By Monk
Conrad Lant, the founder of British black metal progenitors Venom and better known by his stage name of Cronos, has died at the age of 63.
After having played together in various rock and metal bands in the North East of England, Lant formed Venom with guitarist Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn, drummer Tony ‘Abaddon’ Bray and vocalist Clive ‘Jesus Christ’ Archer in 1979. He took over as vocalist as well as bassist when Archer quit the band that same year.
The “classic” Venom trio of Abaddon, Cronos and Mantas went on to record and release four studio albums – ‘Welcome To Hell’, ‘Black Metal’, ‘At War With Satan’ and ‘Possessed’ before Dunn quit in 1986.
The original line-up of the band re-united briefly between 1995 and 1999, but Cronos remained the only consistent member of the band, which released its 16th studio album, ‘Into Oblivion’, earlier this year.
Photo courtesy of Venom.