Music

Black Metal Pioneer Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant of Venom Dies at 63

Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant, the influential singer and bassist for black metal pioneers Venom, has passed away at 63. His bandmates remember him for forging a unique path and changing heavy music forever.

Rolling Stone·Oct 1, 2026·via Rolling Stone

Black Metal Pioneer Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant of Venom Dies at 63

Obituary

Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant, Singer and Bassist of Black Metal Pioneers Venom, Dead at 63

"He created something that changed heavy music forever," band mates say of late singer. "Venom never followed the rules. They forged their own path. And Conrad was there at the centre of it all"

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

Contact Daniel Kreps on X

Contact Daniel Kreps by Email

- Grammys CEO: Best Asian Pop Music Performance Category to Debut in 2027 Despite Controversy - Rick Ross Arrested on Domestic Violence Charges in Miami Beach - ‘South Park’ Skewers ‘Weenie’ Billionaires and Data Centers on Latest Episode

View all posts by Daniel Kreps

October 1, 2026

Add us as a Google Preferred Source

Conrad “Cronos” Lant, bassist and lead singer of the black metal pioneers Venom , has died at the age of 63.

Lant’s death was announced Thursday by his Venom bandmates on social media; no cause of death was provided. “It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the news that Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant has passed away. For more than four decades, Conrad’s voice, bass and vision were at the heart of Venom,” the band wrote.

“From the first dark rumblings of [albums] Welcome to Hell , through Black Metal , At War With Satan , Possessed and beyond, he created something that changed heavy music forever. VENOM never followed the rules. They forged their own path. And Conrad was there at the centre of it all — uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable.”

Venom emerged during the tail end of the first wave of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal , a movement that brought bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motörhead to the forefront. Inspired by imagery, intensity, and speed of the latter two groups, Venom formed in 1979, with Lant initially serving as rhythm guitarist before switching to bass and ultimately taking over as vocalist following Clive Archer’s exit in 1980.

The following year, Venom released their debut album Welcome to Hell , featuring the influential title track. “Blasphemy has been an effective attention grabber for centuries, but until 1981, heavy metal had never seen a band go as all-in on Satan as the three lads from Newcastle calling themselves Venom did,” Rolling Stone wrote of “Welcome to Hell” in our 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs List . “Contrasting with the forward-thinking innovation of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (a.k.a. NWOBHM), the trio stripped heavy metal down to its most primitive, bluntest form… Critics were appalled, metal fans ate it up.”

Welcome to Hell was soon followed by what became the group’s landmark LP, 1982’s Black Metal , an album so influential that it coined its own subgenre, as well as inspired offshoots like thrash, speed, and death metal.

Editor’s picks

The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far

The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Over the decades that followed, Venom’s music has been covered endlessly by the metal bands the group inspired, like Obituary , Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, and Mayhem, who infamously led the Norwegian black metal scene. Similarly, bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth have all championed Venom’s influence.

It wasn’t just metal bands that loved Venom. “Venom fucking rocked,” Beastie Boys’ Mike D said in 1995. “They had the speeches, the routines, the metal! Venom were an early crossover band. I used to listen to this hardcore radio show in New York, and they used to mix stuff like Venom in amongst the Black Flag and Minor Threat. We thought Venom were excellent. But then they came to New York to do some gigs, and we found out that they weren’t joking at all!”

The Beastie Boys gave Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore a tape of Lant’s onstage banter from a 1986 gig in Trenton, New Jersey, which Moore in turn pressed onto a 7-inch single dubbed “Venom – Live.” Lant’s speech was also sampled at the end of Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head track “ Mark on the Bus .”

Comments

Loading comments…