The original Guillotine featured Jeffrey Dunn and Dave Rutherford on guitars, Dean Hewitt on bass guitar, Dave Blackman on vocals, and Chris Mercater on drums who replaced Paul Burke, the original drummer when the band was founded.

In April 1980, Lant was able to persuade the label to give him some free studio time and the band recorded a three-song demo.

[1] Many defining elements of these genres are first found in the lyrics and song titles created by Lant, his unique singing style and larger than life presence.

While many of their new wave of British heavy metal peers (like Iron Maiden) had found measures of popular success or critical acclaim, or (like Def Leppard) were moving away from heavy metal towards hard rock, Venom were still regarded by critics as "a trio of buffoons".

[9] In 1984, Venom recorded the At War with Satan album, an epic 20-minute title track, with substantial influences of many different musical styles, which took up the first side of the LP.

Cronos and Abaddon appeared on the Combat Tour Live: The Ultimate Revenge video with Slayer and Exodus.

[10] During March/April 1986, Venom the band seems ready to record the fifth album (then never released), called Deadline, but internal relationships begin to deteriorate.

Bray and Dolan wrote new material prior to Dunn's rejoining the band along with rhythm guitarist Al Barnes.

In 1995, Lant, Dunn and Bray reunited the "classic" line-up, beginning by headlining the Waldrock Festival on 24 June 1995.

Following this was a live CD/video box set, The Second Coming, composed entirely of songs from their classic era such as "Welcome to Hell", "Countess Bathory", "In Nomine Satanas" and "Black Metal".

Cronos answered Abaddon telling him: "You can't kick the Devil out of hell, I'm firing you!

"[12] Despite this, the band tried to invite Abaddon to play with them again but Bray did not want to perform on the album and he was replaced by Conrad Lant's younger brother, Anton.

However, in 2002 Dunn was next to leave the group and Lant replaced him with an American guitarist, Mike Hickey, who had already taken part in the 1987 release, "Calm Before the Storm," and Cronos solo albums.

In 2009, drummer Danny "Dante" Needham joined the band and Lant wrote that this will be known as "The Epic Line-Up of Venom", and they set off on a full South American tour.

After headlining festivals around the world for the next couple of years gaining in popularity, they released the Fallen Angels album on 28 November 2011.

[20] Cronos insists on calling it black metal, without passing judgment on the genre that later would flourish in Norway: ...It's one of the things when I first saw when I saw the Norwegian scene beginning in the early nineties.

[23] Other musicians or bands that have influenced Venom are Deep Purple, the Who, the Tubes, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley.

[18] Venom's music helped shape the development of thrash metal bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth, who in turn were influential.

"[27] Mille Petrozza of Kreator stated that Venom was one of his favourite bands early in his career, alongside the "Big Four".

[34] Music critic Bradley Torreano wrote that Venom "caught the attention of both metalheads and punks, the band was emulated by the former and turned into camp icons by the latter.

He also cited the line-up consisting of himself, along with guitarist Stuart "Rage" Dixon and drummer Danny "Danté" Needham as "the best one we've ever had.

The efforts by the PMRC resulted in the inclusion of Parental Advisory labels that became ubiquitous on physical music media.

Venom's biggest criticism is regarding Satanism, which is the main driving force behind the band's music and album covers.

Nonsense.Critic Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic writes that even though Welcome to Hell influenced "literally thousands" of bands, Venom were "critically reviled".

[18] Critic James Christopher Monger, however, declares that the members of Venom "grew as musicians" as their careers progressed.

[39] Ethnographer Keith Kahn-Harris argues that Venom's limited technical skill, particularly early in their career, was a profound, though inadvertent factor in the band's influence: being unable to mimic more technically proficient metal of their predecessors or peers, Venom instead opted to focus on sheer speed, creating music that was inspired by earlier metal, yet simultaneously innovative.