VENOM Frontman: 'METALLICA Need To Take The Word 'Metal' Out Of The Name'

Blasting-Zone.com recently conducted and in-depth interview with legendary VENOM frontman Cronos. Several excerpts follow:

Blasting-Zone.com: How do you respond to the controversy surrounding the decision to name the album "Metal Black"? It would seem some people feel the title is simply a rip off of the "Black Metal" name…

Cronos: "It's our name to rip off (laughs). At the end of the day, it's ours to do with what we want. I heard people say 'Fuckin' hell! Could you have thought of a better title?' There are fourteen songs on the album, ya know? We could have called the album 'A Good Day To Die'. We could have called the album 'Burn In Hell'. Of course we could have thought of a different fuckin' title. There's a reason why it's called 'Metal Black'. It's because it's in the style of 'Black Metal'. It's VENOM returning back to our roots after twenty five years. People will always say there is no VENOM like the 'Black Metal' VENOM. But we could never do that same thing again. We've moved on as musicians and studio technology has changed… We can't make a muddy album, an album that sounds like crap. If people want that, they should take 'Metal Black', put it on the stereo, turn off all the treble, put all the bass on full and put their headphones in a bucket of water (laughs). Then it will sound like crap. Do they like it better like that? I think some people make comments about things without thinkin' about what they're sayin'. Nobody wants a crap-sounding album."

Blasting-Zone.com: At this point in your career, what are your feelings on Satanism? Do you feel your beliefs have benefited your career?

Cronos: "I live my life kinda how people would imagine the Devil living his life. I make my own rules and choose to do with my life what I please. I don't follow no fuckin' church dogma about 'believe this, say that…jump when I say jump.' The whole point of Satanism is to have your own head. We've taken that through every aspect of our career. You need to be so fuckin' headstrong because people are gonna tell you, 'Oh, you're doin' it wrong. you gotta do it like this.' Everybody thinks they've got great ideas. Fuck them. The whole point of being a Satanist is not running a round attacking people and being an idiot. That's where the Norwegian guys got it all wrong. Burning churches has nothing to do with Satanism, really. One of the laws is responsibility to the responsible. That's so easy to understand. Walk down the street and bother nobody. If somebody stands in your way, tell them to move. If they don't move, destroy them. How easy it that to understand? People don't even believe in God anymore. The churches are being used as community centers for children who come from poor backgrounds. It's as if there's something wrong with you if you believe in God, ya know? The whole Satanic image is perfect for heavy metal. This is the Devil's music. I don't like all of these lame bands that call themselves metal like SAXON and SAMSON. Shoving stuff down your pants and putting lipstick on."

Blasting-Zone.com: What is your overall opinion of the current state of the black metal genre?

Cronos: "Well, it's certainly gone in some weird directions. For me, I think the whole genre should have gotten a new tag anyway. I'm very humbled that VENOM has gotten credited with being the influence behind it all. I really think a lot of these guys invented something of their own. For years, people have talked about how VENOM has started this and VENOM had started that. We don't necessarily look at it like that. We look at is as if we were more of a catalyst. It was going to happen anyway, we just came along and kicked it in first. We just kicked the door down and everybody ran it after that. Every scene has its peaks and its troughs. I don't think the scene has gone completely, I just think it's waning a bit. It's going to be up to the bands that are involved with it to either make something of it or roll over because shit happens and nothing last forever. Every extreme scene kinda loses its impact after a while. As soon as you show people how the magic trick works, it's no longer magic, is it? That's kinda how the death and black metal scenes are goin' at the minute. These bands haven't come up with anything new. It's just the same old, same old."

Blasting-Zone.com: What are your current touring plans?

Cronos: "Quite a lot, actually. We've always believed that people didn't want see VENOM if we didn't have the show. It just seems that so many people's opinions have changed because there are some many places where VENOM has never been. Not all of our fans can travel a thousand fuckin' miles to come see us. It just seems so odd that after twenty five years, there a just so many places that we've never even been. It's time for us to open our ears and take in a little bit of what's going on around us. We've got a lot of festival dates lined up and of course we're gonna do all the pyro and the whole shebang, but I think we should also try to do some of these other concerts as well, just to see how it goes. Some kid who can barely afford the price of the ticket can't come a long way to come see us. We're gonna try to get the best of both worlds when it comes to playin' live. One of the things that has been getting' talked about is a tour of the States with VENOM, SLAYER and EXODUS. How cool would that be? When people start talkin' about things like that, things they haven't seen in forever, we're just like, 'Get SLAYER on the phone so we can set it up…'"

Blasting-Zone.com: I think that tour would do very, very well…

Cronos: "I do believe so. We could even see if METALLICA wanted to open for us. Actually, we couldn't do that because they're crap (laughs). I think they need to take the word 'metal' out of the name."

Read the entire interview at Blasting-Zone.com.