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Venom is a black/speed metal band, formed in late 1978, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Influenced by rock and heavy metal acts such as Judas Priest, The Sex Pistols, KISS and Motörhead, Venom created a sound as well as an image that would be a big influence to early death, black, and thrash metal bands at the time, and the pioneers of the genre of Thrash and black metal. Mayhem, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Death, Testament, Hellhammer, Exodus, Eudoxis and Morbid Angel cite Venom as a major influence. Though musically they are more closely related to speed metal, it was their lyrical topics and harsher vocals which separated them from other bands at the time (usually dealing with Satan and Hell and other "black" topics). Their first two records, Welcome to Hell in 1981 and Black Metal in 1982, set the bar for black metal to follow. The original members went by the pseudonyms Cronos, Mantas, and Abaddon.
Biography Venom was formed when the band Guillotine merged with the band Oberon and the band DwarfStar, they then renamed themselves Venom in 1979. Originally, Guillotine featured Jeffrey Dunn on guitar, Dave Blackman on vocals, Dave Rutherford on second guitar, Dean Hewitt on bass guitar, and Chris Mercaters on drums. Later that year, Blackman and Mercater were replaced by drummer Anthony Bray and vocalist Clive Archer of 'Oberon'. Soon after, Alan Winston replaced Dean Hewitt on bass. In around the summer of 1979, Conrad Lant from the bands DwarfStar and Album Graecum met Jeffrey Dunn and joined the band replacing Rutherford on guitar. A few days before a show at a local Church Hall, Venom's bassist Alan Winston left the band, so Conrad Lant borrowed a Bass Guitar from a friend at the studio he worked at (Impulse Studios / Neat Studios) and he played the show with the Bass instead of his Guitar, plugging it into his Marshall stack with effects pedals and all, an unholy racket emerged from the backline, and this is how the Bulldozer Bass was born. Venom use Satanic references, and the band members renamed themselves. Clive Archer became "Jesus Christe", Conrad Lant became "Mr Cronos", Anthony Bray became "Tony Abbadon", and Jeffrey Dunn became " Jeff Mantas". That April, the band recorded a three song demo of "Angel Dust", "Raise The Dead", and "Red Light Fever". Soon afterward, 6 more demo tracks were recorded for just £50, with Cronos taking vocal duties on the song "Live Like An Angel". Clive Archer soon left the band, and Venom's lineup was finally a 3 piece. Venom debuted in 1981 with the single "In League with Satan" / "Live Like An Angel" which was released by Neat Records. Later that year they released Welcome To Hell, which was a remarkable tour de force at the time, when Satan was rarely mentioned by any other bands in the entire music industry. Venom are also credited as inventing thrash metal and influencing other bands, specifically Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. It pushed the boundaries of thrash metal to the extremes from the word go, and the beginnings of a new genre were starting to emerge. Their second album, Black Metal (1982) is cited as the most important in the development of black metal, thrash metal, and death metal. Many elements of these genres are found in the lyrics and song titles created by Cronos and his unique lyrics ans singing style, and the guitar work and solos performed by Mantas. While all fans and musicians see Venom as an important band, others disagree. In his Black Flag tour diary, singer Henry Rollins wrote about a 1986 performance when Black Flag opened for Venom. He opines that Venom were hilarious. It was like seeing Spinal Tap ... I expected them to go into "Sex Farm" at any second." But Venom just laughed off the comments saying "Henry didn't have the balls to speak to us back then, he hid backstage, but now he mouths off behind our backs, his band were useless and that's now why he reads books, plus in his book he got the date of the show wrong, duh?, go write some more books and we'll keep making music." On the extra material of , Lemmy Kilminster of Motörhead opines that Venom fake it on their instruments arguing that they are not skilled musicians (later saying that they were "alright"). When Sam Dunn, the interviewer, tells Lemmy that he himself was blown away by Venom back when he was twelve, Lemmy responds "Anything will blow you away when you're twelve. A day at the beach will blow you away when you are twelve." Cronos has always spoke highly of other musicians such as Lemmy, Ozzy, Rob Halford and a host of other Britishh bands, in one interview he said, "Heed have always had a great response in Newcastle, Geordies really relate to them, Lemmy is a smart bloke and a wicked axeman, true rock n' rollers". As Godfathers of black metal, when asked about the actions of the later black metal bands and their church burnings as well as the oftentimes out of hand stage shows; Venom have spoken out against those acts, stating that these artists are taking their personal problems more seriously than their music. The point of Venom is to make controversial music; "how can you make albums and tour if you are in jail?". Towards the end of 2005, Venom released a career defining 4-disc box set MMV Which includes, an Exclusive mini-poster of the band's 7 dates tour of Europe with Metallica and a 60 Page Picture book, with interviews and pictures. The 4 Disc set includes all their hit's as well as live tracks, demos and outtakes. In March 2006, Venom released their latest album, named "Metal Black", featuring original frontman Cronos along with his brother Antton on drums, and Mickey 'H' aka Mykvs. The album is a return to Venom's sound in "Black Metal", as signified by the name "Metal Black". Venom then set off on their 2006 world tour, for more information visit their website http://www.venomslegions.com. Members Former Members Album Discography Sources See also Reference Rockdetector.com: Venom: Rockdetector Biography | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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