Cronos | |
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 Cronos performing with Venom in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Conrad Thomas Lant |
| Born | 15 January 1963 Kensington, London, England |
| Origin | Newcastle, England |
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| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 1979–present |
| Website | venomslegions |
Conrad Thomas Lant (born 15 January 1963), [1] also known by his stage name Cronos, is an English musician. He is the founder, vocalist and bassist of heavy metal band Venom.
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After playing in a couple of high school bands—Dwarfstar and Album Graecum—Lant took the stage name Cronos and in 1979 joined a band called Guillotine as a guitarist. There, he met Jeffrey Dunn, who later became Mantas. In 1979, the original bassist left one week before a church hall gig. Instead of not playing the venue, Cronos took up the bass and they changed the band name to Venom. Cronos has since continued to play the bass throughout his career in Venom. In 1980, the band's vocalist, Clive Archer (with stage name Jesus Christ), left the band, leaving Cronos to take over this role too and finalising the band into a three-piece group.
Cronos started working in a recording studio after he left school called Impulse Studios. The studio had a number of labels releasing albums by folk musicians and local TV comedians, although he eventually convinced the studio to start a label for rock bands. The label was called Neat Records and began signing bands from across the UK, releasing singles and albums from 1980 onwards. As the members of Venom could not afford the studio time fees, Cronos was able to talk the studio engineer into letting him have some free time in exchange for staying back late after work and carrying out other unpaid work. Cronos sent many copies of the Venom demos to various record labels and also the rock press, where a journalist for Sounds magazine (Geoff Barton) featured three Venom songs in his playlist, which got the attention of the label Neat Records, who then agreed to release the first Venom single.
Cronos was also responsible for designing and creating the Venom logo and the sleeve artwork for their many single and album releases. He wanted to use the Sigil of Baphomet as the band's main emblem, but wanted to recreate a new version of the sigil to be a new and original concept; so he set about redesigning it. The Venom logo was drawn and redrawn many times before he was happy, and the development of the logo can be seen from the band's many single and album releases, as the logo becomes increasingly fine-tuned as the years go on. The logo continues to evolve as Cronos still designs new versions for merchandise and other albums.
Venom took a break in 1988 and so Cronos embarked on a solo career and occasionally featured in many other bands of a similar genre, including Cronos, Enthroned, Cradle of Filth (Cronos contributed a monologue to the end of the Cradle track "Haunted Shores", from their 1996 album Dusk... and Her Embrace ), Warpath, Massacre, and Necrodeath. He also produced some albums for other bands.
In 1995, Cronos contacted the original guitarist and drummer and reformed the original Venom lineup, where they headlined the Dynamo Festival in 1996. Venom tried to continue with the original lineup members but only managed to play one show per year for the next few years. They had signed a three album deal with CBH/Steamhammer in Germany, but when they took the option for the second album after Cast in Stone, certain members did not want to continue. Venom employed a stand in drummer for the next album, Resurrection, which was well received by the critics, although they still only managed to play two shows, Wacken and Holland.
Venom took another short break after Cronos was hurt in a climbing accident, but in 2004, Cronos enlisted his 'Cronos band' guitarist 'Mykas' and set about rebuilding the band's reputation with the album Metal Black in 2006, and a sold out UK tour in the UK and four headline shows at major European festivals. In 2007, Cronos replaced the guitarist with 'Rage, releasing the album Hell in 2008 and again touring to sell-out shows. By 2009, 'Dante' joined the band, and starting with a full South American tour, Venom continue to headline many various festivals each year. As of 2019, the lineup of Cronos, Rage and Dante is 10 years old, with three albums such as 2011's Fallen Angels, 2015's From the Very Depths, and 2018's Storm the Gates.
In 2000, the band went on to headline the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany and play a one-off show in the Netherlands before they were forced to take a break after Cronos was injured in a climbing accident in 2002, which left him unable to play bass or sing for nearly two years. [2] He took to the computer to pass the time and studied computing and games programming, he learned 3D software skills and worked as the main multimedia engineer for the computer and internet solutions companies K-Class Systems and Globalfibre.tv, where along with company owner Scott Toward, they created the first computer models for streaming media for the internet and mobile phones, as well as programming and building gaming maps and developing internet access via satellites.
Cronos again reformed Venom in around 2003, temporarily recruiting an unknown basic nu-metal drummer and guitarist, as he just needed a couple of average players to help him kick start the band while he looked for professional permanent musicians. Cronos had asked guitarist Mantas to rejoin the band, although he declined his offer releasing a statement on Blabbermouth saying he would never rejoin Venom as he was working in a new direction with his new band 'Zero Tolerance' and was in the process of recording an album.
After Cronos spent the next couple of years of planning and intensive rehearsals, Venom released their album, Metal Black, in early 2006, and they embarked on a sold out world tour. Venom played the classic single "Die Hard" along with Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down) in the Gods of Metal 2006 in Italy, where they headlined. Cronos appeared on Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot in 2004, and guest starred on the track Knights of the 21st Century on HammerFall's 2005 album Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken . [3]
Hell Awaits is the second studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released in March 1985 by Metal Blade Records. The band's 1983 debut Show No Mercy became Metal Blade Records' highest-selling release, and as a result, producer Brian Slagel desired to release a second Slayer album. To that end, Slagel financed a recording budget and recruited several experienced producers to help in the studio.
Venom are an English heavy metal band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978. Coming to prominence towards the end of the new wave of British heavy metal, Venom's first two albums, Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982), are considered major influences on thrash metal and extreme metal in general. Their second album proved influential enough that its title was used as the name of the black metal genre; as a result, Venom were part of the early wave of the genre, along with Mercyful Fate and Bathory.
Dusk... and Her Embrace is the second studio album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. It was released on August 28, 1996. and is their first release on the label Music for Nations.
Probot was a heavy metal side project of former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Described by Grohl as "a death metal Supernatural", the album mixes instrumentals recorded by Grohl himself with various metal singers whom the musician admired. The album was released in February 2004 by Southern Lord Records. It featured one single entitled "Centuries of Sin"/"The Emerald Law".
Turisas is a Finnish metal band from Hämeenlinna. They were founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström, and named after an ancient Finnish god of war.
Black Metal is the second album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in November 1982 during the new wave of British heavy metal, and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Hecate Enthroned are an English symphonic black metal band initially founded with members from both Wales and England, but are now primarily based around Cheshire, England. The band formed in 1993 as a blackened death metal act under the name Amethyst, changing their name to Daemonum later on. By 1995 the band had adopted the name Hecate Enthroned and a symphonic black metal style.
Graveworm is an Italian extreme metal band from Brunico formed in 1992.
Nexus Polaris is the second studio album by the Norwegian metal band Covenant, and was released in 1998 through Nuclear Blast.
Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken is the fifth studio album by Swedish power metal band HammerFall, released in 2005 through Nuclear Blast. It features the track "Knights of the 21st Century", which includes guest vocals from Venom frontman Conrad "Cronos" Lant; it is also the band's longest studio recording to date with a length of 10:25, though after 1 minute and 40 seconds of silence, at 12:05, there is an outtake from Cronos.
Welcome to Hell is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in December 1981 through Neat Records at the culmination of the new wave of British heavy metal movement. The album was re-released by Sanctuary Records in 2002.
Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn is a British guitarist best known as one of the founding members of the heavy metal band Venom, with which he played as a guitarist from 1979 to 1985 and 1989 to 2002. He currently plays in Venom Inc. alongside fellow former Venom member bassist/vocalist Tony Dolan and drummer Jeramie Kling.
Calm Before the Storm is the fifth studio album by British heavy metal band Venom. The original title of the album would have been Deadline, but the title was changed when guitarist Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn left the band and was replaced by Jimi Clare and Mike Hickey. Both were to follow bassist Conrad "Cronos" Lant in his later solo career and the latter would also return on the 2006 album Metal Black.
Cronos were an English heavy metal band formed in 1988 by Venom front man Conrad "Cronos" Lant.
Savage Messiah are an English thrash metal/heavy metal band formed in May 2007 in London. The band was formed by guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Silver and also consists of guitarist Joff Bailey, bassist Míra Sláma, keyboardist Carlos Alcalde De Lema and drummer Charly Carretón.
"Countess Bathory" is a song by English heavy metal band Venom. The song originally appeared on the band's 1982 album Black Metal as well as their 1986 live album Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
"In League with Satan" is the first song released by the English extreme metal band Venom. It was released on 19 April 1981 as a single with the B-side "Live Like an Angel" by Neat Records and later appeared on the band's first album, Welcome to Hell. The song has been cited as the first black metal song and is also often cited by critics who claim a connection between heavy metal and Satanism.
"Bloodlust" is a single released by English speed metal band Venom on August 13, 1982 through Neat Records. It is the bands second single and the follow-up to their debut single "In League with Satan".
Warfare was a British heavy metal band from Newcastle upon Tyne that formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1993. They were part of the latter stages of the new wave of British heavy metal.
Media related to Conrad Lant at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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