Cronos

Cronos is the occasional solo vehicle for legendary Venom frontman Conrad Lant -- aka Cronos, naturally. With Venom's protracted collapse reaching an insurmountable low point in the late '80s (punctuated by the simply God-awful Calm Before the Storm album), the vocalist/bassist decided it was high time to start fresh. Taking his old band's most recent guitarist team of Mike Hickey and James Clare and replacing Venom drummer Abaddon with relative unknown Chris Pattersonn, the newly christened Cronos -- the band -- set to work on the sessions for 1990's Dancing in the Fire debut. Sounding not unlike Venom, but informed with a more traditional New Wave of British Heavy Metal vibe, the band toured infrequently in years to come because of Cronos -- the man's -- burgeoning interest in professional bodybuilding. But Cronos the band eventually recorded a second album called Rock 'n' Roll Disease, three years later, and, after streamlining down to a trio featuring Cronos, Hickey, and drummer Mark Wharton, managed a final album in 1995, which they ironically titled Venom. Cronos the man has since reunited with his former Venom bandmates on occasion, but has yet to record again under his own name.