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Venom, the original inventers and founders of Black Metal,
the creators of Thrash, Speed, Death and
Power Metal, the deadliest
force ever to hit the music scene, the original sinners playing the
Devil's music at its highest intensity, the ultimate
Rock n' Roll
band in the universe, Venom, hell fucking yeah!!!!!!!.
It all
started way back in the 70's in the north of England, a young Heavy Metal / Punk
Rocker called Conrad Lant started
working in a recording studio as the assistant
engineer after leaving school, one day while visiting a friends house, he met a
guitarist called Jeff Dunn, they talked about music and the
bands they were in and they quickly discovered that they both shared the
idea of creating a band that was
heavier and more over the top than anything anyone had ever seen
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.
Conrad had been interested in music from an early age and had
played in a few different bands throughout his school days, one early
band being 'Album Graecum' which he had read in a book in the school
library meant Petrified Dog Shit, then with some of the members of AG
he formed another group called 'Dwarfstar', playing songs by the
Pistols, T/Rex, Bowie, UFO and of course, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Motorhead.
Venom, the notable Newcastle
ne’er-do-wells who, in 1982, detonated the whole black metal explosion
at one stroke, by releasing an album with that title. Their story is
one of the most surprising in the history of UK metal, seemingly
rising from impossible conditions to become the cornerstones of the
modern sound. Think about it. How many bands have actually inspired –
and named – a whole area of music, almost single-handedly.
Venom
weren’t a band prepared to compromise. They held firm to their
principles, 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? There is no other.
“We did it to shove two fingers up at the music
industry. Look, we were told – like everybody else – that 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 holes. 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? We said
‘Bollocks’, booked the Hammersmith Odeon in London and filled out. Our
first British gig – well, apart from a couple in local church halls in
the very early days. Now what did the know-alls have to say?
“That was the way we
were - and are. I was a tape operator at Impulse Studios in
Newcastle. I had to listen as bands came in, and said they wanted to
sound like Judas Priest or Saxon. 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 likely to succeed. But there was no originality there. It’s
typical of the city. It’s club land, where everyone knows the words to
‘We Are The World’. Where’s the originality? You think back to all
those bands at the time: Tygers Of Pan Tang, Raven, White Spirit. They
all sounded like someone else. We didn’t.
“From the start, I wanted Venom to be different, to stand apart, even
if it meant we got ridiculed. When I joined the band, we sounded like
some Judas Priest tribute band. We even had a guitarist with long
blond hair. He (Mantas) may deny it now, but he knows it’s true. That
was Venom back then. The first thing I had to do was knock it out of
them.”
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. And in a dark corner of the North East of
England existed…
Guillotine.
Yes that was the original name of the band. But they quickly made the
switch to their more renowned name, something suggested by a biker
mate (there are variations on this part of the story, but this is the
way the band themselves recall it).
“When I joined
Guillotine
they were a five-piece,” recalls Cronos. “In fact, I got
in there as a rhythm guitarist.
The guy they had previously had short curly hair and just didn't look
the part, so I took over on rhythm guitar with Jeff on lead.”
“What happened was that I was going out with Jeff’s
girlfriend’s best mate. Anyway,
I
met Jeff one
night when I had called to take the girl out, he was there with his
girlfriend and we got twalking, I told him I was in a
‘punk/metal’ band called DwarfStar and he said he was in a ‘priest
style’ band called
Guillotine,
we talked about our influences, and I mentioned that I wanted to
create a Satanic Metal band; he also wanted to go this route, and when
he found out that I worked in a studio (Impulse), that was it. He had
to get me in the band, because they just couldn’t afford the cost of
recording!”
‘Jeff Dunn, the guitarist who started the
band Guillotine along with guitarist Dave Rutherford and bassist Alan
Winston, they hadn’t long parted company with their singer and drummer
when they met Clive Archer at a Judas Priest concert, Clive was in a
band called Oberon and wasn’t happy with his guitarist and bass
player, then finally after a few meetings the members of Guillotine
decided to give Clive and his drummer (Tony Bray) an audition, they
got the job and Guillotine were finally a full band again, only
problem was, original member Dave Rutherford wasn’t really getting on
very well with the new guys, although Jeff saw their potential,
especially the mad pounding out-of-time drummer, Tony; the world knows
them better, of course, as Jeff = Mantas and Tony = Abaddon.
“We decided on those
names very early on. I found a piece of paper recently from when the
band first started, and on it were written Conrad Cronos, Jeff Mantas
and Tony Abaddon. Come on, it would have been daft to be singing about
Satan and demons, and all those dark things, and then for me to say,
‘Hello Jeff!’. We’d have felt like twats. That was always my problem
with Ozzy. He’d sing about evil things and dark figures, then spoilt
it all by going, Oh God, help me!’ 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, Cronos
comes from Greek mythology and was one of the Titans, the generation
that preceded Zeus and the Olympian gods. He was the son of Uranus and
Gaia. Legend has it that Uranus was so disgusted by Cronos when he was
born that he tried to shove his own son back into Gaia! Abaddon is the
Hebrew term for the demon known as ‘the angel of the bottomless pit’.
Or The King Of Grasshoppers. Mantas is another name for Tzizimime, who
is regarded in certain cultures as a demon of twilight.
The
quintet
was quickly whittled down to the infamous trio of Cronos, Mantas and
Abaddon - and most would regard this as being the classic Venom
line-up.
“I switched from rhythm
guitar when our bassist left one week before one of our gigs, 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.
"I was working at Impulse Studios in Wallsend [the Neat Records
studios] and from first getting the job I used to pester the managing
director about bringing my band 'DwarfStar' into the studio, although
without any joy, then when I joined 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 out 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 the recording really
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,
but soon after
I was able to convince the engineer (Mickey Sweeney) to work 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
convince the
studio boss (Dave Wood) to give me a few hours for free also,
again agreeing to do all sorts of extra work around the studio,
this is when we recorded the 3 track demo, at last we had a
good-ish quality recording our ourselves to play to the world,
and these were the demos
that Geoff Barton loved so much,
he put
all
3 tracks in his ‘Sounds magazine’ playlist for a few weeks running".
“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, although he used to put all this lime powder on his face
and let it dry, 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.
That
in
itself was enough to get him fired,
but not until we got a chance to go in the studio one more time”.
Neat Records 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 Jeff and Tony said that they preferred my vocal
style to Clive’s. Clive 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 into,
and his parting words were something like; ‘I fucking love this band,
I really hope you guys make it”.
These demos, the fact that Clive was out, and with the
help of Geoff Barton, Neat Records finally agreed to take a chance and
let us 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 bit.
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 incher 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 producer – and we hated him. He
didn’t get what we were about, he was just some guy who hung
out in the building doing sessions for club singers and the like, he
knew nothing about metal. 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. When nobody was about, I put the 24
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.
That got pressed up into the singles, and it
was only then that Steve said, ‘Hang on, that’s not my mix’. I just
said, ‘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.”
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 lay 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 always was with Tony.”
A year later, having
now established themselves as pariahs of the metal world, yet
conversely building a strong fan base among those who worshipped
noise, 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 a couple of weeks at Impulse Studios for
Black Metal, this is all the time that Neat would allow us in the
studio. People always think that I had more to do with the production
than anyone else, because I had studio experience. But, although I was
there from dawn to dusk, the whole band were all involved, really. One
of the problems is that they all kept turning themselves up, so
agreeing a final mix was nearly impossible, I would have preferred to
mix without them there but as the studio equipment was old and we
didn’t have anything like SSL, (programmable desks) everyone had to
get involved and it ended up looking something like a game of twister,
with everyone leaning over the desk to turn the faders up and down on
their instruments to help with the mix”.
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 Black Metal era was
annoying
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.
I actually got most of them signed as I was working as A&R for Neat,
I'd go to the clubs around the north east and check out all the local
up and coming acts, I'd then go banck to Neat and tell them which
bands I thought were worth a single or two 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 guys
were just local
wannabe's, really. Nothing more.
They were
getting
their first taste of
attention,
and some of
these
bands
were even
being tipped by the media to succeed. A
lot of them thought
they
could
treat Venom like we were a bunch of crap.
Some of them
even got us banned from
certain
rehearsal rooms in the area,
so we'd book the studios under different names like 'Oberon' etc until
we got sussed out. This is also
why we ended up rehearsing in a church! There they were, swanning
around in their new leathers, while I looked like a tramp. But what
did these bands end up doing? Fucking nothing! I was thinking on an
international scale, even though I never knew it at the time.”
Not all the songs for
what was to become one of the definitive metal albums were brand new,
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.”
‘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,
Abaddon was very late for the session, Jeff and I were jamming through
some new riffs and started to work the words out. One of our roadies
Ged Cook, our manager’s brother who ended up in a local band, came in the room and jumped behind the kit. We started to
mess around with the song – and the song ‘Countess Bathory’ was born!”
“Abaddon 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 Ged had played worked best,
he was furious that we ganged up on him and made him play Ged’s 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 Abaddon
brings up an itch that Cronos is desperate to scratch.
“His role, or lack of it, in the
songwriting process caused a lot of
rows in the band
later on. You see, he never wrote anything, despite getting credits.
It was
always down
to Mantas and me to write the songs. Mantas and I would meet up at
each other houses 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 Tony was never
there and never wrote any of the Venom songs.
“Abaddon came into his
own in the live arena,” adds Cronos. “He understood pyros, and because
he used to work in a factory he could weld things together for stage
effects. In the studio? Forget it. He’d do his parts and then fuck
off. You’d not see him again.”
But if there were
songs that were a couple of years old, then one track had a history
that was covered in cobwebs, at least as far as the storyline goes.
“The idea for
‘Teacher’s Pet’ goes back to when Mantas was about ten so he told me,”
says Cronos. “The way he tells it, he had a female RI teacher, who was
a bit of a floozy. She used to wear these mini skirts, would sit with
her legs crossed and all of the boys would have pre-pubescent
fantasies about her. The kid he sat next to in class, during her
lessons, used to have his hand permanently down his trousers. Mantas
was so young that he used to wonder what the kid was doing. That’s why
the first line of the song goes: ‘Teacher caught me masturbating
underneath the desk’. Not that he was ever caught, but he must have
gone home with a right mess in his pants!”
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.
“Oh, that started off
as a story that I wanted to have published as a novel,” shrugs 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: put together the
track that ends Black Metal with the full song ‘At War With
Satan’ and it lasts 21 minutes and 12 second…
2112!”
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.
“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
dirty, shambolic trio from Newcastle tilted the metal world off its
axis.
In a recent interview with Mantas he said, “Every time
I think about what we achieved with Black Metal it just fucking
floors me!” exclaims Mantas. “Even now, I can’t believe how much
impact we made, and how influential we’ve been
and continue to be.
“Paul
Stanley of Kiss was once asked whether the band putting on make-up was
a stroke of genius. He just said that if a person came out of the sea
carrying a gold nugget, would you call them a genius? That kinda sums
it up for me. We never set out to change the world – it just
happened.”
Although Cronos maintained,
“We always had a vision. Most bands starting out were playing pubs.
That was never for us. 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 fighting their way out.
They’d become the outcasts. It’s all down to your point of view.
“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 band like us 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 us.”
In truth, At War
With Satan is a glorious failure, 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 yet, one can’t help
feeling that, in actuality, Venom’s music was actually enhanced
by not having an enormous budget.
“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.
“I know that Venom
never played anybody’s game. We were always true to just one thing:
ourselves. 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.”
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, because he spent
much of the time trying to catch – and eat! – flies. A Renfield
character, if you will, much given to outbursts of erudition. He
seemed to be the only one who fitted into the media analysis of the
Venom psyche. He had little time for contemporaries like
Mercyful Fate – whom he dismissed with an almost imperious wave of
his hand (the non-fly catching one), and espoused the Venom
determination to remained unbowed and untethered by trends.
By
contrast, Mantas was quietly spoken and seemed almost uncomfortable
with
the music scene, speaking about everyone who was involved in
the industry as 'liggers'. 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, Abaddon was
the wannabe rock star in the pack,
although he ended up looking like he should have joined Deep Purple,
the road crew used to call him David Coverversion.
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 one with
the 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 we wanted, or expected. All we did
was record what we felt was a true metal song, something that fizzed,
had energy and growled in the usual manner of a 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 us. So, we went in completely
the opposite way, and 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!”
While this single
didn’t catapult the band to superstar status – or probably pay for a
good fry-up at the local greasy spoon – nonetheless it did ensure
that, for a time, Venom were almost 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 Mantas starting to lose touch with the others.
The band went to
America, to headline a tour that saw Slayer supporting them.
Catching the show in Los Angeles, it was amusing 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 probably bigger in the US 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.
Mantas was clearly
distracted at times. He seemed to lack the ambition and focus, and by
the time the band were ready to record their next album,
Possessed, his contribution was almost at a standstill.
“He’d lost touch with Abaddon and me.
His input into the Possessed record wasn’t really what we
needed. You see, he didn’t have the passion any more. We also made a
big mistake by hiring a swanky
Stately Home to work on the album. We were used to
dirty, skuzzy 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.
It was fine for Mantas, because he could just lie around and do fuck
all thinking he was lord of the manor. But it was wrong for the spirit
of Venom.”
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 more before
going into the studio, the way we did the other albums, the songs are
good songs but Mantas didn’t want to have any rehearsals.
But it gets a bad press from people, and it deserves better.”
With Mantas
increasingly moving away from the roots of the band, there was to be a
split. That seemed assured, and it happened as the band prepared ideas
for their next, and seemingly crucial, record.
“We started work on an
album that we were gonna call Deadline, but all Mantas’ ideas
were wrong. They were guitar pieces he was to use on his solo stuff –
and not at all right for us.”
And so, Mantas
was asked to leave,
believing that he’d gone as far as possible with Venom. And
where did it leave the band? Simple, doing what Motörhead had
only recently done, namely replacing one guitarist with two
others.
The two men in question were American Mike Hickey
(known just as Mike H) and Englishman Jim Clare (Jimi C). It was a
case of the band taking advantage of their changed circumstances to
expand their sound.
“Jimi was a Northern
lad, just like us, while Mike sent through a demo. What happened was
that we spread the word about the search for a guitarist, once Mantas
quit. We got in loads of demos, and these two seemed to be what we
were looking for. When I got Mike’s tape, it really impressed me,
because he did a version of the classical piece ‘Flight Of The Bumble
Bee’ – expect that it turned out to be a mistake.
“Years after Mike got
the job, I came across the tape and played it to him, just to see what
the reaction would be after all this time. Well, I got one – and it
wasn’t the one I was expecting. Mike said that it wasn’t him playing
on that tape! It seems that the guy who sent through that demo had the
same management as Mike, and that I’d gotten the two mixed up somehow.
I’m not sure what happened to the guy who’s playing I had been
listening to, but it was a lucky mistake, because Mike was exactly
right for the band at the time.”
Now a four-piece,
Venom found that they could try different things musically. As
Motörhead discovered when they brought in Wurzel and Phil Campbell
to replace Brian Robertson, potentially there’s a new dimension to the
approach.
“Having Mike and Jimi 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. Mantas was losing interest before he left, and what we needed
was a shot of enthusiasm, which we got from the new guys. Mind you, it
had a down side for me. 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 a tough time for Venom,
because they were almost caught in the headlights.
Determined to stick
firmly to their own path, they certainly opened up their sound
somewhat with Calm…, but probably not enough to attract
a new audience. However, they were sufficiently removed from the roots
of the band to alienate some diehards, who’d only be satisfied with a
repetition of the Black Metal formula – 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 sword & sorcery approach. Up to a point it worked quite
well, but there was always a feeling that this line-up of the band was
destined to fall apart quite quickly. 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. For Venom this certainly seemed to be the case. The
decision by Mantas to leave the band actually unbalanced it, and there
was inevitability that, without a crucial figure such as the
guitarist, more upheaval would follow.
At the end of 1988 the
band decided to split.
But after Calm
Before The Storm the front
man – who had become the figurehead
of the band over the years – decided it was time to move on. Not only
that, but he took the two guitarists with him, intent on starting a
new career, by forming a band called…Cronos.
“That 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.”
So, what happened next? Amazingly, Abaddon – now on his
own – teamed up with…Mantas, they decided to start an new project
which they at first called Sons of Satan, they had assumed
Cronos would take the name Venom.
Cronos recalls; “I was working in America on the first
Cronos album and playing some live shows when the call came
through from Tony asking about his drum kit, I had put all of the
Venom equipment into storage when the band split, Tony told me that he
and Jeff were going to start a new project, we talked about the band
name and how Jeff had not kicked up a fuss when we had continued with
Venom without him, and he asked if I minded if they used the name
Venom, I told him that if there were two members of the band then why
not, I was going out as Cronos and had no intentions of using Venom.
So Mantas, now back in the fold and seemingly re-invigorated after the
brief hiatus. Now, it’s easy to imagine that Cronos had been the cause
of the guitarist’s unrest
in the first place, and now he’d gone, there was no reason why he
shouldn’t return. But that is to simplify the complex relationship
that made Venom work in the first place. So, let’s a take a
moment just to understand what exactly made the trio of Cronos, Mantas
and Abaddon work so brilliantly.
There is a scientific theory that
explains the closer you get to analyzing a phenomenon, the more likely
you are to affect that which you’re trying to measure. The only way to
appreciate the classic Venom line-up is to stand back a little
from the minutiae.
Mantas and Abaddon began in the band in the first place, but without a
seeming game plan. They
wanted to be onstage. They wanted to emulate their metal heroes. But
what they never believed could happen was that they’d be as
influential as those they worshipped. Cronos had the attitude and
psychology to stand apart, determined to bring the sort of success to
the band that nobody ever felt was possible.
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, 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.
In Mantas and Abaddon
he found two people who’s own ambitions complemented and supplemented
his own. Both brought different facets to the band, in the case of the
guitarist, it was a way of playing that offset an initial lack of
technique with brute force. In the case of the drummer, it was a
pounding sensibility that, again, may have lacked finesse, but gave
the songs momentum. Sure, there were better musicians around in the
North-East than all three, but they locked together in a tirade of ‘us
against the world’ ghetto mentality, and an outrageous two-fingered
salute.
This wasn’t three
individuals out to prove a point. This was a trio, fuelled and
fostered by every wrong turn, every bad move. Some now 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, in that it seemed anyone could play it. 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.
Black Metal
remains their piece de resistance from that period – an album that is
a cornerstone of extreme music, even today. A remarkable effort that
still sounds enervating, effervescent and utterly compulsive.
So, the secret of
Venom lies locked partially in serendipity, partly in belief, yet
largely in a mythology that’s built on solid foundations. And, just
when the storm was blowing itself out, it was a series of incidents in
Norway that suddenly returned them to favour on the underground scene.
By the start of the
1990s, it seemed that black metal – the sub-genre, that is – had run
out of steam. There seemed little more to be said musically. And then
word began to spread about a series of unsavoury incidents in
Scandinavia. At first, they were dismissed as no more than media
frenzy, but slowly it dawned on everyone that these were for real.
Norwegian musicians – professing to be allied to the black metal
community – were burning churches, claiming that they were an
abomination on the traditional Norse way of life.
Moreover, there was at
least one suicide and a couple of murders, connected to these
musicians. People began to hear about Count Grishnakh, Euronymous,
Dead, Mayhem, Burzum – these were names that suddenly cropped up not
just in the music press, but also in the more august and serious
portals of journalism. And, as those who’d never heard about black
metal before, started to investigate this strange beast, so Venom
got more attention than ever. Abaddon was even asked to appear on BBC
TV’s respected ‘Newsnight’ program to discuss these violent
outbursts in Norway. Typically, he refused to take it too seriously,
even ‘admitting’ on air that he was a practicing Satanist – which was
patently not the case.
But, there was a significant downside
to all of this attention. Young bands in Norway were hailing Venom
as their godfathers, the
inspiration behind their ‘cause’. It was something that
Cronos couldn’t stomach. He wanted – and wants – nothing to do with
such crazed antics.
“Look, those bands who seem to think that we are the
leaders of their fucking perverted activities…I want the world to know
they have nothing to do with what Venom were all about. In fact, it
disgusts me. What do they think they’re doing? Trying to tie it in
with what we were about was so wrong. They had no clue about the band.
Venom was always about entertainment, about taking the concept of
horror movies and introducing it into music. But killing and burning?
Fuck that! Nobody should think we could ever condone those acts.”
"When people talk about Venom they say 'Black Metal' or 'Witching
Hour' or 'Bloodlust', they might speak of our stage names or talk
about our stage show etc, but people only mention the church burnings
or murders when they speak of the
Norwegian
bands, it's a shame that no one knows them for the music they
created".
What the whole
Norwegian incidents did was to revive and revitalize an interest in
the genre, albeit one that was sadly tainted with a morbid
sensationalism. However, by this time, Venom themselves had
somewhat lost their way.
Cronos’ decision to
leave, and the subsequent return of Mantas, left two of the three
originals there. But how do you replace someone like their erstwhile
colleague? Venom chose to bring in former Atomkraft
bassist/vocalist Tony Dolan (who, for a while, was known as The
Demolition Man), completing their new look with the arrival of Al
Barnes as a second guitarist.
The problem was that
this band were musically sufficiently removed from what had gone
before to cast doubts over the sense in using the band name. However,
the release of 1989’s Prime Evil album proved that this
new line-up had a freshness that might just succeed in dragging
Venom towards a new era. Certainly, there was a lot of confidence
around them at the time, as well as a careful respect for what went
before.
“I am not trying to
replace Cronos, “ Dolan said at the time. “I’d be crazy to think I
could that. What he did with this band was amazing and unique. He has
his own style, and for me to believe that I can be him would be to
upset the fans, and also to undermine what we’re aiming to do. But
what I can be is myself, and I feel that I bring something new to
Venom. It’s a fresh start, and that’s the way we’ve approached the
music.
Unfortunately,
Venom fans weren’t totally ready to accept this new incarnation of
their fave band. So, while both Prime Evil and 1990’s
Tear Your Soul Apart had enough quality moments to suggest
that this line-up deserved better, the inevitability was that past
glories weighed them down.
Cronos, though, is
magnanimous and positive about this brief period in the band’s
history, albeit one that didn’t involve him.
“I know a lot of
people believe that the band became a lame duck, but that’s unfair on
what they were trying to do. Let’s give them credit for giving it
their best shot. I think they did suffer from
getting in someone like Tony Dolan.
Personally, I believe that the band would have been better off going
for a complete unknown. The trouble is that Tony already had his own
style. As a result I listen to what he did with Venom, and it sounds
like Atomkraft – I worked with that lot when I was at Impulse Studios,
so I do know what I’m talking about.
“Mind you it would
have been the same whoever they’d gotten in, if they already had a
reputation. Rob Halford would have made them sound like Priest, no
question about that. The only way to get over it would have been to
grab an unknown – then you don’t have the problem.”
Venom
also faced another inevitable problem during those years without
Cronos – and that was fan acceptance, something that Dolan alluded to
at the time.
“There are people
calling for Cronos at our gigs. I expected that to happen. He’s had
such an impact on the band. All I hope is that people give me a chance
to prove what I can do. And, in a couple of years, I will have
established my own personality, and that sort of thing will die away.”
Sadly, it never did.
Dolan, despite being a more than personable front
man and talent in his
own right, never achieved his ambition. It’s something for which
Cronos has some sympathy.
“When Mantas
didn’t make it onto the first half of the
American tour, and we first got in Davey Irwin and Les Cheetham to
play the guitars, the fans were always calling for Mantas anyway.
They could never
accept that he’d left, and gave the new guys a hard time. I did hear
that Tony had the same trouble when he replaced me, fans always
calling for me to return. I do feel sorry for anyone in that position,
because they’re a loser whatever they do. But, I suppose you have to
say that it’s to the credit of what we did as a band when it was just
me, Mantas and Abaddon. When you make that sort of impact, whoever
comes later faces trouble,
any replacements with Venom need to prove themselves to the fans, I
believe it is possible as there are some intense musicians out there
these days.”
Venom
soldiered on with Dolan
however it
quickly
started to fizzle out. The band
had run its course, and with extreme metal now far removed from what
Venom had once stood for, and also the advent of the grunge
revolution, they seemed strangely middle aged and a little staid.
“Things
just didn't happen with Temples Of Ice,” says Dolan. “Both me
and Mantas started to lose interest. By the time we did The Waste
Lands, that was it for me. I guess my problem was that I’d
expected we’d be playing huge shows like the original line-up, but we
were doing clubs. I mean, we did a show opening for Sacred Reich in
front of 300 people, and I remember thinking that nobody was taking us
seriously. It was like, ‘If this is Venom, why aren’t we headlining
the Dynamo Festival?’ The real Venom would be. We were being accused
of selling out, largely because I wasn’t Cronos.”
Eventually, Venom decided it was time to call
‘time’ on their
illustrious career. But anyone who thought that would end the saga
obviously reckoned without another, welcome twist in the tale.
Although Cronos had been hard at work with his band
throughout, not trying to sell out huge arenas but content to release
his albums and play the medium sized venues. Then in 1994, Cronos had
recruited new drummer Mark Wharton of Cathedral and along with
his guitarist Mike Hickey, 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 and everyone agreed, this 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 did get me thinking about getting the classic Venom
line-up back again. But by that point, 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 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 had to drag them forward a bit.
Mantas had cut his hair and had a kid by then, 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, he never partied anyway]
And the old arguments soon
resurfaced. But for a
short
time, we got it back together, and we were able
to go out to play much bigger gigs than the ones they’d been doing in
the ’90s without me. For instance, we got to headline the Dynamo
Festival.”
(with
90,000 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. And there was soon a standoff between Cronos and Abaddon that
eventually led to the latter leaving.
“We had huge problems,” admits Cronos.
“We really weren’t getting on. Then one day, Abaddon
sent me a letter
to tell me
I was fired. My response was, ‘Oh yeah?
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 Abaddon quitting to pursue a
job on a building site, leaving the frontman and Mantas to move forward. They recorded an album in 2000
called Resurrection,
Cronos
had
recruited his brother to
stand in on the drums, he did as we asked and was able to put a good
steady beat to our riffs, so we left his playing on the album and
asked him to join the band, he hadn't been doing much with any other
bands so he jumped at the chance. But of course, this is
Venom, so nothing stays stable for
very
long.
In February 2002, Cronos had a climbing accident while
out with his Marine friends in Wales, this meant he couldn’t play his
instrument, sing or anything as he was wearing a neck brace, the
Doctors had estimated a year or two of recovery, Cronos told Mantas
and Antton to get on with whatever they could and make the most of
this time out, he knew Mantas had been talking about making another
solo album, so Mantas
decided to start his own band – called Mantas
666, then after he had recorded his album he released a press
statement declaring that he wasn’t going to return to Venom and
he wanted to pursue his new direction with his solo band, leaving
Cronos to carry on with the name, so Cronos called on his old band
mate Mike Hickey who’d always wanted a second chance at Venom,
and this time he could show the world what he was really made of.[?]
So the trio of Cronos, Mykus
and Antton started work on
a new Venom album,
[Metal Black] which
came
out in March 2006 on the
Sanctuary Music label.
It’s
been a long, strange, somewhat twisted trip. Full of amazing stories
and astounding tales. Sometimes the band have stunned with their
insight. On other occasions, one was left to wonder at how they let so
many opportunities slip through their grasp.
One story that still amuses is when
they were touring America with Slayer back in the mid-1980s. It
was a tour that got them huge attention, and did no end of good for
Slayer’s profile as well. They were the new kids on the block,
while Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon were giants. However, as the tour
came towards its conclusion,
Cronos and Mantas took their flights back
to
England leaving the drummer and manager in Los Angeles
where they were involved in meetings with other projects they had on
the go, although the pair got stranded in Los Angeles, unable to pay
their air fare home. Now, yours truly
[Mal Dome]
was in the city covering some
journalistic jamboree, and in desperation the pair asked if I might
lend them the money to get back home, which I did. Oh, I got paid back
very promptly – no problem there – but it did bring something very
much into focus. The band put so much financially into their show
that, on occasion, it was to their own detriment.
But, in America
especially, wherever you made contact 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 the
three Geordies 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 their
impact.
To some extent the
band remained oblivious to what was going on around them. They were so
engrossed in their own survival that there was little time for them to
wallow in the ramifications of their own music. Perhaps if there had
been a greater awareness from the band at the time, then things might
have been a little different. However, that was never the Venom
way.
It
was typical of their nature that much of the invention and pioneering
spirit was born out of a need to offset a lack of funding. Yet,
looking back now, it is hard to imagine how things could have been
improved. More money? Nah. That might have meant a refinement of that
trademark sound. Bigger studio? Ditto. Venom might have ended
up with better sounding records, but ones that would inevitably reduce
the impact.
“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 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
we ever do that? NO chance!
We might have made mistakes,
yeah
but
all of the ideas
were all ours, and
we made it from our own incentive
and
not because we were
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,
Metallica
themselves 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?’. One of us – and
I think it was probably Cronos – just said, ‘We’re black metal’.
“We 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!
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 in conclusion. “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 do some of your own stuff with 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, with a sound
and intensity of the 80's Venom, this was an obvious title said
Cronos "we
put the new line-up together and rehearsed a whole load of the early
songs for about 3 months before 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', there's another to scratch your
heads over?".
Venom increased their
Live appearances in 2006 after the launch of the album, starting with
a UK
Tour in March, Venom received a great response from their Legions, the
band hadn't appeared live on their own soil for almost 20 years and
weren't sure of what reaction they'd get, but they 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 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 sang
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 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 4
major sell out festivals, so their assault on America had everyone waiting with baited breath. When Venom first
announced they would be touring the States they refused to release any
definite dates, this was both a deliberate wind up to keep everyone
guessing, but also as Cronos had some serious personal
family matters to attend to, he couldn't commit to any dates until he
had sorted out his affairs.
By August the band were able to go to the US Embassy to get their work
permits, they announced their tour dates and contacted
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. Plans to return to the States began
before the tour ended, Venom started negotiations with their business
manager in America to look into getting them back before too long.
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??? doh!) 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 and Antton 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 has 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 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 his brother 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 Dolan 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, its just my
opinion.
Cronos was back in the Townhouse mastering room with the 'Resurrection' album
to make sure it stood up to the sharp production quality.
Sanctuary release 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 failed Neat label were
unable to continue as a label and 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 nowadays
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,
Sanctuary took control of the entire Neat Records label and back
catalogue after the failed company went into liquidation.
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.
A select number of special summer festival shows begin with Venom
headlining day one of the Hellfest
3 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 which is planned for summer 2010 release date, plus
were rehearsing the tracks for the live set ready to get out on the road again
which is being planned for sometime 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".
Venom return from their Latin tour to get straight back in the studio to continue
work on their new album.
By the start of 2010 the show offers start flooding in at the bands
management.... Venom announce the first of their concerts for
2010. And its another virgin territory that Venom will be playing for the
first time.
BULGARIA ~ Sofia on: 17th April 2010 @ Festivalna Sports Hall.
The Russian Federation is next to confirm a date in Moscow
followed by Warsaw in Poland for June.
A festival headline show is confirmed for Ukraine [Kiev]
in September while the bands management negotiate other shows in the
likes of Norway, Finland and Germany. There is
also a surprise on the cards with a possible show in the UK,
Venom are planning to appear as 'very special guests' to Down
at this years 'High Voltage Festival' on the Metal Hammer Stage on
25th July, and this show is set to be a very special event for both
band and the fans.
Lay Down Your Souls.........
to be continued ............. |
