Venom frontman Cronos dies at 63, a heartbreaking metal loss

Conrad “Cronos” Lant, the Venom frontman whose snarling vocals and bass helped give black metal its name, has died at 63. The band announced his death on social media on Thursday, Oct. 1, and did not give a cause.

The news came less than three months after Venom frontman Cronos played what turned out to be his last show, on July 19 in Cremona, Italy, Consequence reported. The band had released its latest album, “Into Oblivion,” on May 1.

Bandmates and son pay tribute

“It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the news that Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant has passed away,” Venom’s statement began. The band credited him with creating “something that changed heavy music forever,” and added: “Venom never followed the rules. They forged their own path. And Conrad was there at the centre of it all.”

His son, Nathan Lant, thanked the fans the band calls the Legions. “He has laid down his soul, and his music will live on,” he said in a statement quoted by Rolling Stone. “The legend of Cronos will never die.”

How Venom frontman Cronos built a blueprint

Venom frontman Cronos emerged late in the first wave of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the movement that produced Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Born in London, Lant moved to Newcastle as a child, Variety reported. As a teenager he joined a local band, Guillotine, that became Venom in 1979. He began on rhythm guitar, switched to bass and took over lead vocals after singer Clive Archer left in 1980, according to Rolling Stone.

Lant also created the Cronos persona, drew the band’s logo and handled much of its cover art, Stereogum noted. With guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and drummer Tony “Abaddon” Bray, Venom released “Welcome to Hell” in 1981, led by the single “In League With Satan.”

Then came 1982’s “Black Metal.” The album lent its title to an entire subgenre, which Scandinavian bands later pushed to darker extremes, and it helped shape thrash, speed and death metal. Metallica and Slayer opened for Venom on U.S. tours, Stereogum wrote, and both bands, along with Megadeth and Anthrax, have cited the group as an influence.

The ‘Filthy 15’ and an unlikely crossover

Venom’s skulls, bondage gear and theatrical Satanism struck many critics as silly. That image also made the band a target. The title track of 1985’s “Possessed” landed at No. 14 on the Parents Music Resource Center’s “Filthy 15” list, next to songs by Prince, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, Variety recalled, which only widened the band’s audience.

The audience for Venom frontman Cronos stretched well beyond metal. The Beastie Boys’ Mike D called Venom “an early crossover band” in 1995, and the group sampled Lant’s stage banter at the end of “Mark on the Bus,” Rolling Stone noted. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl recruited him for his Probot side project in 2004. The Beastie Boys also passed a tape of Lant’s banter from a 1986 show in Trenton, New Jersey, to Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, who pressed it onto a 7-inch single.

Four decades at Venom’s center

Venom split in 1988, and Lant led his own band, Cronos, through the 1990s. The classic lineup reunited in 1995, and although the other founders soon left again, Lant kept Venom going with new members, recording and touring as its one constant, according to Stereogum. He also worked with Warfare and Cradle of Filth, one of many extreme metal bands, along with Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir and Obituary, that have covered Venom songs, per Rolling Stone. In recent years, Venom frontman Cronos remained on the road until this summer.

Venom has not announced funeral or memorial plans. For more rock and metal news, including the recent loss of Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell, visit our music section.