-Venom-

Venom was originally called Guillotine and was formed in Newcastle, Great Britain in the late 1970's. In December 1978 the band changed their name to Venom. Many claim that the band was first known as Oberon but Oberon was the band of future Venom members Tony Bray and Clive Archer and actually existed alongside Venom for a while. In August 1979 Jeffrey Dunn met Clive Archer at a Judas Priest gig in Newcastle and later on Jeff decided to let Clive and his drummer try out for the vacant spots in Venom (their drummer and singer had mysteriously left the band in July).

In November 1979 Jeffrey Dunn met Conrad Lant at a friend's place and soon Conrad was also part of Venom. In February 1980 the band's bass player left less than one week before their first gig at the Meth in Wallsend on Friday 15th February. Conrad then picked up the bass (he was originally a guitarist) and the band was able to perform after all. On April 29th 1980 Venom entered the studio to record their first demo which included three songs - "Angel Dust", "Raise The Dead" and "Red Light Fever". They even managed to persuade the record company to give them half a day in the studio for free. Conrad made copies of the tape and sent them to record companies, stations, magazines and venues.

In June 1981 Venom played a gig at the "Quay Club" in Hebburn, Tyne & Wear. The electrics blew several times, the bombs blackened all the walls, the fire department had to go there because of all the smoke emitted from the building. After this gig (Conrad's first as the band's new vocalist since Clive Archer left) Venom was banned from the entire club circuit. In August 1981 the band entered the studio to record their first album "Welcome To Hell" which received a 5 star review in "Sounds" on December 26th. In June 1982 Venom played in Poperinge in Belgium.

The band's second album "Black Metal" is by many considered to be one of the best metal albums ever. Together with Iron Maiden they were now one of the leading metal bands in the world. In 1984 they released "At War With Satan" which included a 21 minute song (!). In 1986 Venom released a new album called "Possessed" which wasn't as successful as their previous albums. The band thought they knew what had gone wrong so they quickly recorded a new album called "Deadline" which was never released. At that time Mantas left and decided to try a solo career.

Abaddon and Cronos didn't want to put Venom to rest so they recruited two new guitarists and continued the band. After "Calm Before The Storm" was released in 1987 Cronos and the two new guitarists left the band and Abaddon was the only member still around. Cronos also took on a solo career but Abaddon wanted to keep the name Venom. In 1989 Mantas returned to the band together with two new members namely Al Barnes and Tony Doland. In 1996 Cronos also returned to the band which made a lot of fans very happy. In 1999 the band was ready to release a new album but now Abaddon too wanted to try a solo career. His replacement was none other than Cronos' brother Antton. In 2000 they released their new album "Resurrection" which is by many considered to be one of the band's best albums.