In a new interview with Talking The Talk With Don, VENOM INC. bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan spoke about plans for the band to release a follow-up to its second album, “There’s Only Black”, which came out in 2022. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I’m trying to put out two live albums out [in the meantime]. At the minute we’re mixing the one [of them], which we did recordings from South America, from the tour we did with POSSESSED. So I’ve got recordings of every live show… And so we wanted to say a thank you ’cause we had such a spectacular time on that run. So we’re put a live album together specifically for them. Obviously we wanna do a new record, but in the meantime, it was suggested that we did a single. I thought, ‘Well, let’s do more than a single. Let’s do it like an EP or something.’ So we decided we’ll do four tracks, maybe five, [with] a bonus track on there, a hidden bonus track. And that will be like a mini album. And that will have two new songs, two re-recordings and a surprise song. And in the meantime, when we were in São Paulo [Brazil], we were invited to [the Brazilian radio station] Kiss FM, where they do a live-in-the-studio session. So they do an interview, you play as many songs as you wanna play, and then they do an interview and they intercut that and it goes up on YouTube and it’s played on Kiss FM throughout Brazil. So we did five songs for the show. My voice was fucked, my voice had been really fucked, ’cause I’d been a bit too excited and talking too much… But anyway, we did the session and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah. It was okay. Let’s have a listen back.’ So they put it up, and I was, like, ‘Holy fuck. Is that what we sound like?’ It sounded amazing. So I’ve done a deal where it’ll go up on to YouTube, but we’re getting the audio posted. And there’s five songs. We’re gonna put that on as a special release. So there’ll be the live album, then there’ll be the mini album, then there’ll be this Kiss FM live session, and then the new album.”
Tony continued: “So, yeah, I’m just trying to keep it as exciting as possible and to put music out. The whole point is I want to the two live things — the session and the live album — to capture what we are, the essence of what we are live. And, of course, there’s an opportunity with the two new songs on the mini album and then the album full to be us, ’cause we’ve been together for now two years, played a gazillion shows and we’re ready to record the three of us as a band. So it’s very exciting. It’s very exciting. I mean, to have this amount of interest in the band from the industry, but also from inside, from the guys inside, is wonderful. It’s wonderful.”
VENOM INC.‘s current lineup consists of “Demolition Man” Dolan alongside drummer Marc Jackson and guitarist Curran Murphy.
In December 2024, it was announced that former NEVERMORE and ANNIHILATOR guitarist Curran Murphy had officially joined VENOM INC. as the replacement for the band’s founding guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn. The news of Murphy‘s addition to VENOM INC. came less than a month after Mantas announced that he was leaving the band in order to focus on his “health and well-being” after suffering two heart attacks in the space of four years, as well as to care for his wife, who was battling cancer.
There are now three different bands using variations of the VENOM name for their live shows. In addition to the new collaboration between Dunn and Anthony “Abaddon” Bray, VENOM‘s iconic co-founders — who recently announced that they will celebrate the 45th anniversary of VENOM‘s classic debut album, 1981’s “Welcome To Hell”, at various festivals in 2026, including Germany’s Keep It True — there is the Conrad “Cronos” Lant-fronted version of VENOM, in which he is the sole remaining member from the band’s classic era, and there is VENOM INC., which is led by Dolan, who was a member of VENOM between 1989 and 1992, appearing on the albums “Prime Evil” (1989),“Temples Of Ice” (1991) and “The Waste Lands” (1992).
In June 2024, Cronos filed a lawsuit against Abaddon and Plastic Head Music Distribution Ltd in which he accused the distributor of selling merchandise with Lant‘s copyrighted VENOM designs and Bray of approving the infringement through a licensing agreement. The dispute revolved around the fact that both parties were licensing and selling official VENOM merchandise featuring the contested designs.
According to Law360.com, Lant testified in court last year that he joined VENOM in late 1979 and came up with the Satanic-themed designs used in the band’s logo and album covers, which included goat heads, pentagrams and inverted crosses. Bray filed a counterclaim for infringement against Lant and Lant‘s distributor, Razmataz.com Ltd., arguing that Bray was the real author of the works. Because Lant was able to produce numerous sketches which demonstrated his design process and Bray was unable to do the same, Bray was deemed the owner of the original logo, while Lant was found to be the creator and copyright owner of all but one of the other artistic works in dispute.
VENOM‘s classic lineup trio of Dunn, Lant and Bray recorded four studio LPs, “Welcome To Hell” (1981),“Black Metal” (1982),“At War With Satan” (1984) and “Possessed” (1985),and live album, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (1986). Often cited by bands such as METALLICA, BEHEMOTH, CELTIC FROST and MAYHEM as major influences, they are one of the most revered bands of their generation.
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