VENOM Frontman Says Relationship With Former Bandmates Is 'Only Business'

Pit magazine (web site) recently conducted an interview with VENOM frontman Conrad "Cronos" Lant. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Pit: The second half of the nineties saw the original VENOM lineup reunite. You managed to record a new studio album, "Cast In Stone", but the reunion tour only lasted for a few festival shows. Then you did "Resurrection" and did even fewer live dates. Why was it so difficult to get VENOM on the road when the demand was so high?

Cronos: "Because it didn't work, that's basically it. People say to me they love the original line up and the real VENOM is that lineup. But the album the drummer [Abaddon] released was more industrial and the album the guitarist [Mantas] just released an album and that's more like nu-metal. These people don't think like they did in the 1980s, you see? That VENOM is gone, they've moved on. I still want to play black metal. They want to play a different type of metal. When we got together and did the likes of 'Cast In Stone', we didn't hit it off. We don't like each other, basically. What happened in the Eighties was fine, but today we are all different people. So it's my responsibility to find other like-minded people who want to do this, and that's what we've got for this new album ['Metal Black']. I've got two guys in the band that think the same way I do and want to create black metal. They don't want to get synthesizers and keyboards; we want to create proper black metal. I totally agree with people that VENOM was cool, that's what I'm trying to create. That's what I'm trying to do. When we got back together for 'Cast In Stone', we realized that we weren't the best of friends. We went out and tried to do as many gigs as possible but the conflicts got the better of us, really. Then we rearranged the members and the drummer left to do his own thing. Then the guitarist left and I've replaced him. But Antonn was on 'Resurrection' and Mykus was the second guitarist on the 'Calm Before The Storm' album. When he joined VENOM he thought he was joining the Eighties VENOM, but we were on the move and doing different styles of stuff. It's his criteria coming back now that he's going to play real VENOM stuff and not fuck around. We are going to play real VENOM the way it's meant to be played."

Pit: Do you have any relationship currently with Mantas and Abbadon?

Cronos: "Only business, only business. I have to contact them because albums means money and we've got to do deals and business, so I contact them for that reason only. But there is no socializing at all."

Pit magazine's entire interview with Cronos appears in issue #54, now available in stores. More information can be found at www.pitmagazine.com.