MANTAS Says “CRONOS Has Been Invited” To 45th-Anniversary Celebration Of VENOM’s Debut Album In 2026

Guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and drummer Anthony “Abaddon” Bray, founding members of Venom, have shared plans to mark a major milestone in 2026. The pair intend to celebrate the 45^th anniversary of the band’s landmark 1981 debut, Welcome To Hell, with appearances at various festivals, including Germany’s Keep It True.

In an interview with MetalKaoz, Dunn said Conrad “Cronos” Lant has been offered a chance to join the anniversary events: “I’ll tell you right now that for 2026, the 45th anniversary of Welcome To Hell, Cronos has been invited,” Mantas said.

“He was invited by me. He was invited by the lawyers in the [recent] court case [involving Cronos and Abaddon]. His answer was, ‘It’s not worth my time.’ That was his answer.”

Even with that invitation on the table, Mantas made it clear he has no enthusiasm for the idea of spending time with Cronos again. He acknowledged that fans naturally want to see key classic-era members share a stage, but suggested that reality doesn’t always match the wish.

“What I say to people is this. Fair enough, everybody wants to see their favorite members back together. We know that. ‘And, oh, yeah, just travel separately. Just go to separate hotels.’ We’ve done all that,” Mantas explained. “We’ve done that. We did it at the first reunion. Okay, think of the most toxic relationship you’ve ever been involved in, how it made you feel. At your age now, invite it back into your life.”

Mantas also referenced the legal tension that has hovered over the Venom name. He touched on the lawsuit Cronos filed in June 2024 against Abaddon and Plastic Head Music Distribution Ltd. In that case, Cronos accused the company of selling merchandise featuring his copyrighted Venom designs, and alleged that Bray enabled the situation through a licensing agreement. The disagreement centered on both sides marketing official Venom items using the disputed artwork.

Looking back on the band’s earliest period, Mantas described how the group operated more like close friends than business partners.

“We were three young guys in a band, happy to be in a band and jamming. And that was it. And to us, at that particular point, it didn’t matter who wrote the songs or who did the drawings or whatever. It was one for all and all for one. And that’s why everything went three ways for the first two albums.

“But then, when you get a bit wise at the business and everything like that, it’s, like, you think, ‘Wow. I wrote all that stuff, and everybody else is still getting a share.’ I don’t mind that. That’s the songs. That is the song. And at the end of the day, you put those songs out into the world, and you are giving them to the people.

“Now, it doesn’t matter what your logo looks like,” he continued.

“It doesn’t matter how good your album cover is. It doesn’t matter what your image is, how much leather you are wearing, or what guitar you are playing, if someone puts that album on and doesn’t like the songs, you are done. A band isn’t about logos and t-shirts and stuff like that — it’s about music. Why do you wear the t-shirt of a band? Because you like their music. It’s as simple as that.

“Now, I’m not saying that Cronos didn’t write anything,” Dunn clarified.

“He wrote some phenomenal lyrics, and I’ve said this. The lyrics to ‘Manitou’, I think they are stunning. The lyrics to ‘Nightmare’ — amazing. We came up with some great songs together in the later stages, where we just bounced the ideas, and some of it just happened. We didn’t have to look for it. And Welcome To Hell is my first attempt at writing songs. I hadn’t written anything before that — not a thing.”

When asked whether he and Abaddon might write and release new material, potentially under the Venom banner, Mantas sounded skeptical that a full new album is necessary.

“No, no. At the end of the day, does the world need a new Venom album? I remember reading an interview with Paul Stanley [of Kiss] where he even said, ‘I’ll never write another Kiss song.’ Because as good as some of the ’80s Kiss material was, everybody still wants to hear ‘Black Diamond,’ and ‘Cold Gin,’ and ‘Strutter’ and ‘C’mon And Love Me’ and all that stuff.

“And I’m the same. Like Judas Priest — Firepower, great album; Invincible Shield, great album; but if I go to see Judas Priest now and they kick into ‘The Ripper’, game over. It’s, like, I’m happy. I know that’s a sort of nostalgic way of looking at it, but if we are doing a celebration of this band… All I’m saying is it’s a celebration of the music that we wrote 45 years ago; that’s all it is. And you’ve got the two original members in there doing it as well.”

He didn’t completely shut the door on the idea of recording something small, but remained unsure whether fans truly want it: “So, new music? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not averse to maybe getting one song together or something like that. But do people really wanna hear it? It’s, like, let’s have a vote. I don’t know.”