Conrad Lant
| Cronos | |
|---|---|
Cronos performing with Venom in 2013
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Conrad Thomas Lant |
| Also known as | Cronos |
| Born | 15 January 1963 Kensington, London |
| Origin | London, Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bassist, songwriter, guitarist |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | http://www.venomslegions.com |
Conrad Thomas Lant (born 15 January 1963), also known by the stage name of Cronos, is an English musician. He is the vocalist and bass player of the influential Thrash metal/black metal band Venom, from 1979 to 1989 and from 1994 to present.
After playing in a couple of high school bands; Dwarfstar and Album Graecum, Conrad Lant known as Cronos, joined Guillotine as a guitarist in 1978, where he met Jeffrey Dunn (with the stage name Mantas). In 1980, the original bass player left one week before a gig. Instead of not playing the venue, Cronos took up the bass and they changed the band name to Venom. He continued to play the bass throughout his career in Venom. In 1981, the band's vocalist, Clive Archer, left, leaving Cronos to take over this role too.
Cronos was working in a recording studio after he left school, and 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 the 'Sounds' magazine [Jeff Barton] featured 3 Venom songs in his playlist, which got the attention of the label 'Neat Records', who then agreed to release the first Venom single. 'In League With Satan' c/w Live Like An Angel (Die Like A Devil).
Cronos left the band in 1988 to pursue 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 of the albums for other bands.
Venom tried to continue without Cronos, but only managed a couple of releases before halting their efforts in around 1993 due to lack of sales and poor concert attendances. Cronos reformed the original Venom line-up in 1995 and headlined the Dynamo Festival in 1996 to 90,000 fans. Venom tried to continue with the original line up members but the magic that had worked for them in the early 80's was gone, they only managed to play 1 show per year for the next few years. They had signed a 3 album deal with CBH/Steamhammer in Germany, but when they took the option for the second album after 'Cast In Stone', certain members didn't want to continue. So like rats from a sinking ship, the first to depart was the drummer who refused to play drums on their next album (Resurrection) leaving Cronos and the guitarist the job of finding a drummer (Antton). After this next release they still only managed 2 shows, [Wacken and Holland] so next to jump ship was the guitarist. Cronos enlisted his 'Cronos band' guitarist 'Mykas' and in 2004 set about rebuilding the bands reputation with the album 'Metal Black' in 2006, and a sold out UK tour in the UK and 4 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. 2016 Current line up: Cronos, Rage and Dante, with 2 albums 'Fallen Angels' and 'From The Very Depths'.
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