The legend of Venom is far from over.
Pioneer of Black Metal, the English band led since 1979 by Cronos (bass/vocals), now alongside Rage (guitar) and Danté (drums) has signed with Noise Records to release Into Oblivion, their sixteenth album, in 2026.
The band kicks things off with Into Oblivion, the title track that already has all the makings of a future anthem, combining epic leads, devastating rhythm, and vocals as raw and aggressive as they were forty years ago, all while maintaining a kind of catchy simplicity. The band picks up the pace with Lay Down Your Soul, the second track, which stays true to the band’s signature style and features an incredibly catchy chorus, but doesn’t forget to throw in a piercing solo before launching into Nevermore, a track with enough jagged energy to make us nod our heads. As the riffs intensify in the second half of the track, chaos sets in before Man & Beast takes over, returning to a restless rhythm driven by martial drums and effective backing vocals, then to punk energy on Death the Leveller, a track tailor-made to make the crowd go wild at a live show. Back to the ominous sounds on As Above So Below, a long track that starts off rather mysterious but returns to its cruising speed after a good minute, and finally ignites in the finale before giving way to Kicked Outta Hell, where the riffs are once again meant for the live show, that moment when you raise your fist while chanting the chorus. The same goes for Legend, the next track infused with Heavy Metal, which offers a highly infectious drum-driven foundation; then Live Loud returns to thrash with heavier rhythms but also more ethereal leads, before giving way to the rousing Metal Bloody Metal, which, just like the first track, is destined to become one of the band’s future cult classics. The trio follows up with Dogs of War and its dissonant parts that hide a head-banging groove, but the song is fairly short, and it quickly gives way to the ferocity of Deathwitch, which takes over and has us headbanging just like on the release of their flagship albums, saving a final for us with Unholy Mother, the closing track, which features some majestic keyboards as well as softer passages to counterbalance the omnipresent violence, but also a stormy final.
While Venom remains the legend it is, with legendary tracks, Into Oblivion offers a good number of highly effective compositions! The band is still in top form after all these years, and they intend to prove it to us! When can we expect a return to the stage in France?
80/100
A few questions to Danté, drummer for legendary Black/Speed Metal band Venom, about the release of their sixteenth album, Into Oblivion.
The first question is a hard one: how would you describe Venom‘s music without using any labels such as Black Metal, Speed Metal, or any subgenre?
Daniel “Danté” Needham (drums): Rock and Roll. It is what it is. You know, the band’s been going a hell of a long time. This is like 5 decades and it’s got everything mixed in, fast, slow, mid tempo, smack in the face, tongue in cheek…
So Venom is of course a very renowned name in Metal music, but how do you link it to the music you play now?
Danté: I think it’s pretty much still got that Old School vibe to it. We’re great, we’re very much a live band, we don’t just put albums out and don’t play live or play live and don’t put albums out, what a lot. A lot of older bands kind of nostalgia, they’re on a nostalgia trip and they only play the back catalog where we’ve got all these albums that we’ve been putting out. So we’ve got 16 albums worth of material to choose from, so… I think our albums not only sound Old School, but it’s got that sort of current vibe to them as well.
Yeah, I definitely agree. So you’re about to release your 16th album named Into Oblivion. How do you feel about it?
Danté: Really happy about it. Obviously, it’s been a long time coming, it’s been 8 years, we’ve had some… unfortunate delays. A couple of things happened, obviously COVID was the first main sort of stumbling block, where we couldn’t get together and write songs and record as we usually do, because we’re all kind of locked down and so we tried to do that individually and it just didn’t work the same, we needed that connection that the three of us in a room to bounce off each other and basically give our opinions and write together. Some things did come good in that little period actually. There were parts of these songs on the album, which were written in COVID, but certainly, the majority was after COVID, but there was all stumbling blocks as well that were more sort of technical issues that we encountered. But yeah, we are just really happy that here we are now, and it’s ready.
So how would you sum Into Oblivion’s identity with only 3 words?
Danté: It’s fucking awesome.
I like it. So, as you said, Into Oblivion happens 8 years after the previous one. Are there any changes or evolutions you noticed into the composition process?
Danté: The only changes like I’ve touched upon there before with COVID, where we couldn’t get together at the beginning… I’ll go a bit more into detail about the other thing that sort of stopped us for a while was, we had an issue with, we’re listening back to some of the songs and we were like “What is that? What is that sound? What’s that?”. There was like a crackle, and what we had to do is mute all the channels and we just couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. But it was the mic of the hi-hat cymbal, and it was faulty, it was like fucking hell, I’ve recorded the whole album, and we’ve got this intermittent problem. So I had to record the whole album again. It’s good that I can sort of smile about it now, at the time when we found this out, it was like “oh fucking hell, not again”, not something else to slow us down or stop us, but we overcame it and to be honest with you, just to to have that time to do it again, we could approach the songs a little bit differently and change some things that we maybe knew we could improve and do a little bit better. So yeah, that was a stumbling block, but it was at the time sort of worked out in our favor in the end.
That’s great. As I said Venom was created back in 1979, which is almost 50 years, and helped to create Black Metal music. So what would you call as your inspiration to create music?
Danté: My inspiration… I get inspiration from all things, but as you just said there, 1979 when the band started… I was born in the 1970s, and so when I started drumming in the 1980s, I was influenced by the bands of the 1970s and, and still am today, like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, (Black) Sabbath, Hendrix, all that sort of stuff, and yeah, it’s never changed. I love that, and that’s what still gives me that passion to play that way, I know the other guys are in the same vein, the seventies thing, it was such a great era. You had like Punk, you had Glam Rock, you had Rock bands. It was incredible! David Bowie and all that sort of. When he was doing all that sort of stuff in the 70s, The Spiders from Mars and things like that. So it was a great period of time. And we’ll never see that sort of time again, unfortunately.
And maybe are there some more, let’s say “modern bands” that could inspire you now?
Danté: Yeah, I like a few modern bands, but I’m kind of stuck in the 70s and 80s sort of time warp. But yeah, it’s great when we’re at festivals and there’s other bands that I’ve not seen before or heard of, I go and check them out. It’s great.
What is your personal favorite song on Into Oblivion or maybe the hardest one?
Danté: It’s difficult because it changes, I’ve been listening to the album constantly, and you go “oh, I do like that one”, and then a week later it’s another one because, it’s not that you’re sick and tired of the songs, you just sort of get a new favorite! Nevermore‘s always been a real favorite. And Into Oblivion, the first song, I really love it. Unholy Mother, that’s another one, the last track on the album.
The one that’s been a bit different, a bit more mystical, I say.
Danté: Yeah, it is. I mean, the actual original version of that, which will be released… I think it’s on the Japanese release, but the full version… We had to sort of cut quite a lot of it off because it was a big intro to it. Where the guitar and bass are playing and it leads up to the band kicking in and then the end of the song. Well, not the end, it’s like the last part of the song where the guitar solo and it’s like a drum and bass, like a guitar and bass sort of battle, and it just gets more and more intense as it goes along. I think the version that you’ve heard is… is it 6 solos over, and this is way more than that. It’s like more than double, you know, it’s impressive! So you’ll hear that version once that comes out.
Yeah, I heard the official one on the album! Do you think you improved yourself as a musician with this new record?
Danté: I think as time progresses, you improve all the time with listening to stuff and playing the experiences but I think this album certainly pulls all our different influences from the past and it’s got a little bit of prog in there. And things that are a little bit more mid-paced and some really fast ones, so it’s a good diverse album that we’re extremely proud and extremely pleased with how it’s turned out, it’s fucking great.
You can be proud of it! I noticed the artwork of Into Oblivion is very similar to the album Black Metal. Was it done on purpose?
Danté: Well, it’s kind of an evolution. We call him Stan, the face, it’s kind of what Stan would look like today, he’s getting older now and he’s got his war wounds. He’s got like a nice scar on his head but it’s more of a sort of 3D look about him. I think he looks fucking mean, it looks great.
I really like this answer! Venom announced they are coming to the Summer Loud Festival in uh Czechia next September. Will there be more concerts on the way?
Danté: Yeah. Well it’s just, as we speak, things are getting finalized and confirmed. So yeah, there’ll be more announcements to come. Certainly more gigs over the summer and festival season starts and things.
Since the beginning of the band, you only play a few shows each year. Would you like to go on tour for some weeks or stuff?
Danté: We’ve done tours, like for a couple of weeks or 2, it was last year, the year before, we did a couple of weeks in South America, which was a great success, we love going over there. The problem now, I suppose, is logistics, costings and at this moment in time of what’s going on in the world, it’s… a little bit up in the air. But yeah, even when you think about fuel prices and things like that… let’s not rule anything out in the future!
Last time you played in France was for the Fall of Summer festival back in 2017, and even if this festival doesn’t exist anymore, would you like to come back to France to play?
Danté: Yeah, I’d love to! I’ve had some great times in France. It’s sad to hear that Fall of Summer‘s stopped. When did that stop?
I think 2017 was the last edition because there was a lot of rain, and of course with rain and people didn’t really go to the bars, so the festival had some financial difficulties.
Danté: Yeah. And then it only takes one financial hit for it to… Oh, what a shame, Because I think we did it twice. Sure, we did, we did it… (actually 2014 too, ed.) so we did the last one, is that right? 2017. Wow. Yeah, we must have done it a good few years before that as well.
I don’t remember it, but I also remembered you, you played the Hellfest back in 2015 I guess.
Danté: Yeah, it would have been around then!
So what’s your connection with the French Metal scene? Are there any bands you know, any bands you like?
Danté: There’s not really many bands I know, to be honest. I’m sorry.
It’s okay.
Danté: You should point me in the right direction where I should be listening, where I should be looking!.
One of the pioneers in French Metal is Loudblast, it’s more Thrash/Death, but they play for like 40 years now.
Danté: Wow, all right.
And of course, now the main big name is Gojira, who played those Olympic games and stuff!
So next question, are there some bands you would like to play with?
Danté: Oh we’d have to jump in a time machine and go back!
Yeah, you can use your time machine!
Danté: Right, well probably Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow would be a good one to start with. Gonna say with Ronnie James Dio and that lineup would have been quite something to play on those, you know, rising! Stargazer song and stuff like that, amazing, um. The thing is, you know, it’s like your influences of the bands that you love, you’d love to go and play with them, but then I’d rather as well like to be in the audience to watch them, not just to play for them be two different experiences! Definitely, you know, all the influences, it’d be great to do that.
So the last question is a fun one with which dish would you compare Venom’s music?
Danté: Liver and onions.
Okay, interesting! So maybe you’re a chef.
Danté: It’s not for everybody, but the people who like it, they love it!
I definitely agree. Do you cook?
Danté: Yeah, now and again.
So as I said, that was the last question for me, maybe you have some last words for the French audience?
Danté: Yeah, it’s like you say, I can’t believe that it’s so long, 2017 since we actually were last playing in France. But yeah, thank you for sticking with Venom, and thank you for waiting for so long for this new album to come out. Believe you me, I think it’s personally, I’m not just saying this because it’s our new album, but I really do think it’s a banger. And I think we’ve raised the bar a little, and can’t wait to come over back to France. And give it some hell, Venom’s Metal, because you deserve it. And yeah, I hope you enjoy the album. Thank you very much.