Conrad Lant

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.

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. 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.

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'.

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.

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).

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.

Conrad Thomas Lant (born 15 January 1963), also known by the stage name of Cronos, is an English musician and artist. He is the vocalist and bass player and occasional guitarist of the influential thrash metal and black metal band Venom, and the founding member of Venom from 1979 to present day.