Conrad Lant, the frontman and bass player for Venom, passed away at the age of 63. Lant, who used the stage name Cronos, led the Newcastle-based band Venom for nearly fifty years.
The group, which formed in Newcastle in 1978, is credited with inventing the black metal genre. Venom issued its second album, Black Metal, in 1982.
Simon Rushworth stated that Venom spawned a whole genre of extreme metal, adding that "They were massively influential [and] spawned a whole genre of what I'd call extreme metal." The group's performance was described by the band itself as "uncompromising, fearless and unmistakable."
Jeff "Mantas" Dunn stated that despite the band's difficult history, the three members started something special that changed the direction, movement, and history of metal as we know it, saying, "Despite the turbulent history of this band, it was at the end of the day the three of us, who started something so special and changed the direction, the movement and the history of metal as we know it." The group's early track, Possessed, appeared on the "Filthy Fifteen" list compiled by the Parents Music Resource Center.
