Last April 2018, we almost lost an icon that helped shape the extreme metal scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, turning that cross upside-down so to speak and creating musical mayhem unlike ever before. Original Venom guitarist and current Venom Inc. guitarist Jeff (Mantas) Dunn was dead for five minutes after two valves in his heart were blocked. He underwent double bypass surgery in Lisbon, Portugal and he’s still recovering every day. And the ailment is not just physical. In an excerpt from our forthcoming major feature, Mantas is an entirely different person these days. The heart attack deeply affected his personality. 

“Apart from the people that I totally and utterly care about, I’m so emotionally detached,” the guitarist says bluntly. “I’m not a welcoming person anymore. I’ve always been the shyest person in the band, the quietest one, I know that for a fact. I’m an introvert at the end of the day, that’s what I am. I’ve always found it difficult to meet people, but now even when people want a photograph I’m very reluctant.” 

BraveWords: Well, it’s strange because you are just such an elite. You’ve had so much influence on so many people, so that’s what you attract. 

Mantas: "And that’s what I can’t handle now.” 

BraveWords: Everyone up to Metallica, it’s all about Venom. 

Mantas: "I still realize that, and I’m justifiably proud of that. I think to myself, yeah, no matter how dysfunctional Venom was as a family, in any of its configurations, and I mean in every configuration of Venom we had conflict, but you cannot deny the influence that the band had. Now, Welcome To Hell and Black Metal are the two albums that are cited as the big influence, and 80-90% of both those albums are me, which is music and lyrics. And I want to again put the records straight, you know where fucking Cronos is coming out and introducing, “oh well Mantas didn’t have that much influence on the band.” You better shut your fucking mouth motherfucker, because don’t forget you were the last person to join this band, at MY invitation, and a lot of those fucking songs were written before you even set foot in that church hall. And the first thing Abbadon said when you walked in the back of the church hall was ‘whoa, who’s she?’ And now they’ve put out a boxed set (In Nomine Satanas) with the church hall records with Clive Archer singing those songs. Clive Archer in 1979 singing ‘Buried Alive’ and ‘Raise The Dead’? So who wrote those before he fucking joined the band?”  

BraveWords: So you had no part in building that?

Mantas: "Yeah, I did. They contacted me about the church hall tape, and I emailed straight back and I said you do realize that that church hall tape is mine. It’s not Cronos’ tape. I recorded that rehearsal on my father’s cassette recorder. I still have a photograph of the cassette recorder and I still have the original tape in my possession. And I sent them a photograph of that cassette tape and a photograph of Clive Archer and I on stage at that very church hall for the book. No, it’s not his tape, I recorded that. So yeah, it looks all pretty and I haven’t got a copy of it yet.”

BraveWords: It cost a fortune but it’s worth it, for me as a fan. Is it worth it? 

Mantas: "I don’t know…”

BraveWords: If Cronos walked in that door right now what would you say to him?

Mantas: “What would I say to him? He’d be on his fucking ass before he knew it. I’ve got no loyalty or affinity to either of those guys whatsoever. There’s a lot of people who are still loyal to the both of them, but if they knew the truth - which they will when the book comes out. I’ve written the beginning and the end of this book, and right at the end I actually say there you go, there you have it. Choose to believe what you want, but what I’ve put on these pages is the absolute fucking truth. Some of it’s hilarious. You know, some of it’s so Spinal Tap, it’s beyond Spinal Tap. But some of it you’ll read and go “What the hell? Has this part been checked over?” But it’s all true. It’s everything that fucking happened.” 

Watch for the entire interview with Mantas in the coming days as he talks about the tell-all book he’s writing, the follow-up to Avé, giving the finger to the church and more juicy blasphemies!