts I wanted them to join in,
its is only one word 'RISE', and if they could shout loud enough
I'd include them on the new album. It couldn't have gone any better,
they hit every cue and were the loudest I've heard a crowd in many years.
So now its back to the studio to upload the recordings to the new album
mix".
Venom then set off around Europe playing an explosive headline show at the 'Brutal
Assault Festival' in the Czech Republic on 6th August, and then onto
the 'Faust Extreme Festival V' in Pisa Italy on the 9th August, and
then an exciting headline appearance at a brand new French festival event called 'Fall Of Summer Festival',
which is near Paris and takes place on 5th
September 2014.
The German
Metal Hammer Awards 2014 was held in Berlin on Friday 12 September. Cronos was presented with the
Legend Award.
Venom's Management have been in talks with various agents and
promoters in South America over the last couple of years, as
Venom are determined to return for their Latin Legions. Crucial
lessons were learned from the disastrous 2012 shows which also affected
other bands, but now Venom are so glad to announce they will be playing a
number of exclusive shows before the
end of 2014, starting with:
Colombia on 12 October 2014 @ Manizales Grita Rock Festival,
then onto Mexico on 25 October 2014 @ the Hell & Heaven Festival.
Check out the 'Concerts Page' for exact dates and
details.
2015 starts with the fantastic news of the release of Venom's
new album: 'From The Very Depths', which is released on January
26th. The label send out promotional copies to the worlds media who
mostly rave about the albums heavy raw sound, and classic track titles
such as: 'Long Haired Punks' and 'The Death Of Rock n' Roll'. The label
decide to release 3 songs on video online, to further excite the Legions,
starting with a lyric video of: 'Long Haired Punks, then 'Grinding Teeth',
and followed by 'Smoke'.
"The Show Must Go On"
To coincide with the release of the new album, the band return to the
'70,000 Tons Of Metal' 2015 cruise festival,
ready to play a world premiere concert of their entire new album.
Although disaster struck as the band landed at Miami International Airport,
only one day before the cruise set sail. They were informed that British
Airways & American Airlines had not put the bands guitars and equipment on
the plane. Venom's management went
into overdrive, contacting the airlines to make sure the bands equipment
was put
on the next flight so everything arrived at the cruise port in time, and even though promises
and guarantees were made.... sheer bloody incompetence and ignorance by the airlines led to the ship sailing the
following day without any of the bands gear.
As the news of Venom's situation spread around the ship, many bands offered
whatever equipment was needed. The
generosity of the musicians on the cruise was amazing, the show must go
on, and its a great sign when everyone
rally's to help like that, and Venom can't thank everyone enough for being
so genuine and generous, hell yeah.
Dante comments: "It's truly amazing to see how much respect
other musicians have for Venom, they were so genuine in their
generosity. We walked on board the ship thinking 'what the hell are we
going to do without our gear' and then as the word spread about our
predicament, just about every musician on the cruise started approaching us saying:
'if Venom need any equipment, take ours, you guys can use whatever gear you need'.
Wow, absolutely fantastic".
Venom eventually decided to use the instruments offered by the band: Arch Enemy.
Now Venom were able to play their shows as planned,
which included a Venom first, playing every song from their new album:
'From The Very Depths',
[in the same running order track by track]. They also played a second set
of classic songs from their extensive back catalogue, plus each member
took part individually in: 'The Jeff Water's Jam', where various
musicians from a range of bands on the cruise, got together to form a
series of mega-groups, playing a selection of classic metal tracks live
onstage. Most of the musicians had never even met before, although
they proceeded to go onstage and play together [all unrehearsed] for the
first time to the delight of the packed auditorium. All of the sets
were greatly received and an amazing unique experience was had by all.
~ Footage of the Jam Sessions can be seen on You Tube ~
As a special event for the fans on the cruise, Venom decided to hold a
free lottery during a meet n' greet session, so some lucky fans could win
a free promotional copy of the new Venom album. The cruise started
on 22 January, although the Venom album was officially released worldwide
on the last day of the cruise, the 26 January 2015. So the band
asked the label to make a limited number of promos for the cruise.
The 2015 concerts continue on 22 May with a headline show with full stage
show at: 'Rockhard' festival in Germany. Then a show in
Holland at the 'Fortarock' festival on 6 June, a show Venom are
eager to play considering its been almost 15 years since their last Dutch
show. Next it's off to
Norway to destroy the: 'Tons Of Rock' festival on 19 June. The fans
are able to select the songs for this concert making a bespoke set list
via the festival website.
The following day Venom will be in France for a show at: 'Hellfest'
on 20 June. Venom last played at Hellfest in 2008.
As a special event for the Legions, Venom gave their fans
the opportunity to choose Venom's Live Set List for the show at
the: 'Tons Of Rock' festival. In partnership with Metal Hammer
magazine, the fans voted via the website for the songs they wished to
hear from a list of 28 Venom tracks. The response was absolutely
amazing with a selection of both old and new songs, the show was truly
fantastic.
On 25 July Venom appeared at: 'Rockfest Barcelona' in Spain.
The band are very eager to return to Spain after their amazing show at 'Leyendas
del Rock' in 2013 where they played their first ever Spanish show. On
8 August
Venom played at the: 'Vagos Open Air' festival in
Portugal, the Portuguese Legions are always hardcore and came out in force
to support Venom. The mayhem then ensued as a cancelled flight meant
the band and crew had a crazy journey to Belgium, and even with a 14 hour
delay, the Venom crew and festival staff managed to make sure Venom hit
the stage on time at the: 'Alcatraz Festival' on 9 August with some
great new pyrotechnic effects and monstrous flame jets. On 15 August Venom
went on to headline their second show in Germany
this year, and again play with their stage show and pyrotechnics at this years: 'Summer Breeze' festival, a great anniversary show
for Rage being his 50th show with Venom, hell yeah.
2015 is a special year for Venom for another reason, because the
line up Cronos, Rage and Dante is now officially the longest running line up of
Venom ever, making this the Epic Venom. Journalists and fans
have already been referring to them as the new classic line up, something
unheard of before with other bands.
In a recent interview with the
band, they were asked what is the secret of this line ups success and how
have they managed to keep it together for so long when other line ups
failed, and their replies were:
Cronos: "Anyone who has followed Venom through the
years will know that I have never stopped looking for the right musicians
for Venom, and at times I thought I'd never find the right people, but I
really hope this is now the final line up so we can concentrate on
progressing. I know great things can come from hard work, so I've dedicated a lot of
time and effort into making every move count, writing killers songs and
playing fantastic shows is my main aim, I've learnt a lot from past issues
and won't make the same mistakes again, this line up are here to stay and
I believe were just getting started, we concentrate on
where this band is going in the future, and its all the way, foot down,
Pedal to the Metal".
Rage: "the support of Venom's Legions is a big factor
in making this band great, and we so we concentrate on the business of making great
music, I mean who wouldn't want to be in a great band like Venom?
We have so many ideas in the pipeline, and have many more years
ahead, we've made this a way of life and not just a job, its the greatest
venture I've ever been involved with, horns up".
Dante: "we gel so well as a band and also as people, so the
music feels so natural to us. There's a natural enthusiasm when were in
the studio or on stage, and we don't let
petty squabbles get in the way of our mission to make Venom great.
We rehearse every week because we enjoy it, simple as that, we sometimes
just jam, playing whatever comes to us with no real agenda, its great fun
and really relaxing when you can let the music flow in its own direction
and vibe, and we often get new ideas for new songs, which I believe is the most important thing is writing great songs.
Plus we want to make sure the people
who follow this band, 'The Legions', will be proud to be a fan, and we will never
lose perspective of that fact, its the fans who keep band going with their
support, and the Legions are the greatest support any band could wish for".
In the autumn Venom played their only 2015 American date at the
'Fun Fun Fun' festival in Texas. This was the events 10th year
and the Venom show was truly amazing. Texas was one of the few remaining states
that Venom had never performed
live, so the Metal Texas Legions were anticipating nothing short of
greatness, and by the killer reviews that soon followed, everyone was more
than satisfied with the incredible performance by the Black Metal Godz.
The wait was worth it, but now they want more.
Venom are set to headline the 'Festival del Diablo' in
Bogotá Colombia on 28 November, and the Latin Legions are delighted as
this will be the only South American show in 2015.
Then to end the year on a high, Venom also headlined the
'Black Xmas' festival in Sweden.
2016 is already shaping up to be another great year for Venom,
with work already started in the studio on their next album, the amazing
news was announced at the end of January that Venom's latest album 'From
The Very Depths' has won "Album Of The Year" and the band are to receive
an award. The mighty Legions voted for their favourite album
on the 'Aebyss Portal' [
www.facebook.com/TheAebyssPortal/ ] throughout the year for each month
of 2015, and Venom beat all other bands such as Iron Maiden and Slayer
etc.
[ links and photos etc on this coming soon ]
New show
announcements are already underway;
A return to the the USA in May and another headline show at the 'Maryland Deathfest'
in Baltimore. The Promoter is a hardcore music
fan who wants everyone at the festival to have a great time and also get
value for money. Venom last headlined this festival in 2013
although there were a few
issues with bands running late, and as Baltimore has a strict curfew rule
the power was cut during the Venom song 'Warhead', before the end of the
bands set. The festival had worried as the fans were getting a bit
angry, but they were respectful to understand there was nothing that could
be done. So the promoter has asked Venom to return again in 2016, which
the band are always pleased to accept, playing again for their Stateside Legions
in what could be their only US Show for 2016.
May 2016 was quite special for Venom in another way, as the new
X-Men Apocalypse movie featured the sound track of their classic song;
'Countess Bathory', indeed. There was talk among the Legions about
Cronos appearing as one of the Marvel characters, although nothing
official has been mentioned, maybe the character 'Mephistopheles', hmmm?
Then he could just play himself :)
Venom's management announced their European festivals, and a Spanish show at 'Primavera Sound Festival' on 4 June
2016, which is one of the biggest festivals in Europe with an estimated
200 thousand strong audience, perfect for a group like Venom to exercise
their headline band muscles.
A new territory was also announced as Venom headed for a show in Lithuania [The Baltic States], where they headlined the
'Kilkim Zaibu' festival in Varniai on 25 June 2016. The band unleashed
a firestorm of effects with their full
pyro show, as they promised to go in all guns blazing with a truly explosive
show, the festival crafted a huge Wicker Man for the event, which
they set alight as Venom entered the stage, a truly magical
spectacle for a live event.
The summer brought the fantastic news of a highly anticipated UK show for Venom,
at the 'Bloodstock Open Air' festival on 12 August 2016. It's been
a staggering
10 years since Venom's last UK show. The band entered the stage as
the setting Sun positioned itself directly onto the mid stage, and acting
like a cosmic spot light, blinding
the band members throughout their set, as Venom
delivered an all out hellishly amazing show to a welcoming crowd, which
was then followed by an hour long
meet n' greet session of endless Legions, all wanting to greet the band
and lay down their souls.
Venom's popularity in Spain continues to grow with their second show
of the year, this time at the 'Leyendas del Rock Festival' near
Alicante on 13 August 2016. This is Venom's second appearance at
this event, and with all of their pyro licenses in place, Venom
were able to light up the night skies, producing a truly magical stage show for their
Spanish Legions.
In September the band went on a mission to Mexico for 2 concerts. Firstly
playing in 'Mexico City' at the Carpa Astros on 2 September, a
fantastic event the Mexican Legions say this
event only allows the best of the best. Venom hammered
through their classics to a chorus of Legions in full voice, especially
for the songs from the bands last two albums, then it was onto
'Monterrey', and an absolutely mesmerising show at the 'Mexico
Metal Fest', which was on 3 September, where another hungry crowd of
Legions, all feasted on the heaviest music in the world.
Venom headed back into the studio to continue writing / recording the
new songs for their next album, although the band have now suggested
releasing a 3 track EP ahead of the next album release. So keep an eye on the news page for
a December 2017 surprise release.
News of Venom's 2017 concerts began to
surface very quickly, with a return headline show at the 'Sweden Rock Festival'
on the Sweden Stage on: Saturday 10 June 2017, the show was
truly explosive with rave reviews, hailing a welcome return to the festival.
Venom were again also invited back to play at the 'Bang Your Head
Festival' in Germany on the 13 July with a truly explosive show, then
the band went on to play at
the 'VOA Festival' in Portugal on 5 August, a return to the
'Alcatraz Festival' in Belgium on 12 August, and then a new event in
Italy on the 19 August entitled the 'Agglutination Festival' near
Rome.
A last minute surprise return show at the 'Fall Of Summer' festival
in France, took place on: 9 September and once again saw Venom
complete with explosive stage show, blast their way through a killer set
of old and new classics, to an eager Legion of French metalheads, all
hungry for true Black Metal.
Venom headlined a special event entitled: 'Galaxy Rock The
Boat' on 5 October, sailing from Sweden to Finland and back in 24
hours, the cruise festival featured a host of other bands chosen by
Venom to make for a memorable experience for the fans and bands
alike.
Venom made their long awaited return
to South America in mid October, and four countries were chosen for a short tour between 17 and
22 October. The band played shows in Peru on 17 Oct, Argentina
on 19 Oct, then with Chile on 21 Oct then
Brazil on 22 Oct. The bands management announced that they have
decided to only play a few shows, at it appears that the Latin territory
is being stretched to it's limit lately, with too many bands touring
throughout the South American countries, and too often, with a number of
other Metal bands also playing shows on the same night as Venom,
and in the same city.
It worked to Venom's advantage on this tour as they played to
capacity crowds, filling their venues with eager fans ready for a night of
Black Metal, but many other bands playing in the same city weren't so
fortunate, with only a handful of fans turning out to their near empty
venues.
There are a number of promoters asking to plan other Venom tours in
South America for 2018, especially as the 2017 shows all sol out, although
the band, management and their label will be taking a serious look at the
market before making any new plans, as even though Venom know the
South American Legions are an amazing audience, the band would rather keep
the Venom shows as a special event, and that means playing the
right shows at the right time, not over saturating the shows or tours in
the near future.
On 16 December Venom headlined their final show of 2017 at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting
event in Holland, a great way to end the year with a killer show for
'Venom's Dutch Legions', including a special surprise rendition of
the A Side of the bands upcoming new EP release.
22 December 2017 saw the release of the aforementioned new 3 Track EP
entitled: '100 MILES TO HELL' on the A Side, and 2 other songs on
the B Side entitled: 'WE THE LOUD', and 'BEATEN TO A PULP',
which is now available on Vinyl and Cassette, as well as a limited edition
tee shirts. Then the CD & download versions of the EP made available
a month after the initial release.
2018 starts with the announcement of the first confirmed Venom
concerts.
A headline show at the
Swedish Gefle Metal Festival on 13 July 2018, and also the
spectacular German Party.San
Metal Open Air festival on 10 August 2018, with plans for an extra special
show.
Unfortunately Venom had to cancel
their plans to headline at this years Amnesia Montebello Fest in
Canada in June. Dante suffered an accident, which has meant
he hasn't been able to play Drums for a few weeks while he undergoes
physiotherapy treatments. He's slowly on the mend and everyone
wishes him a speedy recovery.
Other concerts planned for this year continued with a celebration for the
hardcore German Legions, as the band headlined the awesome German Festival
called 'Party-San Open Air' on 13 August, which Venom
previously headlined back in 2013. The show went off with a bang as their
massive stage show unleashed an enormous pyrotechnic display, with
literally pyro effects in every song. The band then flew out to Switzerland for an historic event. It has
been a staggering 34 years since Venom last played there on the 7th
Dates Tour, so with eager anticipation, the band treat the Swiss Legions
to an amazing show at the Meh Suff! Metal
Festival in Huttikon Switzerland on 7 September, the Swiss Legions
immediately took to social media to express their excitement at this even,
plus other Legions from other parts of Europe also announced they had
travelled to the show, as they didn't want to miss this amazing
event.
Venom then set off to Mexico the following month, returning to the
infamous 'Tecate Mexico Metal Fest' on 6 October, with a host of
other giants for a fantastic event.
Another Black Xmas show is on the cards as Venom plan
to headline the Ruhrpott Metal Meeting on 7 December at the
Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen in Germany, a great festive way to wind up the
year.
Watch out for further news on other concert dates.
The new album is ready to go and the label
has now announced a December 2018 release date. The
album is entitled 'Storm The Gates' and contains 13 monstrous new
songs. The track names & cover art etc will all be
revealed on the website.
2019 marks the 40th Anniversary of Venom and kicks off with
an explosion of interviews and photo shoots for the new release, seeing
the band fly up and down the country in a frenzy of press. But as the band
start production rehearsals for their upcoming live shows another surprise
was about to launch.... BMG / Sanctuary Records announce the release of
new box set 'In Nomine Satanas - 40 Years In Sodom'.
A culmination of 2 years work by Cronos and the label, the box set
not only contains all of the original albums and singles, re-cut to vinyl
from the original maser tapes, but also contains unreleased demos from
1979 when the band first started rehearsing in the old church hall in
Newcastle. The tapes had been kept safe by Cronos all these
years along with other demos made at Neat studios.
Cronos explains in the extensive notes that accompany the box set
from interviews made by Dom Lawson, the demos were recorded on an old
cassette recorder in order to play to the label, but the church hall was
too ambient and the sound was not great, so he had to work extra hours in
the studio in order to negotiate for some time for his band to make their
first demos.
The box set also contains rare photos, posters, concert tickets and other
memorabilia any true hardcore fan will cherish. The reviews have
been amazing and the fan reviews have been incredible, an effort well made
with every late night and demanding schedule worth every second, knowing
the fans really appreciate this incredible release.
Venom decided to limit the amount of shows they would play for
2019, in order to spend as much time as needed to properly promote their
new album and box set release, as other releases accompanied the albums
with a range of merchandise and picture disc vinyl versions, and even the
return of the mighty 'cassette', which is now back in demand.
On 14th June Venom returned to the 'Montebello Rock Festival'
in Canada, where the band headlined a show at the events back to grass
roots approach. On 6th July the band returned to the 'Barcelona
Rockfest' which was amazing, as the event hosts many different types
of music over a few days to celebrate great music. Sweden saw Venom
at the 'Skogsrojet Festival' on 3rd July before the band flew home
to start work in the studio on the song writing process for their next
album.
To round off a great year, the 'Lucifer Rising Festival' launched
in Germany at the end of December 2019. Venom have teamed up with
Continental Concerts to organise a string of events with 4 other
bands to bring classic black metal to the fans for an awesome festive
treat. The idea of the event is to bring great bands on the road
during the holidays when a lot of Europeans prefer to go and see a live
band. Venom and the agency are looking into the possibility
of future tours, taking the shows to other countries around Europe. So
keep an eye on the news for announcements.
2020 kicked off with Venom returning to the '70,000 Tons Of
Metal' cruise for the 3rd time, which went from Miami USA to Cozumel
in Mexico from 7th to the 11th of January. The band played their 2
sets which they decided to split into 2 very different types of set.
The first set was on the pool deck and was a 'classic set' of songs from
the bands early days, to their second set in the ships on board theatre,
where they played songs from the bands last 3 albums from the current epic
line up.
Cronos was also invited on stage to join in the 'Jam Session' on
board, with a killer rendition of the KISS song: 'God Of Thunder'
featuring Gary Holt of 'Exodus' on guitar, Van Williams
of 'Ghost Ship Octavious' on drums and Bjorn Strid of 'Soilwork'
on vocals.
With the success of the BMG release of the Venom boxset
'In Nomine Satanas' last year, the label have decided to release the
album of rare demos as a standalone release. On 29th May 2020 the album
entitled 'Sons Of Satan' will be released on both Vinyl and CD formats.
Containing 15 rare demos, you can order the album online now. Check out
the Venom facebook channel for more information.
Also featured on the facebook channel is another new release for 2020, the
Venom Black Metal ReAction figure by Super7 Toys. Cronos has
been working with Super7 to design the ReAction figure for many months and
they are very happy with the results. The figure will join many other
figures by Super7, and will be in the great company of bands like Slayer, King Diamond and Lemmy of
Motorhead.
Venom returned to the UK to start pre production for a busy year of concerts,
which were supposed to kick off on 10th April with a headline show at the 'Inferno Metalfest'
in Norway, then 'Into The Abyss' on 16th May on Poland,
'Rock The Castle' on 5th July in Italy, then a few shows in the month
of August with a return to 'Wacken' in early August, another return show at the legendary 'Brutal
Assault' festival on 7th in the Czech Republic, and 'Into The
Grave' festival on 9th in Holland, and then on 15th at the new 'Metal Paradise' festival in Spain,
but disaster struck .... :(
At the beginning of March a deadly virus was reported to have emerged from
the middle east, threatening some vulnerable people around the world, so
the governments all decided to shut their countries down to try to contain
the threat, stopping all air travel and putting millions out of work. This
meant the promoters around the world all had to cancel their festivals and
live events.
The promoters, bands and fans are hoping that by spring 2021 things will
improve, opening up businesses and allowing people at attend live events,
although there may be advised to wear a mask and socially distance,
therefore some promoters have been planning some events for 2021 and
Venom's management are looking into which shows the band can appear.
Venom's merchandise company 'Razamataz' have produced a Venom Face
Covering which will be available at the shows for those who wish to use a
mask.
Check out the concerts page for news of live shows, and also keep checking
with Venom's Facebook channel and Instagram for other updates. Venom
have already agreed to three shows that were cancelled, with others
already in talks. Festivals such as Inferno, Wacken and Brutal
Assault, are first to reschedule, so lets hope we can all get back to
enjoying live shows.
Venom have had a few offers for possible streaming ideas, so the
band are looking into what other bands have been doing for the fans to get
some ideas, either rehearsals or interviews etc, so were waiting for the
management to decide what is possible at this stage. The band members have
been keeping busy writing new songs and rehearsing when possible, so there
may be a new album sooner than expected.
In September 2020 Super7 Toys released the next in the series of
Venom Black Metal ReAction figures, the 'Glow In The Dark' version.
The fans have been very enthusiastic about the figures with the pre orders
for the new figure in high demand. Check out the Venom news page for
updates.
We hope everyone stays safe and hope to see everyone at the live events
next year.
.................... more updates to follow soon .....................
< See
Venom's Concerts Page for Updates & Info
>
We Will Return - Lay Down Your Souls !
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