Venom Is Kicked Outta Hell Into Oblivion - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure? Wow, crazy young. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here with our next guest. Oh my god, I'm so excited about this because one of my first really heavy, heavy albums is from this band. So I want to welcome to the show, Dante from Venom. How are you hey, I'm thank you, d Nice to see you. Good to see you. So we were talking about that before the show. Like I didn't tell you about how I found out about Venom first, Like, so I there was this record store in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, and there was this record and it was called OZ Records, and there was this record clerk. His name was Brian Slagel and yeah, yeah, and he had just started Metal Blade at that time. But we all as teenagers in LA we used to go to that record store and he would show us what we should listen to. The first album he ever handed to me and said this is the one you need to buy was Venom Welcome to Hell.

1:26 So it's his fault, it's all his I know, right, that's a good tale. Right, It's so funny too. I brought it home. Like before that, I listened to metal, but nothing like, nothing like Venom, you know, and you know, I listened to Maiden and Priest and stuff like that. And then I'm so, I'm reading the lyrics because it's what we had back in the day, had the album the lyrics, and the album cover looks so cool. But then I'm reading the lyrics as I'm listening, so so I'm like, this shit's pretty scary. Man. Yeah.

2:06 Hell, one of my favorite bands ever since, and that led me to where we are today. You know, hey, thanks for sticking with us. You know, not only sticking with you, but this new album Okay, oh my god, it gives me chills when I listened to it because it's like old school Venom from back then with a modern twist of a twenty twenty six version of Venom. Yeah, it's got you know exactly what you've just said there. It's like, you know, Venom is Venom, and you know, as soon as Chronos opens his mouth, that's it. It's undeniable.

2:50 You know, it's you know, exactly very unique. You know, he is the man, and it's like, you know, it's like when let me opens his mouth, he knows in a nausey and you know, Dickens and blah blah blah, Robert Plant, you know. But so it's one of those things you can't replace that person, because yeah, that's the that's the thing spear ahead of. What you're listening to. And then in regard to the sort of. Twenty twenty sixth version, yeah, I mean we obviously we say pretty. Much of respect to all the years and all the years of the lineups, you know, and the members who've been in the band of kind of you know, it's it's been a progression and okay, it's been sort of stopped for a while in the nineties and then they got back together and blah blah blah.

3:45 But here we are today with this new album, and yeah, I'm pretty sused with it. Put it that way. It's a yes, it's a it's been a long time coming, but I think it's been worth the way. Well, yeah, you know, I kind of look at it this way. The way the life was in the eighties, It certainly was when we entered the eighties welcome to Hell. And I certainly think in twenty twenty six the way the world is now, we're going into the oblivion. We all are, well, we're taking it with us. We're going down. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me a little bit of a story of you know, your entrance into music and then eventually venom.

4:35 Well, my story sort of starts when I was little giving me grandma, Remember I remember telling me that when you were little, you walked and crawled into our house, says and rich things little in England US have these like plastic things to keep the tea towels on, like a tea towel holder in the sort of nineteen seventies, so this would have about what I'm born in seventy five, so what's seventy seven or something. So it must have been the punk movement that made me do this. So she said, you wrenched them off the wall, and she said, your mother went again.

5:15 To see what he does. I put one in his mouth, one in my hand, and I crawled, not my grandfather's legs off this foot puffy like a foot, school turned it upside down and started drumming on it. So that was probably my first drunk it. You know that. It was biscuit tins, pops and plans. I got a drunk it Eventually when I was twelve, started in the first bands with the best mates and was still best mates marvel One loads of stuff, doing loads of cover bands over there, sort of nineties, eighties, nineties, and then and then fortunate enough to join Tony Martin's band from Black Sabbath, who also featured Jeff Nichols God Rest his Soub and that was great, you know, went to.

6:02 It all over the world and. Did some great, great shows, some great festivals and actually recorded on Tony's last album, Thrones, which was about three years ago something. And then joining Venom that happened in two thousand and nine, and now that came about h I think, yes, it was sort of I got email to go audition, and I went down chatting well, I spoke to Thronos, came to my house first to sort of check me out and see if I was.

6:46 Okay. Passed that test, and then then we played played the next day just me and him, which was fun. And then you know, they said, prior to that, you sent me a few songs to learn and stuff like that. And then the next day the three of us played and we got halfway through the first song and stopped and just went. Do you want in all right, it's nice and that was it. Yeah, And here I are made two thousand. And nine. And here we are twenty twenty six, brand new album.

7:31 Yeah wow. So what's it like writing music now in twenty twenty six? Post way back? Sorry? Say that again? What's it like writing music now in twenty twenty six opposed to way back? When writing it pretty much the same? Just comes from here. You know, whatever you come up with. It can be a great. Idea, it can be a crap idea. You know, you don't know until you get together in the room, change the things, and you know, whatever, your original idea can start there and then somewhere completely different, you know, or you use parts of your idea, or some of. Our ideas come from just jamming.

8:13 Will just hit record, you know, a lot of it's just throw away and then we'll get some stuff free. Wow to listen back, you know, listen through all this music and we'll find parts where we can go. Let's base a song around this, or we could use that for a chorus or do you know what I mean? So yes, experimenting. Key word right there, experiment experimenting. It's all about I think that's metal in and of itself like Venom originally was experimenting. There was nothing else like Venom. You know, it's funny because black metal has become such a big thing now, but really there was only one black metal band back then and that was then.

8:58 Now there's Shipboards. Yeah right, How does that feel to be part of the original, like the original black metal with how black metal is today. It's quite something, really nice. It's it's very okay, but it's. Cool, it's very great. And yeah, music is a thing. You know, some bands keep going or split up and he leaves or that. This has been a real stable lineup. But you know, to. Be part of something that's had an album out all those years ago and spawned it a genre of music is pretty special. So yeah, and then you know Venom started as Welcome to Hell and that, and now.

9:55 In twenty twenty six, you're getting kicked out of Hell. You're getting kicked to Yeah. They don't with that bad, They don't even fucking want. I don't think we paid last month's run. I think that's what it is. That might be. It might be so one story, good or bad. In all your years with Venom, what would you say it is? What sticks o in your mind most of all, good, bad, crazy, whatever. The first one springs to mind is the first tour, which was South America. It was Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. And I remember it like it was tomorrow, tomorrow.

10:43 Like it was yesterday. And that was a great thing. You know, met some really cool guys who I've never met before. He was working with us, and you know it's the sound manlike guy and you know the security guy, that road crew. Yeah, it was just special sort of thing with it. But my first show and my first run of. Gigs, yes, that's pretty. Plenty of Like, well, there's too many to mention really, you know, these ties of coming on a stage and low and the ship out of any fact, you know, all these thousands of sealed people. It's it's amazing, you know, and you know they're all there to see you. It's it's a incredible time, you know. And and then I would say the bad experiences, all the things that are sort of behind the scenes. You know, flight's being missed and you know, having to stay in a country for a couple of days when you should be going home and things like that, you know, just just stuff that's you know, things like that, equipment, equipment breaking down. Equipment breaking down can be like it's both part of the fun.

11:59 You know, you don't stay and something happens, as like a guitar goes guitar, cab goes down, or symbols fall off the drunket. It's a part of that. It's so part of so fun games. You know, it's been able to stay. On thin ice and being able to get to the other side, you know what I mean. So some people freak out and what's happen? It's on fire, you know, we just take it in Australia because we've been doing it so long, I suppose, but yeah, you know it's a crazy old game. We're still doing. It here doing it And that's metal though anyway, isn't it metal? Metal has always been experimentation, but it's also that that live show that things happen. It doesn't have to be perfect. It shouldn't be perfect.

12:43 Oh perfect, it looks perfect, right, there's no such thing as perfect. You know that it's perfect totally. There's a pencil, there's always a rubber on the end of a pencil because no one's perfect. There you go a pencil. Yeah, obviously I was listening to the radio days some classical music. Now that was perfect. And I was. In the morning from the gig and I was just like, listen to that. It was like, that's crystal clear. And then afterwards the audience was like, that was the BBC Philarmony Orchestra playing in the role huber Tour.

13:26 I was like, it was live. That's wrong, that's amazing, that is wild for sure. So what was the spark that sparked this new album, new recordings for the first time since twenty eighteen. You know, that's that's a good build up. Moments of setbacks. Obviously, COVID will check everybody all over the world. So our usual writing process of the three of us in a room and I you know, we've got our own studios place in Newcastle, and we couldn't.

14:09 Do that, couldn't meet each other. So it's like writing and you know, it gave it gave Drawing Us and Rage an opportunity to upgrade their home studio stuff because they got stuff at home anyway. But you know they were buying stuff online and making it all Bobby Dazzler, you know type of thing, and so they were recording. They were experimenting as we do at home, and and then after those whatever seveny horrendous months we could get back together before they locked it down again. So obviously that was that was the initial issues.

14:50 And then the second one was I was I'd recorded. I think I've recorded the whole album. My bit. I'm always first in and to do it because then the drums are done and then you based the songs. Obviously I'm the most important, so. The right of course, yeah, you're the foundation of course. No, no, you know, so I've done my bit and we're listening song and. It was like, what's happened. It's like, I don't know, it's happening again. Basically what it was like a inter liment. So it was basically the higher symbol, you know, the higher spot them down that out breaking the left foot, the microphone, whether it was the lead that mic something was wrapped off and.

15:41 Yeah, yeah, so it was unrepairable, so you know, I had to go and do again. I hate when that happens to me, and that happened. But at the time, obviously I was like a bit good, but it gave to be honest. In hindsight, it made for a much much better album, because how'd that not have happened? Yes, it would have been good, but it gave us more time to work on those songs and we did change quite a feel from. Very traumatically so which did turn out for the better. So sometimes out out of a crap situations.

16:22 Along, I think I think it was the universe guiding this album to what it is. Has to finish product eight long years. But you know, all good things come to those who work. There you go, and it is great. And I've been waiting for four fifty years. There you go. Well, man, it's a great album. Everybody else check it out. They can. Also there's some cool packages that they can get, like a double gatefold smoking line. Different vinyl. It's a black, two different colors, and then there's the limited some red splatter.

17:05 The contains blood. Yeah nice, but yeah it's on CD and probably cassette as well. But funnily enough, I remember a few years ago on the last album and it may have been kicked one hundred miles. To help hundred that single, you know, years ago, and in my room, yeah, the label's being touched getting. On cassette And did I said, did you just say cassettes. I'm like, oh, it's going to buy that. You be surprised dances honestly Chinese American. I'm like, wow, okay, I since I've still got to take place.

17:46 I was somebody to make an eight track. Yeah, I think we should have good at eight track or seventy eight that would. Be good too. I actually had Blizzard of Oz I got on the track. I got that on eight tracks. But what you used to put in your car, the eight track things? Yeah, well I had it in my house because I was a kid. You know, it was nineteen eighty. What was I like, thirteen? It was came out without nineteen eighty when it came out. It came out in nineteen. Eighty, right record. And you had to stick we had those little match books you had to stick under the eight track to make sure it went at the right speed. Otherwise it would be like and then mister Crowley would split up between track two and track three, so it would fade out. Yeah, it would fade out, and then it would switch over to the next track and fade back in like the longest crossfade ever, Like, oh my god.

19:00 Yeah. So next Venom album eight track it. Got to be look to the future. There it is. It's all in any other final words you want to tell our listeners, just thank. You for being with us. Sorry about the weights, but you know here we are. Yeah, if you get a copy, I hope you enjoy it. Crank it up and shake your red open a can and love it. Thank her. It is. It's a great, great album, probably one of your best ever. So everybody has to definitely check it out. And thanks a lot for making us great music still all these years. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

19:42 No problem man. And can I just can I just say, look at I'm just going to show someone your background. Look a look at this there is. But it is, but it is where I really live. So if you want to come visit I do. I live on an island. Actually do your whereabout? It's near West Palm Beach in Florida, and so I'm like just surrounded by water. Of course. My I'm in my studio now, so it's like I had to leave that what you're seeing in my background, I had to leave to come do this interview.

20:23 Well, being a pleasure to speak to you, d pleasure speaking bloodstock. Yeah, definitely let's uh, let's connect and uh we can hang out at Bloodstock. You're listening to the. Pipe Man on W for c Y Radio and he is a cool dude. I've enjoyed talking to him. Check us out. Thank you very much, go back. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipelin on W for c u I Radio