Warhead

Venom released “Warhead,” written by Cronos and Mantas, through Neat Records on January 20, 1984. The trio, Cronos (Conrad Lant) on bass and vocals, Mantas (Jeffrey Dunn) on guitar, and Abaddon (Tony Bray) on drums, had formed in Newcastle upon Tyne back in 1978 under the name Guillotine before settling on Venom a year later. By the time “Warhead” arrived, the band had already given an entire genre its name with their 1982 album Black Metal.

The single was recorded at Impulse Studios in Newcastle, produced by Venom themselves and engineered by Keith Nichol and Martin Smith, the same team behind most of the band’s early records. It landed in the gap between Black Metal and the band’s third album, At War with Satan, which followed in April 1984. A 12-inch version of “Warhead” later turned up as a bonus track on reissues of that album, tying the single permanently to a record it never officially belonged to.

“Warhead” never aimed for radio play, but it picked up an unlikely radio moment anyway. Tommy Vance, hosting his Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1, dared fellow DJ Mike Read to play “Warhead” on his breakfast show, offering £100 to the charity of Read’s choice if he did it, fully expecting he never would.

Venom never built much of a commercial profile beyond moments like that, but the influence ran wider than the chart numbers suggest. Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982) gave Metallica, Slayer, Mayhem, Bathory, and Celtic Frost a blueprint to work from, and the Beastie Boys gave the band a nod by name on Hello Nasty in 1998. “Warhead” was never the song that defined Venom, but it captured exactly what made them dangerous. Three musicians from Newcastle moving faster and louder than anyone expected a metal band to move in January 1984.