Onslaught
With The Intention Of Making Great Music

13.05.2025

You don’t really surprise anybody with re-recording your old and/or classic material these days, it’s just a matter of whether you’ve invested enough effort into new versions to make them sound better or at least different than the originals, and whether the originals actually needed any re-recording. In case of British thrash metal veterans Onslaught, turning their heads back to the 80s did make sense, not least due to the three records they did during that classic era being so different from each other, and, with the exception of pure thrash metal staple “The Force” (1986), quite controversial. On top of it, Onslaught were not content with just putting together the most outstanding songs from “Power From Hell” (1985), “The Force” and “In Search From Sanity” (1989) and giving them a current line-up makeover; they complemented the resulting ten tracks with a full second CD of cover songs that includes both metal and punk classics. Shortly before the release of “Origins Of Aggression” guitarist and founding member Nige Rockett got in contact to reveal more about this intriguing and ambitious collection and to tell us more about the band’s recent and current activities.

I have to start by asking about your health. How do you feel at the moment? I’ve heard about your cancer and back surgeries, and it must be crazy going through this…

Yeah, it’s been a tough three years. I’m kind of feeling OK now, I’m all clear on everything, it’s just that I need to get a lot of fitness back and a lot of strength back. Especially due to the two spinal surgeries I had, I lost a lot of fitness over these three years. I actually lost use of my arms for a year, I could barely pick up a drink or anything, I couldn’t even touch my guitars through that time, which meant you kind of lose a lot of muscle mass. I’ve had the two operations now, the last one was October last year, and so far everything’s been good. I’m just working on trying to get my strength back so I can back 100 percent on the guitar.

How was it like to see Onslaught play without you for three years?

(chuckles) Kinda strange, to begin with. But the guys did an absolutely amazing job, they were superb. It was better for the band to keep everything in house, rather than hire a stand-in guitarist through that time. Dave (Garnett, vocals) obviously plays guitar very well, so he took over guitar and vocals, and it really worked! I’m so pleased and proud of them for what they did, keeping the band rolling forward in that time. I mean they played some amazing shows, it really did good for us. When I came back, everything was in a great position and great shape, all ready to go again.

Will Dave continue to play guitar? Will you become a three-guitar band, or will he only concentrate on the vocals now since you’re back?

No, he will concentrate on the vocals, I think. He may do the odd thing where… I’m still not 100 percent, I guess I’m around 70-75 percent at the moment. Some of the more complex Onslaught material still needs a little work from me, so Dave may play a few tracks here and there, but I’m cool on the “Power From Hell” stuff and everything. While I’m getting my fitness back, he may do a few tracks here and there, but once I’m fully fit, he will return to just vocals.

I remember about 35 years ago, when I first got into heavy metal and thrash metal, my fellow metalheads and me would look at bands like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath, and say, “Oh, these are old guys now, they’ve been playing for 20 years”. And now we’re celebrating 40 years of Onslaught, and the band keeps on going. What’s your take on the evolution of age limits in the past 35 years? How long do you think you will be able to continue touring and recording?

Age is just a number, you know. When you look at the thrash metal scene in particular, there are so many great bands still active from the 80s – Testament, Sepultura, Exodus, Overkill, the list goes on, and everybody’s still delivering great music, and delivering great shows. Who knows how long all these bands will exist from now? There’s obviously gonna be a cut off moment somewhere, but while the likes of us and the bands I’ve mentioned are still kicking ass, we don’t even think about packing it in. I don’t know, I still feel we have lots to give, I’m still really inspired to make new music, new aggressive music, and keep pushing the boundaries of Onslaught and thrash metal. It’s very difficult to say that. Who knows what’s around the corner?

Let’s now speak about “Origins Of Aggression”. How did the idea to celebrate the band’s anniversary with this kind of release come about?

First off, we had a plan of re-recording “Power From Hell”, the whole of that, as many bands have done with their classic albums from the 80s, kind of to bring it up to date and freshen it up. I spoke to a few friends who were massive Onslaught fans back in the day, “Power From Hell”, they love that album, and some of these people have now gone on to become big people in the music industry. I value their opinions, and they tried talking me out of re-recording the “Power From Hell” album. They said, “It’s a classic, please don’t try to do anything with it, just leave it as it was, leave it in our memories.” It kind of made me think a little bit. We had some discussions in the band and came up this idea that it would be really cool and very interesting for the fans if we did a special record kind of highlighting all the influences of where Onslaught came from, what made Onslaught the band that were when we recorded “Power From Hell”, “The Force” and “In Search Of Sanity”. It’s a very cool story, and every cover track we’ve done on disc 2 is very relevant to what made Onslaught sound the way we did back then. As far as disc 1 with re-recordings of our own tracks off each of these three albums, we still play most of these tracks live, and it was really nice for the guys who did that album to put their own mark on it, make it fresh. There is still a lot of young Onslaught fans, and I think it’s nice for them to hear these tracks in 2025 with a whole new freshness.

What is the origin and the meaning of the album cover artwork? Are these authentic photos from Great Britain of the early 80s?

Yeah yeah, they’re all original pictures from around the time when the band formed, from England, you know. All genuine, and it fits in very well with the “Origins Of Aggression” title. England was a kind of violent place in the early 80s. The photos are real, and they’re very relevant to the album.

The album starts with “Thermonuclear Devastation”, a song you have already re-recorded in 2011, and also a song you recorded a lot in the demo days. What makes it so special?

It was the first track I ever wrote for Onslaught. That makes it kind of special in its own way. For some reason it stood the test of time, and we still play that track at every single show we do. Regardless if it’s a festival or a club show, we will play “Thermonuclear Devastation” every time, because fans love it, and it’s such a great track live. The crowds go insane when we play it. I remember one time in Canada we played in a famous venue called the Karakums, we played “Thermonuclear Devastation” to end the set, and every single person in that venue created one massive circle pit! I’ve never seen anything like it – every single person was involved, it was actually insane. That’s the kind of effect that that track has. It will always remain in our set because it’s the first song, and it’s very important.

“Black Horse Of Famine” is another song from the demo days, but it didn’t make it to any of your albums before. How was it like going back to a track you probably hadn’t played for more than 40 years?

Again, that was song number two I wrote for the band. After we re-recorded a couple of tracks from the initial albums I felt it would only do us good if we should show another track from the first demo. We freshened that up, slightly tweaked it, and it’s got modern energy with the metal sound. I think it sounds great. We all love the version that’s coming out, and the response to that so far from the people that have heard it has been amazing.

Have you considered re-releasing the original demos? I know that there’s a compilation called “Shadow Of Death” (2008), but there are only two demos on it, and you had many more of them…

I think a lot of the demos have been re-released by, maybe, Blackend Records or through Plastic Head. I know they did an album of the demos, and I’m pretty sure all of the demos are re-released on one CD or vinyl maybe. I’ll have to check that to confirm that, but I’m pretty sure everything we’ve ever written is now been released pretty much.

If we look at the three albums Onslaught did in the 80s, they’re all quite different from each other. What influenced the band back in those days? What pushed you forward in terms of changing and progressing musically and style-wise?

I think it was purely a case of just becoming better musicians and songwriters. When we first started the band, we were very new musicians, we barely just learned to play literally before forming the band. And when we recorded those first demos, we were still probably six months in to playing guitars and stuff. We were very basic in everything we did, but determined to improve ourselves as much as possible, and I think it shows as you listen to the demos involved and then “Power From Hell”. Then you’ll see a great difference between “Power From Hell” and “The Force”, where we spent so much time rehearsing and improving our own skills at home, so that we became more proficient technical musicians. I mean, you can still hear how raw this band was on those first two albums, and we were far from perfect, but it still captured a great energy. We were always trying to improve ourselves and better the songs that we were writing.

How do you look back on “In Search Of Sanity”? The story of this album and the label pressure that you experienced when you were working on it is very well known, but if you listen to the album these days, it does not sound as commercial as you would expect if you have just heard the story of its making and haven’t heard the actual record. With 12-minute songs, with a keyboard intro that long, it’s not something you would expect to top the charts right away…

(chuckles) I think in that time in thrash metal in particular a lot of bands were releasing very long songs, and fans seemed to like long tracks. As for the intro, I think the intro on that album is a complete joke. It has nothing to do with the band. I couldn’t believe it when the mixes came through for the album, and this fucking intro was like seven minutes long! I was like, “What the fuck’s this? Where does this come from?” We’d heard maybe 40 seconds, and we thought that’s all that it was gonna be. But seven minutes is like insane! Yeah, that was kind of disappointing for us, and it should have never been that. The album still doesn’t work for me. It’s not a real Onslaught record. I think it’s not very aggressive… it’s just not typically Onslaught. Steve Grimmett is a great singer, but I don’t think he was the right guy for the band. I think the way that the record company wanted the thing to sound with the mixes – it just took all the anger out of the band. As you could hear on disc 1 of the “Origins…” album, we re-recorded “Shellshock” and “In Search Of Sanity”. They sound amazing, so much aggression, really it’s how they should have sounded the first time around.

“In Search Of Sanity” was re-released a while ago with a full live recording from 1989 called “Live At The Hippodrome”. Could you share the story of that recording? Where did you find it? As far as I understand, it had never been released before on any medium…

I think that was the biggest hometown show in Bristol, England, where we come from. It was the biggest hometown show we’ve ever done, and MTV came along and did this MTV special on the band, interviewing the fans and filming the show. I think the audio came from what they did actually. That’s all I can think of. I don’t know how it appeared all of a sudden, I never collect things, so I don’t have all these recordings from back in the day. But I know a couple of the guys did, and I think one of the guys had a copy of some MTV footage where that was lifted from. Yeah, that’s how it came about, but I haven’t heard it for so many years, even though I’d like to.

Let’s now move on to the second half of the album, the covers CD. Just by looking at the tracklist it’s interesting to notice that there are three songs by Discharge. What makes this band so special for you?

I got into punk when I was 12 or 13 years old. But that was the first wave of punk – The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, etc. It was still aggressive music, but when Discharge released their first single, I think that was around 1980, it was another level again. It really blew me away with the aggression and the ferocity of the music, and as soon as I heard that first single they released I was hooked. Moreover, to see the band progress the way they did in a similar sort of way as what Onslaught did between “Power From Hell”, “The Force”, etc. – Discharge kind of did the same thing between each level of their early career. It was so inspirational for me because we used to follow the band around all over the UK watching shows. That’s what really inspired us to start the band in the first place. They were very important and influential to the formation of Onslaught, so I thought it was kind of apt to include the three tracks off different parts of their career, because it was that good and that special to us.

The Killing Joke song (“Wardance”) is a very interesting choice. I actually expected you to make it more metal, but you did not go that route…

Yeah, Killing Joke were kind of the second wave of punk bands, if you like, but they were so unique and dark and heavy. I remember hearing their first album and first single, and that just blew me away. It kind of started leading me into darker, heavier things, that’s why we included that track, just because it broke the earlier influences of heaviness for Onslaught, it was very tribal sounding and very dark, it was completely different to the likes of Discharge and G.B.H., but it was as aggressive in its own special way.

I was kind of expecting you to cover Black Sabbath for “Origins of Aggression”, but “War Pigs” is a song that has been extensively covered by so many other bands. Why did you decided to give it another go?

It’s just one of those iconic tracks. Anybody who doesn’t really know rock music or metal music will know “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. It was probably one of the first tracks by heavy metal bands that I’d heard. And again, the darkness of it was just incredible. It’s a very simple song, but once you’d heard it, you had to keep playing it over and over, because it was so good. For me, the lyrics is a key part to that song. I just love the lyrics – so relevant, so dark… It’s just an absolutely amazing track. It was something that we used to jam at rehearsals when we were still kind of novice musicians, because it was easy to play, but it’s got that something special about it.

You are the only original member in the Onslaught line-up these days, and the other guys are younger than you. How much of a say did they have in putting this list of covers together? Does it reflect their own origins?

No, probably not. This whole concept behind the “Origins…” album was to display and tell the story of where Onslaught began, and how it reached the point of making “Power From Hell” and “The Force”, and obviously these guys weren’t in the band at that time. It wasn’t necessarily their influence, because those cover tracks are purely based on Onslaught 1982-1989. But it doesn’t mean to say that they don’t love the tracks. Obviously everybody’s aware of the tracks, and to put their own stamp on that for them was amazing, because they are Onslaught members, and that’s where the band came from. It’s for them to buy into that as well and deliver some amazing work.

This record does a great job of showing what versatile singer Dave Garnett is. I haven’t heard any of this recordings before he joined Onslaught, so I would like to ask you how his addition to the band influenced his singing abilities and style?

(pause) Yeah, he’s got very many different styles. When we were looking for a new vocalist, Dave was suggested, and I checked some stuff and I really didn’t think he was gonna be the right guy for us. But our drummer James (Perry) said, “Give him a chance, because I know he could do amazing work.” Dave was a massive Onslaught fan before anyway, so it was very special for him to be given a chance to come in and even audition for the band. But when he came, he came with an extremely different voice from what I’d heard in his previous band. It was right up there with Sy Keeler (former singer – ed.), he can hit all the high notes, he can hit all the low notes, and he’s got even more aggression than Sy had. Absolutely amazing what he brought with him! At the same time, we did give him some guidance, because within six weeks of joining Onslaught he was in the studio recording the vocals for “Generation Antichrist” (2020). We had a top producer with us to work with Dave, a guy called Pete Hinton, he worked on maybe three or four first Saxon albums (actually the first two – ed.), he produced those. Pete’s very experienced, he was a record company executive as well, a super experienced and super lovely guy, very easy to work with, which was kind of great for Dave, because Dave was really kind of nervous when we started off. But a couple of days into the sessions Pete got him really relaxed, and really got some incredible performances from him on that album. Pete kind of showed him how to do different things and made suggestions, and I think he got another 25 percent out of Dave’s vocal delivery.

By the way, what do you think about Sy Keeler and Steve Grice (former drummer – ed.) doing a “Power From Hell” set at the Keep It True festival in Germany this coming October?

Hmm, I don’t think about it. (chuckles) That’s for them to do. They need to move on, I think, and do their own thing, but that’s just my opinion.

Onslaught seems to me the only British thrash metal band that had as much success or probably even more success after the reunion than in the 80s. Why did you make it, and why didn’t other returning bands, such as Xentrix or Acid Reign, succeed so much?

I don’t know, this is difficult. I know when we came back it was 100 percent for real, it was not just a comeback to do a few shows and have some fun, we came back with the intention of making some great music. Especially for me, because of what happened with the “In Search Of Sanity” album, I felt like Onslaught had a point to prove with new music, and that was “Killing Peace” (2007). That kind of laid a few ghosts to rest for me because we’d come back with a very aggressive album back to where we belonged, I think. We came back with a very focused intention of having a long career, whereas I guess some of the other bands just came back, first thing, for some fun, maybe to play some shows and see where it took them. We were totally dedicated when we came back to expand the band’s horizons and our fanbase.

What are your current tastes in music? Do you listen to a lot of new stuff, or do you prefer all-time classics like the ones you’re covering on “Origins Of Aggression”?

I don’t listen to a great deal of music, but when I do it’s primarily oldschool metal stuff and punk. I’m still going to a lot of punk shows in Bristol. I mainly stick to the old school, which I think was the best era of music, it’s still my favorite. I think a lot of new music coming out is very reflective of that era anyway, but I kind of stick to the original one the best.

Now the big question: when can we expect to hear new songs from Onslaught?

We’ve made some starts with the album title. I’ve got all the track titles, tons of riffs, we haven’t pieced together any full songs yet, because obviously I’ve been concentrating on the “Origins…” album and videos and everything that surrounds that release, and I haven’t had too much time to focus on completing new material. But there’s so much in the pipeline, it’s just the case of starting to piece things together. Once “Origins…” is out at the end of May, I’ll kind of be able to focus a little bit more on new material now that chapter would have been released so that we can concentrate on the next step.

Onslaught on the Internet: https://www.powerfromhell.com/

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Roman Patrashov
April 17, 2025
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