Cronos, singer and bassist of Venom, dies at 63
Conrad "Cronos" Lant, Venom's singer and bassist, has died at 63, the band announced on October 1, 2026. Venom's 1982 album Black Metal, whose cover he drew himself, gave the black metal genre its name.
By Riffiter
Conrad Lant, the singer and bassist known as Cronos, has died at 63. Venom announced his death on October 1, 2026, per Consequence and Stereogum. No cause or date of death was given. His son Nathan wrote that "the legend of Cronos will never die."
Cronos fronted Venom from 1979 to 1988 and again from 1995 to the end, by far the longest-serving member of the band. Their most recent album, Into Oblivion, came out on May 1, 2026, and his last show was in Cremona, Italy, on July 19.
The album that named a genre
Black Metal, Venom's second album, came out on Neat Records on November 1, 1982. It was recorded in seven days, and Cronos mixed it himself. The music was still close to traditional heavy metal, but the title stuck: black metal became the name of a genre. The Swedish band Bathory took its name from the album's song Countess Bathory.
Cronos also drew the cover, first done in Tipp-Ex: a horned face with a pentacle on the forehead. He designed the Venom logo and most of the art on the band's sleeves.
He described the idea behind the band in a 2008 interview with Blabbermouth: "can you imagine BLACK SABBATH, but really evil?"
The studio job that started a label
After school, Cronos worked at Impulse Studios in Wallsend, near Newcastle. He convinced the studio to start a label for rock bands. That label became Neat Records in 1980, and it put out Venom's first records, Welcome to Hell and Black Metal.
Metallica on the bill
In April 1983, before their first album was out, Metallica supported Venom at the Paramount Theatre on Staten Island, New York. In February 1984, Venom took them on the Seven Dates of Hell tour, Metallica's first trip to Europe, including the Aardschok festival in Zwolle, Netherlands. "They're hard-working guys," Cronos said of them at the time, per Blabbermouth. In 1985, Venom headlined the Combat Tour across North America with Slayer and Exodus.
What the band said
"Conrad's voice, bass and vision were at the heart of VENOM," the band wrote in its statement.