VENOM - MANTAS - ABADDON & Special Guests at Keep It True Festival 2026

VENOM - MANTAS - ABADDON with special guests

Live at Keep It True Festival

Lauda Königshofen - Germany 24th April 2026

Ever since it was announced that the founders of VENOM, Mantas and Abaddon, would be celebrating 45 years of VENOM at Germany’s Keep It True festival, there was high anticipation in Castle Hydra.

As soon as we finished work on Thursday 23^rd of April, we jumped in the Hydramobile and excitedly set off on the almost 400km drive to Lauda-Königshofen. 90 minutes later we had only advanced a little over 20km due to a massive traffic jam in Basel – fuck!!! Eventually arrived at our destination, several hours later than we had planned….

Friday the 24^th, the big Venomous day has arrived, and off we go to the venue. After parking up and walking the short distance to the concert hall, it was great to see all the VENOM shirts and patches, and a feeling of real excitement by The Legions! As we had combined this monumental happening with a meeting of our humble VENOM Fanclub, Deepest Hell, the early part of the day was spent meeting our fellow DH Friends, both old and new, and much excited V talk about what we were going to witness later that evening. Managed to deliver the various Deepest Hell bitz to our infernal Friends, and great fun discussing the possible setlist, and guessing which song each of the famous guest musicians would be performing.

Before the concert, there was a signing session by Mantas and Abaddon. The queue stretched from one end of the hall to the other, hundreds and hundreds of Legions, each clutching their Venomous items to be autographed by The Black Metal Gods! It was an incredible sight, the sheer joy of each Legion as they emerged with their precious autographs and / or photos with the guys. And it is fair to say that Abaddon and Mantas seemed blown away by all this chaos and excitement. After running way over the allotted time, the signing session had to come to an end. Then it was time for a quick look in to the backstage area. Slowly the guest musicians arrived, each of them were clearly deeply honoured and humbled to be joining The Black Metal Gods at this celebration of 45 years since VENOM released that first album that changed music forever, and changed the lives of the guest musicians too. We also got to meet a guy called Blake (aka Bulldözer) – more about this very special person later. Some excited V talk with our old friends Tom Angelripper, Tom Warrior and Schmier, and Dan Lilker was real cool too.

Some of us knew or had guessed which guest would be singing certain songs, but I don’t think any of us knew the whole setlist, so there was sure to be surprises all night. Down to the very front to join our Legions Brothers and Sisters, who were eagerly awaiting the curtain to drop. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is the intro and VENOM explode into Witching Hour. Mantas, Abaddon and Bulldözer sounding fucking great, and oh so fucking VENOMous!! Wow – a quick glance at my Ladies and The Legions showed that everyone was really happy and stoked by this – one song in and we knew we have our VENOM back!! Bulldözer was immediately very impressive indeed, looking and sounding Ventastic, almost reminiscent of the young Cronos from the days when the original Witching Hour promo video was unleashed. Die Hard follows, and the V Die Hards loved it!

First big surprise of the evening was Live Like An Angel, which featured Mantas on the vocals. The Man always had a great voice, all those great backing vocals he did with V through the years, and this was fantastic!

Before this concert, I had been reliably informed that Welcome To Hell (probably my fav V tune ever) would feature the true Legend that is Tom Gabriel Warrior, and was one of the songs I was most eager for. TGW sure delivered, it is one of those moments that will stay with me till my last breath – incredible!

Schizo and Poison follow, with Bulldözer resuming vocal duties. Genocide features Vader’s Piotr Wiwczarek on vox, a cool and surprising inclusion. I don’t think V ever played this song before… I could be wrong, but please excuse me cos as I’m typing this 3 days after the event, my head is still in the fucking Venomous clouds!

Seven Gates Of Hell, Buried Alive and Don’t Burn The Witch are all great. And then another moment was I was so looking forward to since all this was announced – The God that is Tom Angelripper singing and bass playing Angel Dust and 1000 Days in Sodom. Andy Brings (also of Sodom fame) joined on guitar, beyond cool!!

Our friend Schmier got to sing his favourite V tune, Black Metal, and he delivered it well indeed!

Bulldözer takes over vox again for Warhead and a great surprise song Chanting Of The Priests, before another absolute Legend Dan Lilker takes bass for In Nomine Satanas and Sons Of Satan – just brilliant!

For the encore, Attila Csihar sang Bloodlust, and Diva Satanica did Countess Bathory, a favourite song of Keep It True festival, as anyone who was there 10 years previous can testify.

In League With Satan sees every single guest rejoin Mantas, Abaddon and Bulldözer on stage, and the celebration of 45 years of VENOM is complete. Some beautiful words from Mantas brought the proceedings to a close.

This will be a concert that lives forever in the memory. There can be no doubt that the classic sound of VENOM comes from Mantas and Abaddon, they founded the band, Mantas wrote most of the classics, Abaddon created the VENOM Logo and the vast majority of the artwork, etc etc etc. This concert was VENOM, with some very special guests that delivered an unforgettable evening. A special word of Venomous praise must go to Bulldözer – the guy was incredible, and given that this was the first time he played live with Abaddon and Mantas, just imagine what may lay ahead for us Legions as this continues – bring it the fuck ON!!! Hell Yeah!!!

Some more backstage photos, blabbing and autographs slowly bring the evening to a close. However, there is still another day of the festival to go, and the headliner the next night was Tom Gabriel Warrior's Triumph Of Death, performing a set of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost brilliance, and it was indeed awesome! Earlier in the day and evening was spent with our Deepest Hell brethren, who it must be said are amongst the coolest people on this damned planet – you fucking RULE!!!

A special Thanx to Oliver & Lilla Weinsheimer for putting this Venomous event together. A big FUCK YEAH to Hogman for that special something you did for us. And of course….

To Mantas and Abaddon – The true Black Metal Gods – the spirit of the real VENOM lives within these guys!!!

- - -

Below is some photos of the Deepest Hell meeting and various backstage mayhem: