Conrad Lant

After playing in a couple of high school bands; Dwarfstar and Album Graecum, Conrad Lant took the stage name Cronos and joined a band called Guillotine as a guitarist in 1979, where he met Jeffrey Dunn who later became Mantas. In 1979, the original bass player left one week before a church hall 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 1980, the band's vocalist, Clive Archer (with stage name Jesus Christ), left the band, leaving Cronos to take over this role too and finalising the band into a 3 piece group.

Cronos was working in a recording studio after he left school called Impulse Studios, the studio had a number of labels releasing albums by folk musicians and local tv comedians, although he eventually convinced the studio to start a label for rock bands, the label was called 'Neat Records' and began signing bands from up and down the UK, releasing singles and albums from 1980 onwards. 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 [Geoff 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 was also responsible for designing and creating all of the infamous Venom Logo and the sleeves artwork for their many single and album releases. He wanted to use the 'Sigil Of Baphomet' as the bands main emblem, although he wanted to recreate a new version of the sigil to be new and original concept, so he set out to redesigning it. The Venom logo was drawn and redrawn many times before he was happy, and the development of the logo can be seen from the bands many singles and albums releases, as the logo become more and more fine tuned as the years go on. The logo continues to evolve as Cronos still designs new versions for merchandise and other albums.

Venom took a break in 1988 and so Cronos embarked on 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.

In 1995 Cronos contacted the original guitarist and drummer and reformed the original Venom line-up, where they headlined the Dynamo Festival in 1996 to 90,000 fans. Venom tried to continue with the original line up members but only managed to play one 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. Venom employed a stand in drummer for the next album (Resurrection) which was well received by the critics, although they still only managed to play 2 shows, [Wacken and Holland]. Venom took another short break after Cronos was hurt in a climbing accident, but in 2004, Cronos enlisted his 'Cronos band' guitarist 'Mykas' and 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. In 2019 this line up of: Cronos, Rage and Dante is 10 years strong, with 3 albums such as the 2011 'Fallen Angels', the 2015 'From The Very Depths' and the 2018 'Storm The Gates'.

In 2000, the band went on to headline the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany and play a one-off show in the Netherlands before they were forced to take a break after Cronos was injured in a climbing accident in 2002, which left him unable to play bass or sing for nearly 2 years.[2] He took to the computer to pass the time and studied computing and games programming, he learned 3D software skills and worked as the main multimedia engineer for the computer and internet solutions companies K-Class Systems and Globalfibre.tv, where along with company owner Scott Toward, they created the first computer models for streaming media for the internet and mobile phones, as well as programming and building gaming maps and developing internet access via satellites.

Cronos again reformed Venom in around 2003, temporarily recruiting an unknown basic nu-metal drummer and guitarist, as he just needed a couple of average players to help him kick start the band while he looked for professional permanent musicians. Cronos had asked guitarist Mantas to rejoin the band, although he declined his offer releasing a statement on Blabbermouth saying he would never rejoin Venom as he was working in a new direction with his new band 'Zero Tolerance' and was in the process of recording an album. After Cronos spent the next couple of years of planning and intensive rehearsals, Venom released their album Metal Black in early 2006 on the Sanctuary Group label Castle Music, and they embarked on a sold out world tour. Venom played the classic single "Die Hard" along with Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down) in the Gods of Metal 2006 in Italy, where they headlined. Cronos appeared on Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot in 2004, and guest starred on the track Knights of the 21st Century on HammerFall's 2005 album Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken.[3]

Bass guitars

• Bulldozer Bass (Aria Pro with custom Trem Bar/w\Custom Neck)
• Aria Pro II SB1000 (Matte Black with Natural Stripe/w\Custom Neck)
• Aria Pro II SB1000 (Red with Natural Stripe/w\Custom Neck)
• Ibanez Destroyer Bass (Red Finish - left in USA after 1985 tour)
• Gibson EB-3 Bass (Originally owned by Andy Fraser of band 'Free')
• Ibanez Bass (Black Finish/w\Custom Neck - Cronos band USA 1988 to 1992)
• Fender Jazz Bass (Black Finish/with LED Lights/w\Custom Neck)
• Fender Jazz Bass (Red Finish - made fully fretless in 2010)
• Fernandes 4 String Tremor Bass (Black Finish/w\Custom Neck)
• Fernandes 4 String Tremor Bass (Burgundy Finish/w\Custom Neck) x 2
• The Behemoth (custom made by 'Bass Professor' with thick piano strings)

Cronos also owns both Aria and Ibanez acoustic basses. He had two other basses which are seen on the DVD which comes with the deluxe version of Black Metal. These basses have been destroyed.

Cronos owns various 6 string guitars also which he plays to compose his songs with.

Amplifiers

• Acoustic 220 and 230 Bass Amplifiers
• Acoustic B1000HD 1000W Bass Amplifiers
• Peavey 500w Bass Amplifiers
• Carlsboro Bass Amplifiers
• Marshall Bass Amplifiers (also will play the JCM 800 & 900 series)
• H&H 600w Power Amplifiers x 2

• Welcome to Hell (1981)
• Black Metal (1982)
• At War with Satan (1984)
• Possessed (1985)
• Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1986)
• Calm Before the Storm (1987)
• Cast in Stone (1997)
• Resurrection (2000)
• Metal Black (2006)
• Hell (2008)
• Fallen Angels (2011)
• From the Very Depths (2015)
• Storm the Gates (2018)

• Dancing In The Fire (1990)
• Rock n' Roll Disease (1991)
• Triumvirate (1994 - awaiting release)
• Venom (Cronos compilation album) (1995)
• Hell To The Unknown (2006) - Anthology release

• Inhuman Condition by Massacre (1992) - vocals on "Warhead"
• Dusk... and Her Embrace by Cradle of Filth (1996) - spoken word on "Haunted Shores"
• Probot by Probot (2004) - vocals and bass on "Centuries of Sin"
• Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken by HammerFall (2005) - vocals on "Knights of the 21st Century"