Venom Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Venom is a legendary band being hugely influential on thrash, death, and black metal. But who influenced them? At the heart of the band in the early years you have Cronos, Mantas, and Abaddom. There has been several line up changes but always with either Cronos or Mantas. For that reason their influences are the most important ones but I’ll touch on some of the other members who have contributed over the years as well.
Cronos named Elvis as an influence because of the controversy around him.
Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan replaced Cronos from 1989-1995 and played on three albums.
Al Barns played guitar on Prime Evil and Temples of Ice, however I am uncertain what his influences are.
Antton played on three albums and co wrote (including riffs) in the 2000’s.
La Rage has been on guitar since 2007. Some of his influences include Slayer, Testament, and Archenemy. I’m uncertain on how much he as contributed to writing.
Mike “Mykvs” Hickney who played on The Calm Before the Storm and co-wrote on Metal Black. He named some of his influences as Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Ace Frehley, Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty, Mike Bloomfield, Leslie West, John Sykes, Pantera
James Clare only has two co writing credits on The Calm Before the Storm.
As for newest drummer Dante I’m unsure if he has any writing credits or what his influences are.
Bands influenced by Venom!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/venom-frontman-talks-about-guitarist-change/
https://sabian.com/artist/antton-lant/
http://www.maximum-ink.com/2000/features/venom-12-00/
http://www.maximumink.com/index.php/articles/permalink/mpire_of_evil
https://medium.com/@JakamKourasanis/tony-demolition-man-dolan-venom-inc-interview-c362bdb613c3
https://st-news.com/issues/st-news-volume-10-issue-1/features/interviews/venom/an-interview-with-abaddon/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100110155313/http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/sunra/315/venominterviewrichards.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20100110155313/http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/sunra/315/venominterviewrichards.html
http://bravewords.com/news/venom-drummer-antton-lant-vinnie-paul-is-definitely-one-of-my-biggest-influences