VENOM Pulls Out Of U.K.'s HIGH VOLTAGE Festival

Due to "contractual differences," British black metal pioneers VENOM have cancelled their appearance at High Voltage, the U.K.'s new rock festival, which is scheduled to take place July 24-25, 2010 at Victoria Park in London, U.K.

Commented the band's tour manager: "We announced the concert in February in good faith as we were informed that everything had been agreed in principle, although this is now clearly not the case.

"The band are very disappointed not to be playing at the festival, although their management are now looking at a possible replacement show in the U.K. for later this year.

"The band and management would like to apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused to any of their fans.

"Anyone who bought a ticket for the festival especially to see VENOM, and would now prefer to get a refund, should contact the ticket outlet where they purchased the ticket."

VENOM last year completed a tour of Mexico and South America — the band's first with the group's latest addition, drummer Danny "Danté" Needham (TONY MARTIN).

Regarding when fans can expect to hear a new studio LP from the band, VENOM bassist/vocalist Conrad "Cronos" Lant recently told The Quietus, "The new album should be out by the summer of [2010], mate. The new tracks are tremendous. Basically, if you think of the way [former VENOM drummer] Antton [Antony Lant, who is also Cronos' brother] was playing, especially on the last album 'Hell', he is a nu-metal drummer and comes from that kind of background. He's hung 'round VENOM most of his life and it was just good to introduce him to the whole VENOM concept of playing like the way [original VENOM drummer] Abaddon used to play. Basically Abaddon came from a rock background and then basically developed a black metal, speed metal, thrash metal style. The nu-metal drumming is very different and it was a steep learning curve for him. At the end of the day he's got his own style and he wants to be known for what he's done and not be in my shadow, which is totally understandable. Some of the guys we had coming to the rehearsals were not ex-CRADLE OF FILTH but they were still, 'I've been in this band, I've been in that band,' but they were all far too young, you know. We were looking for someone in their thirties upwards who understood rock music."

When asked how the new songs compare to those off "Hell", Cronos said, "I would say more like those off 'Metal Black'. More like our earlier stuff. 'Hell' was getting a bit too much like session tracks. Too . . . polished. And polish isn't a good word for VENOM songs. VENOM songs need to be off the cuff, loose, a little bit thrash. Once you start polishing songs up a bit much you end up going in the wrong direction. There's a spontaneity about VENOM songs that I've always loved. When we're coming up with new VENOM songs there's one thing that I always try and keep in mind: 'Is that kid in his bedroom on his knees playing air guitar and going 'Yeah! Get in!'' You know? I'm not interested in Joe Satriani sitting there and discussing whether it's technically correct or not! That's the last thing on my mind."

Back On Black, which specializes in vinyl editions of classic metal albums and is dedicated to providing top-quality releases for record collectors and metal fans worldwide, re-released the first three classic albums from VENOM — 1981's "Welcome To Hell", 1982's "Black Metal" and 1984's "At War With Satan" — in January. All three LPs were remastered and were repackaged on 180-gram deluxe gatefold colored vinyl.

Fan-filmed video footage of VENOM's December 12, 2009 concert at São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo, Brazil can be viewed below (courtesy of "AlFranquim").