Black metal mourns pioneering Venom frontman

2 hours ago

Simon PageNorth East and Cumbria

Conrad Cronos Lant and his band Venom are widely credited with creating an entire genre of music

Getty Images Conrad Cronos Lant on stage with Venom at the Sweden Rock Festival in June 2026. He is bald at the front but has really long, dark reddish brown hair flowing down from the top of his head. He has his mouth open as if shouting but his face suggests happiness. He also has a short, stubbly goatee beard and moustache with flecks of grey. He is wearing a black leather waistcoat with a really big buttoned pocket and laces tied at the side seam. Under that is a black vest which seems to be a Rolling Stones T-shirt that has had the collar and sleeves cut off. He also wears black leather trousers, a thick bronze coloured link chain round his neck and a black sweatband on his wrist. He is playing a blood red and black coloured bass guitar and behind him are symbols on one side of a drum kit with the drummer's right arm in the air. — Conrad Cronos Lant and his band Venom are widely credited with creating an entire genre of music

The co-founder, frontman and bass player of pioneering heavy metal band Venom has died at the age of 63, it has been announced.

For almost 50 years Conrad Lant, known by his stage name Cronos, led the Newcastle band credited with inventing the black metal genre and cited as a major influence by thrash metal bands including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax.

In a tribute, the group said Lant's "voice, bass and vision were at the heart of Venom" and described their bandmate as "uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable".

His son Nathan thanked the band's fans down the decades "for all of the support you have given my dad over the years, I know he really appreciated you all".

Venom began in Newcastle in 1978, formed by musicians from three other bands, but it was their second album - Black Metal released in 1982 - that cemented their status in the rock world.

Playing a fast style mixed with Lant's dark imagery and lyrics, the album gave its name to an entire subgenre and influenced bands on both sides of the Atlantic.

'Filthy fifteen'

Speaking to BBC Newcastle, rock journalist Simon Rushworth said: "They were massively influential [and] spawned a whole genre of what I'd call extreme metal.

"The likes of Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, they all cited Venom.

"Venom took Metallica out on the road in the mid-80s before anybody knew who they were. Then Metallica returned the favour and took Venom on the road with them.

"Cronos was right at the heart of it, not only with the music.

"He was the one who brought a lot of the early artwork to the table and kind of created this black metal image."

That imagery brought the band to the attention of the US government when the track Possessed was included on the "Filthy Fifteen" list of songs compiled by the Parents Music Resource Center, the committee behind the adoption of "parental advisory" warning stickers.

Cronos brought much of the imagery to the band, to the delight of fans and horror of censors

Getty Images Conrad Cronos Lant in a black and white publicity shot from 1985. He is holding a large snake in his right hand so the snake is looking at him with its tongue out and Lant is looking back at the snake with his tongue out. Lant has thinning but long and wispy dark hair. His left hand is raised in a claw shape and he has a waistcoat on over bare skin. The snake is curled up on a table and behind them is a chalkboard with items written on it as if it is a menu board in a cafe. These include "Mamba + Mash £1.30" and "Snake Rattle + Roll (with butter)". — Cronos brought much of the imagery to the band, to the delight of fans and horror of censors

The original line-up began to break apart following Possessed and Cronos pursued solo projects until a short-lived and acrimonious reunion in the mid-90s.

With changing line-ups, but mainly led by Cronos, Venom continued to the present day, releasing a 14th studio album - Into Oblivion - this year.

In a tribute on social media, original guitarist Jeff "Mantas" Dunn said: "Despite the turbulent history of this band, it was at the end of the day the three of us, who started something so special and changed the direction, the movement and the history of metal as we know it.

"At times like this the thing I remember is the friendship that we had in those early days, that one for all, all for one mentality, that rebellious quality and the absolute driven urge to be something so different whether it was accepted or not."

Rushworth said the band were themselves influenced by the likes of Motorhead, Kiss, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, adding: "Cronos wanted Venom to be a more evil and flamboyant hybrid of all of those bands.

"Many would say he succeeded."

Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram and listen to Radio Newcastle on BBC Sounds.