"Are There Now Three Venom-Like Bands? Guitarist Mantas & Drummer Abaddon, Co-founders Weigh In"
- The Metal Voice
- Oct 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 5
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke with Co-founding Venom Members guitarist Mantas and drummer Abaddon about them reuniting for upcoming festival shows.
They also spoke about how Venom cannot reunite with Cronos and their exit from Venom Inc
Watch full interview here
When asked if there are three versions of Venom now since Mantas and Abaddon have reunited?
“As far as I'm concerned, even with us, you know? I'm just going to speak the truth. The absolute truth, right? I'm the founder member. If there's a co-founder, it's Abaddon. Cronos was the last one to join (the band). Everyone knows that, right? I wrote all the early material. Blah blah blah. Right? And at this very moment in time, the way I look at it is that there isn't a Venom (Band) out there There's bands out there who are playing Venom material. And that's the honest way that I'll look at it right now. When this came about (reunion with Abaddon at Keep it True Festival 2026), um, it all came about basically through a mutual friend contacting me and saying, "Can you ring Abaddon? And I must admit, I was like, I'm going to be honest, "Oh, I don't really want to get involved in all this kind of stuff again." And I mean, Abaddon will tell you, we hadn't spoken since 2017. So anyway, I did contact (Abaddon). And then I got um I got a message from the Japanese promoters who wanted me over for Venom Japan. And then I said, um, look, if I'm coming over, what about if Abaddon was to come over? We (with Abaddon) sort of reconnected. And they were like, really? I was like, yeah, yeah, why not? You know, so all that was kind of arranged. I spoke to Abaddon, said, "Would you like to come to Japan, play a few songs?" "Yep, great." So, flights are booked. We're off on the 27th of November. We play on the 30th, I think it is."
“Then I got a message from the guys at 'Keep It True Festival', and they said "Venom reunion" And I was like, "Good luck with that, pal." I say, you know, that everybody's kicking each other's shins in court at the moment (intellectual property dispute). So anyway, I made contact with Cronos through a mutual friend and just said, "Look, tell him I want to speak to him. There's an offer coming in. It'll be a good offer. Um so, let's just talk. Even if nothing comes of it, let's just talk."... Nothing. So, the court case thing (in regards to the Venom Logo), then the lawyer spoke to his lawyer and mentioned about the reunion and what we got back was basically it's not worth my time.
When asked about 45 years anniversary of Welcome to hell
“So, myself and Abaddon, we said, "Look, why don't we just do something to celebrate this [ __ ] band?" And that's all we're doing. It's the album, it's a celebration. Yep. It's a celebration of Welcome to Hell. 45 years of that album, and this stupid [ __ ] band has missed every major anniversary in its history. We've never celebrated an anniversary of this band. So, I spoke to the guys at Keep It True, Oliver in particular, the owner of the festival. I said, "Right, here's an idea. why don't we get some special guests, people who have been influenced by the band, all that kind of thing, you know, and he went, "Great. Great. Let's do it." So, that was how it all came about and now we're getting offers from other places to do the same thing. We're going to go out and if nobody else will do it, we're going to go out and celebrate this band.
When Asked what will this new band be called?
"As far as I'm concerned there's no [ __ ] name to it. There's Abaddon's Venom logo which is his (Abaddon's). It's up there.. And then underneath it, it says Mantas and Abaddon and then special guests. And that's what we're doing. It still amazes me to this day how this band has had so much influence on the metal scene from day one. Every comment I've seen so far 90% has been really really positive (about Mantas and Abaddon) and then get the one (person) no Cronos, no Venom. It's like right okay listen to me right now you can imagine the most toxic relationship and the most stressful relationship you've ever had in your [ __ ] life and now go back and invite it back in. And that's what we tried to do. If everybody knew the real reason I left (Venom), you wouldn't even [ __ ] look at that guy again right now. All these people who say about Cronos and stuff like that, yes, he was a part of the band. I appreciate that. He didn't write all the [ __ ] early material. He didn't found the band. He was the last person to join. The woman who introduced me to him via her best friend is in my house now. If you were having problems with your wife and you put it on the [ __ ] internet, I would never go, "Oh, yeah, well, I know what's going on." Because you don't you don't know the personalities of the people involved in it. All you see from the outside is a band. I mean I love Kiss. I love Judas Priest. Now there's [ __ ] problems with KK and all the rest of [ __ ] Priest. There's problems with Ace and [ __ ] Gene and Paul and Peter and you know, but we don't know what's really going on, you know? It's ridiculous to comment on people's careers. And that's the way I feel about it. And all I'm saying is that myself and Abaddon as the two original members of Venom, we're going to go out and we're going to celebrate this band and its music and that's it. Nothing more."
Abaddon weighs in
"My take on that is very straightforward. If you've got three bands using the word Venom to sell the music, originally Venom were a three-piece. And I don't think unless you've got two members of that three-piece, you can't call it Venom because it's Cronos and some other blokes, or it's Dolan and some other blokes. If you've got me and Jeff, you got two thirds of the original [ __ ] band. Yeah, that's as straightforward as you can get."
Jeff "Mantas" Dunn and Anthony "Abaddon" Bray, iconic co-founders of the pioneering black metal band VENOM, will celebrate the 45th anniversary of VENOM's classic debut album, 1981's "Welcome To Hell", at the 2026 edition of the Keep It True festival on April 24, 2026 at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany.
For this unholy occasion, Mantas and Abaddon will summon the spirit of the very first black metal album with a once-in-a-lifetime performance. To make this night even more legendary, they will be joined by an infernal all-star lineup of guest musicians:
* Tom Angelripper and Andy Brings (SODOM)
* Tom G. Warrior (CELTIC FROST, HELLHAMMER, TRIPTYKON)
* Schmier (DESTRUCTION)
* Attila Csihar (MAYHEM)
* Danny Lilker (NUCLEAR ASSAULT, S.O.D.)
* Diva Satánica (BLOODHUNTER, NERVOSA)
* and introducing Blake "Bulldözer" Arendell from the rising force INTERCEPTOR
This exclusive gathering of metal legends will take place as the Friday headliner of Keep It True 2026 — a night of chaos, darkness and unrelenting power.
Mantas: „I still vividly recall walking into Neat Records in 1981 to record another set of demos when David Wood, the owner, asked us if we had enough material for an album, we of course said yes and we were given three days to record our first album Welcome To Hell. That my friends was 45 years ago and now we are here at the Keep It True festival to celebrate 45 years of Welcome to hell, a groundbreaking album in Heavy Metal that I am so proud of. This is gonna be an amazing night my friends with so many very special guests. Come celebrate with us. April 24 2026, see you all there. MAXIMUM RESPECT.“
Abaddon: „Jeff ' Mantas' Dunn, and Antony 'Abaddon ' Bray, will be performing at next year's Keep It True festival. It will be a celebration of their seminal album...Welcome to Hell. Mantas and Abaddon, founders of Venom will be joining by an amazing line up of guests from some of the world's greatest Thrash, Speed and Black Metal bands.“
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