Venom

Venom are an English heavy metal band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978. Coming to prominence towards the end of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), Venom's first two albums, Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982), are considered major influences on black metal, thrash metal and extreme metal in general. The original personnel came from three different bands: Guillotine, Oberon and Dwarfstar. The original Guillotine featured Jeff "Mantas" Dunn and Dave Rutherford on guitars, Dean Hewitt on bass guitar, Dave Blackman on vocals, and Chris Mercater on drums who replaced Paul Burke, the original drummer when the band was founded. Blackman and Mercater were later also replaced by drummer Anthony Bray and vocalist Clive Archer. Later, Hewitt was replaced by Alan Winston on bass. In late 1978, Conrad Lant from Dwarfstar (also featuring Kevin "Ropa" Robson - bass, Graeme "Shamus" Newton - drums and vocalist Keith "Bod" Ballard) joined Guillotine replacing Dave Rutherford. Between Dwarfstar and Guillotine, Lant was in a short lived "futuristic metal cyberpunk" band called Album Graecum.