A new chapter opens in the long and unruly history of Venom. The British metal pioneers revealed details of a forthcoming full-length record titled “Into Oblivion”, scheduled for release on 1 May 2026 through Noise Records. The album marks the group’s next studio statement following “Storm the Gates” from 2018.
On 5 March 2026, the band also released the first piece of music from the upcoming record, the track “Lay Down Your Soul”. According to the group, the song offers the first glimpse into the spirit surrounding the new material.
Venom
© The band’s archive
The Path Ahead
The forthcoming album “Into Oblivion” consists of 13 tracks, according to Encyclopaedia Metallum, continuing the path carved by the band across decades of uncompromising heavy music.
The record appears eight years after “Storm the Gates”, extending a catalogue that helped define the earliest foundations of extreme metal. While further details about the compositions remain scarce, the announcement confirms the album as Venom’s first full-length of the current year.
The band posted on their official Facebook account:
“LEGIONS! We’re excited to announce that our brand-new album, «Into Oblivion» will be released on 1 May 2026. Check out the first single, «Lay Down Your Soul», and pre-order the album with exclusive merch and limited signed editions.”
The link for pre-ordering the material is here.
A New Signal: “Lay Down Your Soul”
The single “Lay Down Your Soul” is currently streaming, presenting the first taste of the material that will form “Into Oblivion”.
According to the band, the track channels the raw fervour that has always accompanied Venom’s music: loud gatherings, burning anticipation, and the ritualistic energy of a crowd united under the banner of metal. The lyrics revolve around devotion to rock and roll as a unifying force, celebrating the intensity of live music and the communal spirit that gathers beneath its pennant.
Venom, in Case You Need to Know More
Venom are widely credited as the original inventors and founders of black metal, with singer and bassist Conrad Lant, known as Cronos, often recognised as a central figure in shaping thrash, speed, death, and power metal. The group built a reputation as one of the most extreme forces ever to emerge from the heavy music underground.
The band’s origins trace back to the 1970s in the north of England, when Cronos began working as an assistant engineer at Impulse Studios. Fascinated with music from an early age and influenced by artists such as The Who and The Rolling Stones, he gradually assembled the foundations of a band that would push heavy metal beyond familiar limits, according to the group’s official site.
As stated by Cronos, from the beginning, the ambition was clear: create something darker than Black Sabbath, louder than Motörhead, and visually grander than Kiss. The resulting group quickly distinguished itself through aggressive sound, provocative imagery, and an uncompromising stage presence.
Venom detonated a seismic shift within heavy music in 1982 with the release of “Black Metal”, an album whose title would eventually give its name to an entire genre. From those early recordings onward, the band’s influence spread across generations of musicians who would carry extreme metal into new territories.
Over the decades, Venom remained a singular presence within the genre: confrontational and unwilling to dilute their identity. Their history is marked by bold decisions, including the band’s first major British performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 1 June 1984, an unusually ambitious debut for a group still emerging from the underground.
With “Into Oblivion” approaching its release in May, Venom prepare to add another entry to a catalogue that helped shape the sound and imagery of extreme metal worldwide.
The Sinners
Cronos [guitars, bass, vocals];
Rage [guitars];
Danté [drums].
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