A week after Conrad Lant died at sixty three, Metal Underground has published a tribute with more than fifty contributors in it, and the list of who sent one is the argument the piece does not need to make.
People who have played in Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary, Portal, Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Incantation, Immolation, Eyehategod, Pig Destroyer and Testament all wrote something. So did label staff and podcast hosts. Four decades of extreme music, filed under one bass player from Newcastle.
Barney Greenway of Napalm Death called him the caveman in chief and did not pretend the band was ever subtle. The early Venom image was undeniably schlocky, he told the site, and it did not make Cronos any less mean when he beat the hell out of his bass. What the man proved, Greenway said, was that you could be a greater band by hitting things and making noise without caring much about finesse, and that nothing up to and including At War with Satan can be argued with.
Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel put it as a lesson rather than a memory. Venom taught him that music is about feeling and vibe, that there was no need to be Yngwie, and he noted without apology that Cronos was called a dick by more people than anyone can count and that it made him smile.
Obituaries are written by journalists. This one was written by the scene itself, which is a different thing and harder to assemble.