Venom Singer/Bassist and Black Metal Icon Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant Dies at 63

Conrad “Cronos” Lant, the lead singer and bassist for pioneering English black metal band Venom, has died at 63. The group announced the news in an Instagram post on Thursday (Oct. 1), writing, “It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the news that Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant has passed away. For more than four decades, Conrad’s voice, bass and vision were at the heart of VENOM. From the first dark rumblings of Welcome to Hell, through Black Metal, At War With Satan, Possessed and beyond, he created something that changed heavy music forever.”

At press time, no additional information was available about Lant’s cause of death.

Formed in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 1978, the band settled on their forever name a year later when the members also adopted their dark stage alter egos, with former Dwarfstar member Lant initially playing rhythm guitar, then moving over to bass duties while adopting the stage moniker “Cronos,” while singer Clive Archer — who Lant would replace on the mic in 1980 — took on the humble alter ego “Jesus Christ,” drummer Bray went with “Abanddon” and guitarist Jeff Dunn appended “Mantas” to his given name.

The band’s initial run of albums, including their 1981 debut Welcome to Hell, 1982’s Black Metal and 1984’s At War with Satan, helped supercharge the rise of the grim black metal genre in the 1980s and 1990s amid the rise of a wave of British metal that included bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Motörhead. The title track to their genre-defining sophomore album featured a relentlessly galloping blitz of dim imagery on which Lant growled, “Black is the night/ Metal we fight/ Power amps set to explode/ Energy screams/ Magic and dreams/ Satan records the first note.

The primal howl of dark, sorcery-fed imagery and punishing riffing helped give a name to the soon-to-explode genre and set the template for a wave of British and Norwegian acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s similarly obsessed with magick, dark themes and doomy, blistering arrangements.

“VENOM never followed the rules. They forged their own path,” the band wrote in their tribute to Lant. “And Conrad was there at the centre of it all — uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable. The Legions have always been an important part of VENOM. To everyone who stood with the band through the years, bought the records, came to the shows, wore the shirts, shared the music and kept the flame burning — Cronos was always grateful for your loyalty and support.”

With a double-time attack that would also feed the fire for the thrash metal and underground metal scenes of the 1980s, songwriter Lant’s obsession with Satanic imagery on songs such as “To Hell and Back,” “Sons of Satan,” “In League With Satan” (which featured a spooky backwards masking intro) and “Black Christmas” doubled-down on the dark underworld obsessions of ancestors such as Black Sabbath.

After 1985’s Possessed, the band pivoted a bit away from their underworld fixation into a more straightforward hard rock attack on 1987’s Calm Before the Storm, before Lant briefly left the group and was replaced by Atomkraft bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan on 1989’s Prime Evil album.

Following a decade-plus gap, the original group, including Lant, reformed to record their ninth album, 1997’s Cast in Stone, which, predictably, continued their association with dark arts on such tracks as “The Evil One,” “Raised in Hell,” “All Devils Eve” and “God’s Forsaken.”

Lant, who also created the band’s ominous logo and sleeve art for many of their singles and albums and briefly fronted his own band, Cronus, continued to lead the charge for Venom the band through the return-to-form 2006 LP Metal Black, as well as 2008’s Hell, 2011’s Fallen Angels, 2015’s From the Depths and 2018’s Storm the Gates. Over the years, he also collaborated with Cradle of Filth and appeared on the 2004 one-off album by Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl’s metal side project, Probot on the opening track “Centuries of Sin.”

Venom released their first album in eight years, and final one with Lant, Into Oblivion, earlier this year.

Lant’s legacy lives on through the many covers of Venom’s songs by the likes of Cradle of Filth, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Entombed, Obituary, the Melvins, Sodom and many more.