Onslaught Interview
By Gothik Divaa
In this issue of “Metalheads Forever” magazine we are accompanied by the British metal band “ONSLAUGHT”. They are going to talk about their career, their projects for this 2018 and of course they are going to talk about their participation in the cruise 70000 Tons Of Metal 2019, The World´s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise, taking place on January 21- February 4 in Florida- Haiti-Florida!
Hello guys … How are you today? Greetings from Mexico City.
Hi, i’m doing great and yourself..? Ahhhhh thank you, Mexico.! one of my favourite countries on earth to play.! 🙂
The band has been active for 22 years with a break between the members …1) What has been the difference between the first stage of the band in 1982 and the reunion of 2005.
The biggest difference for me is the availability of the internet, it has altered the face of the music industry in many many ways, some great and some bad Changes. It’s so much easier for us to promote the band and to make contact with our fans and promoters around the world, which of course makes booking International tours so much simpler than back in the 80’s.There’s also a lot more bands, a lot more competition out there nowadays, which means we have to stay on our toes and keep the standards as high as we possibly can, which ain’t a bad thing at all.
At the beginning of your career well you had musical influences from Punk and Rock, then you got evolved with Trash Metal even to Speed Metal …2) Which has been your favorite musical genre and why?
Yeah Punk and Heavy metal music has always been real important to me, the energy and the attitude in both genres is awesome and of course there are many similarities between Punk / Thrash music. ‘Discharge’ and the ‘Sex Pistols’ are my 2 favorite bands, closely followed by ‘Motorhead’ and ‘Black Sabbath’ so it’s not easy for me to have just one favorite musical genre.
Based on your experience … in the music business 3) How do you think the evolution of the metal scene has been, not only in England but in the rest of the world?
In all honesty i don’t think there’s has been great evolution in the metal scene whatsoever. The huge bands from the 80’s are still the same bands that are headlining stadiums and arenas in 2018.There has been a lot of copyists for sure, especially in the Thrash Metal scene, but nothing new and exciting has come along in the past 30 years, which is kind of a sad thing because there are no bands capable of replacing the like of Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden etc etc in the future.
So, you have participated throughout your career in several festivals around the world for example: Wacken Open Air, Bang Your Head, Thrash Domination, Hellfest, Brutal Assault, Bloodstock Open Air and many more …4) What has been the show that you liked the most so far and why? Some anecdote worthy of telling to your fans?
Wow that’s a very tough question and almost impossible to answer. We have been so lucky during our career to be invited to play at the world’s biggest metal festivals and each and everyone one has been an incredible show experience for ‘Onslaught’. All the festivals have their own unique atmosphere and identity but the one common factor is thousands of ‘amazing fans’ probably the strangest festival we ever played was ‘The International Music Festival’ in China in 2016..! ‘The Backstreet Boys’ were headlining the show and there was a ‘classical pianist’ onstage before ‘Onslaught’. To watch thousands of Chinese people with umbrellas (it was 40+ degrees heat) crowd surfing with circle pits and the police and military security going crazy to our music was truly surreal…!
In 2017, you promoted your music in different parts of the world for example: South and Central America, Mexico, Europe and for the first time ever Lebanon.5) How was that experience for you?
Lebanon was absolutely incredible, what an awesome country. We were the first real Thrash Metal band to go out there and play and it was an experience we will never forget.We had to have 2 attempts to make things happen though, on the first visit the local government stopped the show from going ahead just hours before we were due onstage because of some bullshit paperwork excuse, so we had to return a few months later to finally make it happen. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, because we got to visit Beirut twice, meet so many cool people and of course play what was a very special show for everyone involved.
In this 2018, I know that you will have concerts in October …6) what are the expectations for these dates?
There are no real expectations, it’s just gonna feel so good to get back out there playing live once again after a full year absent from touring due to an injury I sustained on our last European tour in 2017. It’s felt like forever, but finally we’re ready to hit the road once again and do what we do best.
Well for what I know is that you have the first date of 2019 confirmed with your participation in the Heavy Metal Cruise 70000 Tons Of Metal …7) What are the bands that will accompany you on this trip?
Yeah, i cant wait, the ‘70000 Tons Cruise’ is a truly amazing experience that every metalhead should try and make if at all possible. This is the 2nd time ‘Onslaught’ have been invited to play and it’s such an honor for us, what a way to start 2019..! There are still many bands yet to be announced but I’m really looking forward to catching up with the ‘Obituary’ and’ Nile’ guys for sure amongst many others.
8) Do you have more surprises planned for that year (2019)?
Haha hopefully many more surprises..! We are currently writing the new album and there’s gonna be tons of touring coming up over the next year too. Our management is right on the ball, so there could be many weird and wonderful things happening in 2019. Priority is the new record and we’re thinking about releasing an EP prior to the full album release just to give the fans little taste of what’s to come..
I appreciate the time provided for this interview, your attentions, I wish you the best of luck with all your projects on behalf of “Metalheads Forever magazine”.
Thank you so much.!Cheers!
MHF Magazine/Gothik Divaa
