Proto-black metal originators VENOM brought their menace to Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg on June 5, 2026, with fan-filmed footage from the set making its way across the internet. The performance comes hot on the heels of the band's sixteenth studio album, Into Oblivion, which dropped on May 1, 2026 via Noise/BMG — their first new material since 2018's Storm The Gates.
The current VENOM lineup consists of Conrad "Cronos" Lant on bass and vocals, Stuart "Rage" Dixon on guitar, and Danny "Danté" Needham on drums. Together they have forged an album that Cronos describes as one of the most demanding and rewarding of their career: "This album has really pushed the boundaries, but if you want to make a killer album, you pay for it in blood, sweat and tears." Into Oblivion blends the raw, primitive energy of classic VENOM's 1980s aesthetic with more progressive modern elements across its thirteen tracks.
The Sweden Rock performance arrives at a complicated moment for the VENOM legacy. Co-founders Jeff "Mantas" Dunn and Anthony "Abaddon" Bray — who are not part of the current lineup — have been celebrating the 45th anniversary of VENOM's 1981 debut Welcome To Hell, creating parallel commemorations that have sparked a long-running legal dispute with Lant over band name rights and merchandise.
Despite the friction, the current VENOM continues to forge ahead. Their legacy is beyond dispute: the band invented the template for black metal, death metal, and extreme music in general with those first two albums — Welcome To Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982), the latter giving an entire genre its name. Few acts in history can claim that kind of influence, and Sweden Rock's crowd had every reason to witness history still in motion.
Into Oblivion is available now through Noise/BMG on all platforms and in physical formats.