The legendary band from Newcastle formed in the late 70s. Musicians from completely different bands came together to create a fundamentally new band called Venom. The group consisted of 5 people: Dave Rutherford and Jeffrey Dunn played the guitars, Dean Hewitt became the bass player, Chris Merkaters took the position of a drummer, and Dave Blackman became the vocalist.
Becoming a Venom Band
Unfortunately, in the early stages of existence, the group underwent constant changes in the composition. So, some time after the founding of Venom, drummer Chris and vocalist Dave left, replaced by Clive Archer on bass and Tony Bray on vocals. However, this did not end permutations in the composition of Venom. The group also said goodbye to bassist Hewitt, replacing him with Alan Winston, and also abandoned guitarist Rutterford, taking Conrede Lant in his place. Winston did not stay in the band for long, and after his departure, Lant began to play bass. Thus Venom became a quartet.
The first thing the musicians decided to take their stage names, and the more infernal, the better. Thus, the bass player Archer turned into Jesus , the guitarist Lant became Kronos , the vocalist and frontman Bray took the name of Abbadon , and the second guitarist Dunn was called Mantas . 1980 was marked by the recording of the first demo group, and one of the songs was performed by Lant. Soon after, the group said goodbye to Archer, and Venom turned into a trio, as we all know him.
Early Venom
A year after the demo was released, the band signed to Neat Records and released their first single, In Leage with Satan. Then followed the first full-length album by Venom. The album was called Welcome to Hell and was written under the influence of the giants of the metal scene, Motorhead. The album is full of diabolical, dark and satanic images, and this idea became fateful for the group. The second and perhaps the most significant album of the group was called Black Metal, and on the cover it featured a goat face and a pentagram.
The disc was the first step on the path to Venom fame. The band played blatant thrash, but the satanic lyrics served as inspiration for thousands of fans of the new genre - black metal. The third album of the group was called At War with Satan, and it was he who brought Venom world fame and the opportunity to perform at the largest and most prestigious venues in the world.
The Venom Crisis
The first problems in the team began after the release of the fourth album Possessed. Mostly, the trouble was the departure of Mantas for health reasons. The loss had to be made up for immediately by two musicians: Jimmy Clare and Mike Hickey. However, here the problems did not end. In 1987, Kronos decided to leave the band for his own solo project, which he called his name. Kronos took the two new musicians with him.
It would seem that now can interfere with the work of Venom? The songs of the group are still loved and appreciated by the whole world of metal, for example, Black Metal, on which many bands recorded, including the famous Dimmu Borgir, Calm Before the Storm and others. In addition, Mantos soon recovered and returned to the team.
Mature art by Venom
So, after the return of Mantos, things in the group went smoothly. The new musicians, taken instead of Kronos and the two guitarists, fit in well with the band: Tone Dolan became the bassist and vocalist, and Al Barnes took over the guitar. It was with this line-up that the new Venom album was recorded. The group, it would seem, became stable, and nothing portended a change. The album was called Prime Evil, produced by Nick Tauber and Kevin Ridley. They worked on the famous Calm Before the Storm.
Without any changes in the composition, the group recorded several more albums, but in 1991 the band left Barnes. At this stage, a gradual fading of the group can be noted. Venom brought in session musicians to record the next record and introduced keyboards. However, after recording the album, the collective again became a trio. For a long time, Venom left the studio and were engaged exclusively in touring. Since 2004, the group has again begun to show signs of life and exists to this day.
Over their career, the group has released 14 studio records, the last of which, under the name From the Very Depths, was released in 2015.