Home Dark And Brutal Original VENOM Guitarist Calls For Classic Lineup To Reunite For 40th Anniversary Of ‘Black Metal’

Original VENOM Guitarist Calls For Classic Lineup To Reunite For 40th Anniversary Of ‘Black Metal’

venom reunion, Original VENOM Guitarist Calls For Classic Lineup To Reunite For 40th Anniversary Of ‘Black Metal’

Former VENOM (and current VENOM INC.) guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn has said that he would be interested in the opportunity to reunite with the classic VENOM lineup to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band’s iconic “Black Metal” album.

Dunn discussed the chances of a reunion of the classic lineup of VENOM during a Facebook Live chat on Monday (February 28). He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ll never retract anything I’ve said, because I’m sorry but it’s true. Regardless of what him or him thinks, it’s true; it’s just as simple as that. I’m not gonna go out there and blatantly talk a lot of bollocks like one of us did. What I’ve said is absolutely true, and I’ve put it in print — into the book as well. It’s there. It’s absolutely true. But we’re at that age now — I’m 60; Bray’s, like, 61; Conrad’s what — 58, 59? We’ve just been through a massive fucking pandemic where nobody’s done anything. We’ve got fucking a war in Europe at the minute. [All the issues we’ve had with each other], it fucking pales into insignificance; it’s fucking bollocks.

“Like I say, I’ll never fucking say ‘sorry’; I’ll never fucking turn around and go, ‘Yeah, well, I didn’t fucking mean that,'” he continued. “What I said was fucking true. But we missed the 25th anniversary. We didn’t celebrate the 30th anniversary. And it’s, like, for a band who had such a fucking impact… And, again, my friends, I still find it difficult to take in myself, people saying…

“When I did the interviews for the 40th anniversary of ‘Welcome To Hell’ — there’s another anniversary we fucking missed; nothing done about it; it just passed, Dunn added. “But the thing was, I got these interviews in, and people were saying to me, ‘You just don’t realize the importance of what you did.’ I don’t, because I suppose we were so close to it. I’ve said it a million times — I was just a fucking kid writing tunes in my fucking bedroom living with my mom, and I was lucky; people fucking dig them.

“But it’s, like, could we not just fucking celebrate this for once? I mean, fucking hell — I’ve already died once. And fucking you haven’t got long, and you haven’t got long, because I know what you’ve fucking done to yourselves.”

1982’s “Black Metal” album is considered to be one of the most influential thrash/extreme metal records of all time, with artists such as METALLICA praising it’s relevance.

Cronos remains the only original member of VENOM, while Dunn and former VENOM bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan have joined forces for the group VENOM INC.

Speaking on the fact that VENOM INC. will commemorate “Black Metal”‘s 40th anniversary by performing the album in its entirety on October 2 at the Keep It True festival at Posthalle in Würzburg, Germany, Dunn said: “When the Keep It True thing came along, I thought, ‘Yes! Yes! I’m gonna fucking do it.’ Because no one fucking else is. Nobody else is gonna go out there and celebrate this fucking album — monumental fucking album. It should be fucking celebrated.”

Today’s VENOM lineup features Cronos along with Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.