Country of origin: United Kingdom Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England Status: Active Formed in: 1979 Genre: NWOBHM/Heavy Metal, Speed/Black Metal Themes: Satan, Hell, Death, Women, Metal Current label: Spinefarm Records Years active: 1979-1992, 1995-2002, 2005-present Often considered as the first black metal band. Venom are hailed as godfathers of extreme metal. In 2015 original members Mantas (guitars) and Abaddon (drums), as well as bassist Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan, who played in Venom from 1989-'92, became Venom Inc. Abaddon departed and was replaced in 2018. Though many sources mention that the band was known as Guillotine in the beginning, according to Mantas it was just an idea that was floating around and never was adapted as the band name. Cronos initially joined as a rhythm guitarist, replacing Dave Rutherford; he later switched to bass when Alan Winston left the band a week before their first gig - his decision to plug his bass guitar into a guitar amp is credited with the development of his trademark “bulldozer bass” sound. The line-up was further trimmed down to a three-piece following the first demo session when the rest of the band decided they preferred Cronos' vocal style to Archer's. Illness and passport problems prevented Jeff “Mantas” Dunn from joining the early part of Venom's At War With Satan US-tour. He was temporarily replaced by Dave Irwin and Les Cheetham. There are no ever-present members in the Venom line-up. The only original member currently in the band is Cronos. The band briefly split after Calm Before the Storm (recorded without Mantas) before reforming without Cronos, and later split again after The Waste La Venom的前身是一个叫Oberon的五人乐队。当Oberon的鼓手Abaddon在一次Judas Priest的演唱会上与舞台工作人员Mantas碰面后，他们发现彼此间有很多共同之处，于是他们决定组建一个乐队。乐队的名字来自Mantas，当时他是Motorhead的一员，在那里，他的绰号就叫Venom。不久后，Cronos作为吉他手加入Venom。不过当MANTAS写了一首Live Like An Angel，Die Like A Devil后，他让Cronos试着唱了唱，结果大家都很喜欢。同时，Abaddon联系到一些俱乐部的演出活动，但乐队的贝司手却离开乐队结婚去了，于是Cronos就试着操起了贝司，结果发现这并不是个很难摆弄的东西。现在这样的阵容大家都很满意，于是就一直这样继续下去了。