OBSCENE EXTREME FESTIVAL

Two old thrash metal bands are untraditionally going to perform live on this year's OEF with ASSASSIN being one of them. Are you not a bit afraid of the reception by the fans who love the most extreme music styles? They will be awaiting a bit of different music than thrash metal veterans.

I don´t think so. We play with other Thrashbands at that day as far as I know. From what I know the Thursday is a special old-school Metal warm-up show. I guess we will fit in perfectly.

Will ASSASSIN consider themselves as a regular band or anything like a bonus for fans on OEF?

You wouldn´t have asked that question in the 80´s, dude.
You know, back in the old days we didn´t made a big difference between Thrash and Death Metal. People were listening to all kinds of Metal, Hardcore and also Punk. It’s all the extremer side of Heavy Metal. Look at Motörhead or AC/DC. They are very much respected by all kinds of Metalheads. I remember the Dynamo Open Air in Holland back at that time when Bands like TESTAMENT played along with STRYPER for example. No joke! Nobody would have thought about asking your question because all were Metal anyway.

What do you actually know about this festival? Why do play it?

Well, I haven’t heard about this festival before Rudy (our manager) told me. He has contact with Curby (the main man behind the festival) for about a couple of years now. Curby is also an ASSASSIN fan from the old days. He came to our show in Prague December 2005 and as far as I saw, he liked it! You better asked him why he invited us for the festival... Now I know that this festival is a cult festival among the Death/Gore Metal fans and we are just proud to be part of it this.

Are you a fan of big summer festivals? What do you think about an open air festival for the most extreme music styles like grind core or death metal? I assume you would not go for such a festival by yourselves.

Sure, those summer festival are fuckin‘ cool. You have the chance to watch so many bands. It’s special, you know.

EXTREME MUSIC

What do you personally think about the musical styles like grind core or death metal?

Hey,I like extreme music. I think one the first bands ever playing Grind Core were IMPETIGO. I really like them! And yes, I love Death Metal. Damn, I was there when it all started in the mid-80ies! Do you only listen to one certain style of music? I don’t think so! I love the old stuff which started with DEATH, MAYHEM, NAPALM DEATH and all these. They were all mainly influenced by VENOM, which is one of my favourites, too. By the way, all this Grind-Death-Black-Thrash-or whatever-Bands including ASSASSIN were influenced mainly by VENOM, SLAYER and METALLICA.

Formerly you were in a similar position. Is it possible to find a connection between the reception of an extreme at that time and nowadays? Or was it about something entirely different at that time?

Don’t forget that ASSASSIN was there when all those extremer styles of Metal were born. It all started in the 80ies. Even Grind Core’s roots are in the 80ies. I’m not sure how old you are, but I was listening to bands like DEATH or MAYHEM before they had a record deal!
They were not so many catagories for Metal. Thrash/Death/Black or whatever Metal...were were the same people all over the world who liked many different bands, no matter what the style is called. Nowadays it seems, that every Metal style has its own independent scene. I personally don´t give a fuck about no category.

A strong hard core influence can be heard on your early albums. At that time it was indeed something exceptional and progressive. Was it an intention or a coincidence?

I don´t know if we had any other intention than beeing as loud and fast as possible. We listened to Punk and Metal, so these styles were our main influence. What you call „progressive“ and „exceptional“ is just a name for something you felt personally, when you listened to „Upcoming Terror“ or „Interstellar Expierience“.
For us it was just pure Metal. Sometimes slow and pumping like we did with the song „Assassin“ on our first album, sometimes fast and ultra agressive like „Bullets“, which was on the same album.

However, a similar highly progressive influence is absolutely missing on your last album. Is the music you like to listen to now different from the one you listened formerly?

There you come again with the word „progressive“ You know, the word „progressive“ means some kind of evolution forward. So when you say you are „missing progressivity“ in our music, that means we didn´t change. That´s bullshit!
Assassin is stepping forward. We don´t look back.THE CLUB has an aggressive, punkish sound and it is our most aggressive album so far. Robert has never been dirtier on vocals before and his lyrics are better than ever! We have a bassplayer that got kicked out of bands because he was playing too loud... Ufo Walter is one of the best bassplayers in germany and he never played any Thrashtune before ASSASSIN. Now he is Thrash infected! You see that ASSASSIN is in progress, yes!

FROM THE PAST

What was reason for the break up after such a promising start?

Some bastards broke into our rehearsalroom and stole our equipment. Yeah, and we were too poor to buy new stuff. Then we all went seperate ways. But there never was an official splitt up of ASSASSIN. We just gave it a little break, pal.

When you see your colleagues from the past like SODOM, KREATOR, DESTRUCTION are you not sorry that ASSASSIN never made it that far? Would you do the same you did in the same situation now?

We don’t waste time on what could have happened or not. We all have had our experiences that we don’t want to miss. Only now is what matters!

The runion of ASSASSIN happened after a really long time. It is not very usual, so why?

There was always the idea to start the whole thing again. Those plans began in the early 90ies. But it took some more years until we all had the time to play music together again. The main reason why it took so long is, almost all band members lived in different place in the world. Robert lived in Japan and later in China, Frank spent some years with me in Brazil, Dinko was in Croatia and Scholli played in different bands. That’s the whole secret behind it.

Would it not be better to leave ASSASSIN where it finished in 1997 and do not gamble with relatively good reputation and a legendary name in case of some bad success. The ASSASSIN of today is yet completely something else and it may smell of calculation...

We never gave a fuck about reputation. ASSASSIN is our band. We can do what ever we like! We don’t force anybody to give a listen to us. We play mainly for our fun. Why do you think we released the last album by ourselves instead of looking for another record-company?
Calculation? Gimme a motherfucking break!

When you play your first album „Upcoming Terror“ and your last album "The Club" in sequence what will be your first thought? What feeling will you have from this comparison?

„What I think? I think both are different but I like ´em. When I listen to these albums I remember the time when it was made. Every ASSASSIN album was different so far and you can already place your bets, that the new one, which will be coming out this summer will also be totally different.

THE CLUB

To be honest I have listened to your „ The Club" album out of curiosity and must say I did not get it and like it. Is this music the one ASSASSIN want to do? How do you see the future of ASSASSIN?

Well, „The Club“ is an album, which includes songs from the past 20 years. It is more something like a sampler than a compact album. We tried a lot of different styles over the years and then we put it all together on this one CD. I know a lot of people out there that told me, that they love „The Club“. Anyway, we will not try to do „The Club“ part 2 on the next album, as we never will try to copy one of our ´80s albums, either. The new ASSASSIN 2007 will be totally different again. If you don´t like it? I don´t give a fuck! We never say „Allright, let´s do a song that has to sound like Abstract War“. No man, we simply plug our guitars in and make some noise with it. Frank beats his drums to death and Ufo adds his noise. Blam! That is ASSASSIN!

Is there anything you would like to share with people coming to the OEF festival? What can the fans be looking forward to from ASSASSIN? Are you planning a special show or something?

We do what we can do best: Kick fuckin‘ asses live on stage! You´ll get about 90 minutes of power. No fucking baloons or whatever.

Is there anything more you want to get across to the readers of TS?

Fuck yes, get your ass ready to be kicked at our show and visit www.assassin-online.de for information.

The Upcoming Terror (1987)
Interstellar Experience (1988)
The Club (2005)

Robert Gonnella - Vocals
Michael Hoffmann - Guitar
Jurgen Scholz - Guitar
Ufo Walter - Bass (2005 -)
Frank Nellen - Drums (2004 -)

Former members
Dinko Vekic - Guitar (1984-89 and 2002-05)
Olaf - Guitar (1989)
Markus Ludwig - Bass (1984-89)
Joachim Hopf - Bass (2002-05)
Psycho Danger - Drums (1984-87)
Atomic Steif - Drums (2002-04)

www.assassin-online.de
www.myspace.com/assassinthrashmetal



Comment on the interview:

No entry posted so far