Cronos Names The Metallica Song Sound Just Like Venom’s ‘Witching Hour’

Founder and vocalist of Venom, Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant had an interview with Metal Hammer, in which he conveyed his observations of Metallica in a surprising way.

The two legendary bands of metal music, Venom and Metallica, first performed together in April 1983, which was followed by a European tour in 1984. Venom had their ‘Seven Dates of Hell’ tour across Europe and Metallica joined them as a supporting act. It was Metallica’s first European tour, and it endorsed their increasing popularity at the time.

The collaborations between Venom and Metallica brought the two bands close, and they might have inspired each other as they have similar musical styles. In the conversation, Cronos referred to Venom’s ‘Witching Hour,’ which was first released in their debut album, ‘Welcome to Hell,’ in 1981. Cronos said that Metallica’s ‘Whiplash,’ which is the first single of the band’s debut album, ‘Kill ‘Em All,’ released in 1984, literally sounds like ‘Witching Hour.’

Here are Cronos’ words on the two songs:

“They looked like ‘Status Quo,’ but they sounded just like us. I heard ‘Whiplash’ and thought, that’s fucking ‘Witching Hour!’”

Later on, Cronos also shared his memories with Metallica starting from their first collaborations in 1983. He explained that when they first played together, they were impressed with Metallica, which was why they took them to play together on a European tour. However, when Metallica opened the tour, Cronos couldn’t believe what he saw on the stage because they sounded like a completely different band.

Cronos explained that:

“They were pretty lame on stage. We thought, what the fuck happened to this band?”

Metallica is one of the most prominent and commercially successful bands in the metal music industry. We are generally used to hearing them being praised but apparently, Cronos made a different observation.

You can listen and compare Venom’s ‘Witching Hour’ and Metallica’s ‘Whiplash’ below.