VINNIE PAUL – Selling His Oven

VENOM is a long standing black metal band from Newcastle upon Tyne, England and first came into notable prominence towards the end of the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal', thanks to their first two studio albums, Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982). The title of Venom's second album became important enough to describe an entire subgenre called "black metal", a category under which they've been most commonly referred to, and the extreme Anti-Christian religious message they've represented all along is still subject for much controversy to this very day. The band's Satanic lyrics and frightening imagery are still considered the standard for the subgenre, and arguably for the wider extreme heavy metal movement in whole.

In 2008, the act is still going strong and have delivered another disc for the masses entitled "Hell".

The Metal Den's Randy "Rocket" Cody has conducted a rare question and answer session with the band's drummer:

Antton Lant

Rocket: Where were you born and raised?

Antton: I was born in London but I was raised in HELL, Newcastle.

Rocket: When did you first start out playing on the drums?

Antton: I can’t really remember, my oldest brother is a drummer and he used to let me play on his kit, trying to play along to my favourite bands at the time like AC/DC, Kiss, Van Halen, etc…

Rocket: Who are a few of your biggest playing influences?

Antton: Phil Rudd from AC/DC, Eric Carr and Peter Criss from Kiss. I really only started taking it serious and putting more effort in to it when I heard Pantera. Vinnie Paul is definitely one of my biggest influences and Scott Travis from Priest. I guess I could go on all day with this one.

Rocket: Did you ever take any formal drumming lessons?

Antton: No, not really. I just got on and tried to play along with the tracks. I wish I did have some of those because I did pick up some bad habits which are hard to get rid of.

Rocket: What are the specs on your touring kit?

Antton: I use mapex drums, I have 2 x 24” x 20” bass drums. My toms are 14” and 15” x 12” and my floor toms are 16” and 18” x 16”. I use Black Panther snares. Sabian cymbals, DW turbo 5000 pedals and all my stands are on a Gibraltar rack. I use a ddrum 4se on my bass drums but everything else is mic’s. I use Vic firth American metal sticks (reversed) so I'm hitting with the butt of the stick.

Rocket: That explains the heaviness of your drumming sound for sure.

Antton: I also use Remo heads.

Rocket: How did you initially get involved with playing in VENOM band? 

Antton: Cronos is my brother so I have been around the band forever. I used to rehearse with my brother and when it came time to do the Resurrection album in 2000 I was asked to work on the tracks. After rehearsing the tracks they asked me if I would go in the studio and put the drums down for the album. They were happy with the results and I got the job.

Rocket: That is insane.

Antton: Yes, indeed I used to go to all the rehearsals way back in 1979 before the first album, I saw the very first shows and I also went over to France on the seven dates of Hell tour when metallica were the support band.

Rocket: It's got to feel like quite the honor. I like to have fun with this next one. What is the funniest thing that's ever happened to you (or that you've witnessed) on stage while performing?

Antton: Maybe when my toms fell off the stand at the Wacken Festival.

Rocket: The new VENOM studio album is entitled "HELL". What can you tell us about the material?

Antton: We wanted it to sound and feel like Venom. We got a lot of great feedback from the Metal Black album. People were saying they liked the raw sound and the energy. When you over produce something it can start to sound stale. Some of my all time fave albums are older albums where the band has gone in and played as a band, so we feel that this album has the songs and the attitude.

Rocket: Who are some of the other black metal bands around today that impress you?

Antton: As far as the drummers go all of them, man those guys fly. I saw Dimmu Borgir last month at hell fest and I thought they were awesome.

Rocket: What are some upcoming shows for VENOM that we need to watchout for? And will you have many dates this time out in America?

Antton: We've just headlined a fest in Greece this past July with Meshuggah on the bill, so I got to check out Thomas’ playing. As for an American tour, we are hoping to get over later this year.

Rocket: Thanks for rocking this out with me. Best of luck with the music! Give a shout out to your biggest supporters.

Antton: It’s been great, Rocket. A massive HELL YEAH goes out to all the legions out there. The new cd “HELL”will be available in the states on the 12th of August. Sorry for the delay, and I hope you guys like the album!

 http://www.venomslegions.com/