Venom

Venom was a black/speed/heavy metal band from Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, England, United Kingdom, that was formed under the name Guillotine in 1978. In 1979, the band changed its name to Venom. The band was part of the NWOBHM movement. Not to be confused with [a=Venom (69)] from North West England. During the early years, there were some personal changes in the line up. In 1979, at first original vocalist Dave Blackman and original drummer Chris McPeters were replaced by former Oberon members Clive "Jesus Christ" Archer and Anthony Bray, then original bass guitarist Dean Hewitt was replaced by Alan Winston and finally original guitarist Dave Rutherford was replaced by former Album Graecum and Dwarfstar member Conrad Lant. In 1980, at first Alan Winston left the band and Conrad Lant switched to bass guitar. After the first demo Demon was released, vocalist Clive Archer left the band and Conrad Lant took over the vocal duties. The band's first album Welcome To Hell and second album Black Metal are considered major influences to future extreme metal styles. The latter also gave its name to the extreme metal genre Black Metal. Most of the band's original material was written by bassist/frontman Conrad Lant (Cronos) and guitarist Jeffrey Dunn (Mantas) and featured satanic imagery. Dunn left the band in 1986 and the group split the following year, with Lant forming a new band Cronos with some of the other members. This left drummer Anthony Bray (Abaddon) as only original member. Tony Dolan ([a=Demolition Man (3)]) was recruited to replace frontman Lant. In 1992 the new formation disbanded and in 1995 the classic line-up reformed. By 1999 internal conflicts led to several new line-up changes with Lant remaining as frontman. In 2015 Dolan, Bray and Dunn formed Venom Inc. to continue the legacy of the 1988-1992 incarnation of Venom. Conrad Lant sadly passed away in September 2026. The surviving members of Venom announced the band's retirement on October 6, 2026.