interview with Massive Assault
How was the band formed? Fredde, Rob (former drummer) and I started out jamming in 2002 under a different name. In 2003 we took the name Massive Assault and released the first promo.
Can you tell about your band? We’re Massive Assault and we play Death Metal.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? We all live near the area where we rehearse, which is Hoogeveen. Fredde plays guitar, Jos bassguitar, Gideon drums and I (Carl) do the vocals.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Our ambition was, and still is, to create songs we like to play, do recordings (and get them released ofcourse) and play a lot of gigs. We never have focused on trying to imitate one singular style or form, but play what we feel like playing, which can be heard on our releases and gigs.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? I think Massive Assault is best described as Death Metal mixed with Crust and Hardcore. These genres are also our main influences, next to Thrash Metal and Rock, I think. As stated above, we play what we feel like playing, without any restrictions, hehe.
Where was your first gig? Our first gig was in Hoogeveen, somewhere in 2003.
Where was the latest gig? Well, when you are reading this gig we either played at the Metal Core-fest in the Netherlands or the Grind Here – Grind Now-fest in Trier, Germany. In any case, both gigs will be a blast!
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? The songs are written by everyone basically. Usually Fredde comes up with a lot of riffs (he is the riffmaster) and we all piece these together to create a perfect crusher. Jos and Gideon also bring in riffs here and there. Most lyrics are written by myself. Jos has written a few aswell.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? We all have a terrible sense in humor, haha. Especially when there’s drinks involved.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? I think we’re the good, the bad and the ugly all mixed in one band! As for the genre: we play Death Metal to sum it up very short. To make it longer: we play a mixture of Swedish, British and American (Old School) Death Metal, combined with Crust and Hardcore and sprinkled with some Thrash Metal here and there....
What are your songs about? The lyrics mostly deal with death, despair, war and agony. Some lyrics involve personal thoughts and feelings. We also have some songs about serial killers, mostly about what I think can be in their minds and might drive them. One of the new songs is about being trapped in a society that demand slaves. Another new, also unreleased song is about humanity’s primal instinct. But, I guess I summed it all up in the first sentence of this question.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write our own material. We have played some covers in the past and we might play some in the future, but for now, we’ll stick to our own material for a killer show!
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We have released 2 promo’s, 2 EP’s (“Conflict”-EP and “Slayer”-EP) and 2 full-lenght’s (“Dystopian Prophecies” and “Death Strike”). Our next release will be a split 7” with Entrapment, which should be released early december through Wolfbane Records.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? We have a lot of videos on Youtube. You can find full liveshows, songs played live and some promo-clips here and there. Most can be found through this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FLDjcXourI&list=PLF7D311C77AD70699
Best/worst gig you've played? We have played a lot of gigs since our beginning in 2002/2003, so there are also a lot of, mostly good memories of gigs and places. I think one of the most memorable shows in the early days was in Enschede (actually 2 shows in Enschede). One was at a bar, which was a madhouse for sure! The other one involved a humanpile in front of the stage. We also have a lot of fond memories of our shows in Germany (Berlin, Wolfsburg, Protzen, Torgau and the list goes on and on!). Another recent cool memory was the show with Vallenfyre! They are great guys!
What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? This year we’ll be playing, next to the Metal Core fest and Grind Here-Right Now, in Heereveen and in Neukirchen. There are also a number of gigs confirmed in 2015.
Where have you played from then till now? We have mostly played in The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, so there are still a lot of countries on our wishlist (contact us!)
Which band is the best you´ve seen? Uhm.... that’s a hard one! I have seen a lot of great bands, but which was the best... I can’t really answer that.
Is it always the same songs live? Nope. Sure, there are gigs in a row that we play the same setlist, but every once in a while we throw out some songs and put in other songs. Mostly new songs by the way. As far as I can remember, the song “O.S.D.M.” is the longest runner in our setlist. This is basically our anthem.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? Depends on where we play. But it mostly involves a few beers.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? I guess it’s safe to say that we draw our inspration from the older bands. These are mostly the bands we grew up with and have infected our brains. We don’t start out with a song saying “okay, now we’re gonna write a song like this or like that band”, it just comes naturally. It’s mostly after we finished a song we can say “hey, that sounds like x (fill in band)”. But, in all honestly that mostly only is about 1 or 2 riffs of one song, haha.
What are your sources of inspiration? My inspiration for lyrics are drawn from many sources. Some are drawn from my twisted mind, others are drawn from books, movies or documentaries. The inspiration for one of our new songs, for example, was the news in one single week. There was a lot of bloodshed, war, tyranny and other kinds of twisted stuff going on and I thought to myself “why?!”. I guess it’s somewhere deeply rooted in our primal instinct. Just think about it....
What's the first step when making a new song? The first step is mostly one or two riffs. After those riffs it’s mostly Fredde that thinks up 666 other riffs and then some. A Massive Assault-song isn’t finished until it’s recorded (and sometimes after the recordings the songs alter a little bit aswell). We always analyse the songs we create and rehearse and write and rewrite them until we are fully satisfied with them.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Hmm.... I think this cuts both ways. We have released our first promo’s as a free download (we could also afford that, since we record our own stuff aswell). I think it’s good promotion for bands. I also think that if someone really likes the music they hear, they are going to buy the album aswell. That being said: I haven’t downloaded any album in years. I usually check the promo-stuff on youtube for new releases. If I like them, I buy them. There’s a lot of great bands out there that are worth your money.
What would be your dreams for the band? Being in a band is living your dreams, right?
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? I listen to a lot of different music. I can go from, for instance, Vanhelgd, Entrails, Entrapment, Entombed, Vallenfyre, Bolt Thrower to Type O Negative, Carnivore, W.A.S.P., AC/DC, Motörhead, Ramones and Chuck Berry in one day. From Depeche Mode, Apoptygma Berzerk, Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy to Terrorizer, Nasum, Napalm Death the other day.
Have you been part of any other projects? Fredde and I are also playing in Sledgehammer Nosejob. Jos is also playing in Dirty East Godverdomme and Gideon used to have a Metallica-tribute band on the side, called Hammer Of Justice.
What would you do if there was no music? “If you take my music away, I will kill you!”... That’s the first thing on my mind when answering this question. It’s a sample from some crust/grind-record I have, but I’m not sure which at the moment. I’m guessing Extreme Noise Terror....
How important are your fans? Fans are always important!
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Uhm, I’ll go with a new one called “Extinction” and.... “Plead Not Guilty” for now...
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? I guess there aren’t that many bands that can make a living on their music nowadays. We certainly can’t. Our drive is the music itself, I guess. The whole creative part is awesome and also seeing the reaction of the crowd to the new (and ofcourse older) stuff.
Do you have any webpages? You can keep yourself updated here: www.facebook.com/massiveassault
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Stay true to yourself and play what you like to play!
Describe your show, visually and musically A Massive Assault-show is an (massive) assault on your ears and eyes! We deliver 666% everytime.
Do you have anything to add? Thanx for this interview and thanx to you, the reader! Stay Massive, buy some merch and come to one of our shows and have a drink with us! For those about to rock, we salute you!