Conrad Lant

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Cronos
Cronos performing with Venom in 2013
Cronos performing with Venom in 2013
Background information
Birth nameConrad Thomas Lant
Born (1963-01-15) 15 January 1963 (age 61)
Kensington, London, England
OriginNewcastle, England
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • bass
Years active1979–present
Websitevenomslegions.com

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.

Biography

Early life

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

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.

Solo career

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

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.

Later activity

Cronos with Venom in 2013

In 2000, the band went on to headline the

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

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]

Discography

With Venom

With Cronos

Other appearances

Production work

  • Beware of the Dog by Tysondog (1984)
  • Se parare nex by The Blood (1985)
  • Mayhem Fuckin' Mayhem by Warfare (1986)

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Venom". Karsmakers.nl. May 1996. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  2. ^ "Blabbermouth.net". Roadrun.com. 17 April 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Lords of Metal interview with Cronos of Venom by Ramon van H". Lords of Metal. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Conrad Lant Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 March 2024.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Conrad_Lant&oldid=1216645646"