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Conrad “Cronos” Lant, the frontman for the legendary Northern British heavy metal band Venom, has died, according to a post on the band’s social media sites and the Guardian. No cause of death was cited; he was 63.
“For more than four decades, Conrad’s voice, bass and vision were at the heart of Venom,” reads a statement from the band. “He created something that changed heavy music for ever. Venom never followed the rules. They forged their own path. And Conrad was there at the centre of it all — uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable.”
At the time Venom released its first album in 1981, the group’s imagery — including skulls, bondage gear, swords and all manner of pseudo-witchcraft and Satanism — and flamboyant stage antics were so over the top that many did not take them seriously. But their influence on heavy metal, particularly thrash, was vast and far-reaching, on bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and even Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who collaborated with Lant on the Probot project in 2004. Venom’s album “Black Metal” even spawned the name of a subgenre that has been taken to even greatest extremes by many Scandinavian bands.
Lant was born in London to a musical family but moved with his family to Newcastle when he was a child. At the age of 16, he joined a band called Guillotine that eventually morphed into Venom; he started as a guitarist, then moved over to bass (which he played for the rest of his career) and finally lead singer as various members left. With their name and image in place, the trio — guitarist Jeff Dunn (who went by Mantas) and drummer Tony Bray (Abaddon) released “Welcome to Hell” in 1981, which featured the single “In League With Satan,” which even included a speech about the devil (recorded backward).
The group continued on that track across five albums during the 1980s, but the one that truly brought them mainstream attention was “Possessed.” Released in April of 1985, the album’s timing coincided perfectly with the rise of the controversial Parents Music Resource Center, led by “Washington wives” Tipper Gore, Susan Baker and others, which testified before Congress about overtly sexual, violent and Satanic lyrics and imagery in popular music. “Possessed” was No. 14 on the organization’s “Filthy 15” songs chart — along with songs by Prince, Madonna, Sheena Easton, Judas Priest and even Cyndi Lauper — and brought Venom’s music to the attention of countless thousands of people who had never heard of them. (The PMRC hearings succeeded in having warning stickers attached to certain CDs and vinyl, but little else except publicity.)
Venom went on hiatus in 1988 and Lant embarked on a solo career as Cronos throughout the 1990s. But Venom reformed for another seven LPs, the most recent being 2018’s “Storm the Gates.” The band continued to tour right up until this past summer.
