Venom frontman Conrad 'Cronos' Lant dies aged 63

British heavy metal musician Conrad Lant, known by his stage name Cronos, has died at the age of 63. He fronted the Newcastle band Venom for more than four decades and was widely credited with shaping the genre's darker, more extreme direction. No cause of death has been disclosed.

In a statement, Venom said Lant's voice, bass playing and vision were at the band's core, describing him as having changed heavy music forever by refusing to follow convention.

Lant was born in Chelsea, London, and moved to Newcastle with his family at age seven. He joined the band, then called Guillotine, at 16, eventually becoming its vocalist. The lineup settled with guitarist Jeff Dunn and drummer Tony Bray, and the group released its debut album, Welcome to Hell, in 1981, featuring the provocative single In League with Satan, which helped introduce satanic imagery to heavy metal.

Drawing on punk's intensity, Venom pushed British heavy metal to a faster, rawer extreme. Lant later said he wanted to bring a dangerous, unglamorous edge to the genre, rejecting what he saw as a more theatrical, sanitized image adopted by other bands.

The Black Metal legacy

The band's fifth album, Black Metal, with its demonic artwork and harsh sound, is regarded by genre historians as foundational to the black metal subgenre, which later took its name from the record. Lant, who co-produced the album, described its creation as pure mayhem from start to finish.

Venom went on hiatus in 1988, during which Lant released two solo albums as Cronos. The band later reformed multiple times, releasing seven more albums, the most recent being Storm the Gates in 2018, and continued touring, including festival dates in summer 2026.

Venom's ferocity influenced thrash acts such as Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, and Lant also collaborated with Dave Grohl on his metal supergroup Probot in 2004. Following his father's death, Lant's son Nathan thanked Venom's fans, saying the legend of Cronos would never die.