The Venom founder was a true pioneer of the black metal subgenre
Venom founder Conrad “Cronos” Lant has died. The band revealed the news in a statement on social media. The black metal godfather was just 63-years old. His cause of death was not immediately known.
“It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the news that Conrad “Cronos” Lant has passed away,” the band said in a statement. “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. Venom never followed the rules. They forged their own path. 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. Thank you, Conrad. Thank you, Cronos. Thank you for the music. Thank you for the memories. Our deepest love and condolences go to Nathan & Hel, friends and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him. Rest in peace, Conrad. The legend lives on.”
Conrad’s son Nathan also released a statement.
“I want to thank all of the Legions for all of the support you have given my dad over the years. I know he really appreciated you all. He has laid down his soul, and his music will live on. The legend of Cronos will never die. His music will never die. His voice will never fade. And the legacy of Venom will live on through the music he created and through the Legions around the world who continue to carry that flame.”
Born on January 15, 1963, Conrad Thomas Lant spent his formative years in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he became fascinated with heavy rock through bands including Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Status Quo and later Motörhead. Before Venom achieved prominence, Lant worked as an assistant engineer at Impulse Studios, home of Neat Records, giving him valuable firsthand experience with recording and production. He initially joined the group that would become Venom as a guitarist in 1979, but when bassist Alan Winston departed, Lant switched to bass rather than allow the band to cancel an upcoming performance. After original singer Clive Archer left, Lant also assumed lead-vocal duties, establishing the singer-bassist role that would define his career. He adopted the name “Cronos,” derived from the Greek mythological figure Cronus and his association with Saturn, while guitarist Jeff Dunn became “Mantas” and drummer Tony Bray became “Abaddon.”
With Cronos handling vocals and bass, Venom developed an abrasive combination of heavy metal, punk aggression, speed and deliberately sinister imagery that sounded radically different from much of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Cronos’ heavily distorted bass tone—often described by him as his “bulldozer bass” approach—became an essential component of the group’s primitive but enormously influential sound. Venom’s 1981 debut, Welcome to Hell, established the band’s uncompromising style, but its 1982 follow-up, Black Metal, became the group’s defining release. The album’s title ultimately supplied the name for an entire genre, while Venom’s music and imagery exerted a major influence on the emerging thrash, death and black metal movements. Although later black metal bands would take the style in considerably different directions, Venom’s early recordings became important reference points for generations of extreme-metal musicians. Metallica, Slayer and numerous other groups have acknowledged or demonstrated Venom’s influence, while the band’s combination of speed, distortion, theatricality and intentionally provocative Satanic imagery helped establish a blueprint for underground metal during the 1980s.
Cronos remained at the center of Venom as the band followed Black Metal with At War with Satan in 1984 and Possessedin 1985. After Mantas departed and Venom’s original lineup began unraveling, Cronos eventually left as well and formed his own band, Cronos, alongside guitarists Mike Hickey and James Clare. The project released Dancing in the Fire in 1990 and Rock n’ Roll Disease in the early 1990s, allowing Lant to pursue a more straightforward heavy-metal and hard-rock direction away from Venom. During this period, however, the extreme-metal movement that Venom had helped inspire was expanding dramatically, particularly through the Scandinavian black metal scene. Cronos later recalled that hearing bands such as Mayhem and Burzum helped him recognize just how significant Venom’s legacy had become. He subsequently contacted Mantas and Abaddon, leading to a reunion of the classic lineup in the mid-1990s and the release of Cast in Stone in 1997.
The classic reunion ultimately proved temporary, but Cronos continued carrying the Venom name forward. After another period of inactivity, he returned in the 2000s and led successive incarnations of the group through albums including Metal Black (2006), Hell (2008), Fallen Angels (2011), From the Very Depths (2015), Storm the Gates (2018) and Into Oblivion(2026). Away from Venom, he has also made guest appearances with other metal artists, while his larger-than-life vocal delivery, distorted bass playing and confrontational stage persona have remained instantly recognizable characteristics of his work. Despite Venom’s Satanic imagery, Cronos has repeatedly described much of the band’s approach as theatrical provocation rather than a straightforward declaration of religious belief—the goal was to push the frightening imagery of earlier heavy metal much further and create something more extreme than what had come before.
More than four decades after Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, Cronos’ importance rests not simply on his longevity but on the enormous influence Venom had on the development of extreme music. The band’s early records were raw even by the standards of their era, yet their combination of speed, distortion, aggressive vocals and occult imagery anticipated major elements of thrash, death and black metal. Cronos’ growling vocal style and distorted bass attack became part of that musical vocabulary, while his determination to make Venom louder, darker and more outrageous than its predecessors helped redefine how far heavy metal could be pushed. From the underground metal explosion of the 1980s to later generations of black and extreme-metal bands, the influence of Cronos and Venom remains deeply embedded in the genre. As the longtime frontman and enduring face of the band, Conrad “Cronos” Lant stands as one of extreme metal’s foundational figures—a musician whose intentionally excessive approach helped transform a rough Newcastle band into one of the most consequential names in heavy-metal history.