Cronos — Dancing Into The Fire
Dancing In The Fire was the first of three albums released by the band set up by Conrad Lant aka Cronos, after he left rough ‘n’ ready/Satan-praising heavy metal band Venom. The album originally appeared in the early 90’s, and it’s fair to say it’s a schizophrenic/unpredictable/ at times downright sloppy affair, which often (tries to) blend and blur different sub-genes of metal/ rock, to decidedly mixed results. Here from Dissonance Productions, Cherry Red metal sub-label, is a CD reissue of the album.
The CD comes presented in a see-through jewel case. This features a very un-metal pastel light orange/ pink set inlay booklet- this takes in a seven-page write-up about the band/ album, a good selection of band pics, promotional artwork, and flyers, etc.
The band Cronos was formed in 1988, due to Lant leaving Venom due to the poor sales/ Luke warn reception of the band's 1987 album Calm Before The Storm. Over their career, the band released three albums- they disbanded after Lant returned to Venom. These were- Dancing In The Fire (1990), Rock n' Roll Disease (1993), and Venom (1995).
Dancing In The Fire first appeared on Neat Records. It featured fourteen tracks, with the band line-up for the album being: Conrad "Cronos" Lant – vocals, bass, Mike Hickey – guitar, vocals, James Clare – guitar, keyboards, vocals, and Chris Patterson – drums. This reissue features no bonus/unreleased tracks- we just get the original albums' fourteen tracks.
The album kicks off with “Fantasia” which brings together Thrash gallop, heavy metal fret runs, with subtle AOR synth/ clear guitar undertones, and a wavering/ wonky sing-song chorus. We have the title track, which opens up all but ripping off the start of Metallica’s “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” before shifting into a power metal/ glam metal crossbreed, with gang vocals and some nice meaty guitar workouts.
In the album's second half, we move from the more sleazy Venom/ chugged up metal of “Old Enough To Bleed”- which you can probably guess from its title has very dodgy lyrics, as well as including a blues rock breakdown topped with pleasured female moans. “Boobytrap” feels like a crossbreed between David Lee Roth's vocal sassiness and Motley Crue's glam stomp- all topped off with moments of clear guitar jazz soloing. There’s the gunning & galloping “Hell To The Unknown” which sounds like a more rock-toned Celtic Frost, alive with whizzing fretwork. The album is rather oddly finished off with a Venom cover, “At War With Satan” which just feels like a more guitar wizardry-edged/atmospheric synth-lined take on the song, with really none of the edge of the original.
In finishing, I’d say Dancing In the Fire is somewhat of a hit-and-miss curio. You can certainly respect Mr Lant for largely trying to step away from all that Venom was, and attempt to blend and blur together different metal genres- in quite an ahead-of-its-time/post-modern way- but it's far from a lost masterpiece.