Assault is a Singaporean Melodic Death Metal band that have just released their second album, “In Aevum Et Illustrata”, and today we have an interview with them about this full-length. How are you doing?
Mitch: Good! Glad that the album's out, we've had some hiccups and delays along the way (mostly due to the pandemic), but better late than never!
Great to hear. What inspired the band’s name?
Clarence: This is a tough question, actually the idea of the band name came from our ex-drummer (Farid). I didn’t exactly had an idea of a band name during the band early formation hence i follow suit with his idea haha!
Which are the main influences of the band?
Noh: Mors Principium Est, Arch Enemy, As I Lay Dying are my inspiration to the songs in this album.
Mitch: I think as a whole the band draws heavily from classic Swedish Melo-Death, so think At The Gates and early In Flames, as well as Arch Enemy and Mors Principium Est. Personally I'm more of a Death Metal guy, but I do draw influence from a wide array of music, within and outside of metal, so I think it's a little harder for me to pin down my personal influences. FWIW I've been listening to lots of
Ulcerate, Gigan and later-period Gorguts recently, as well as Dyscarnate and Cytotoxin for some fun, headbanging Death Metal haha.
What made the band play this particular style?
Clarence : I was exposed to Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal Bands such as In Flames, Dark Tranquility, At the Gates in early 2006, afterwhich i was really fascinated by the mixture of heaviness and melody in their music. So i thought it will be cool for the band to play this particular style of music! At the point of time, Singapore only has a handful of bands playing this style of music!
Do you have any live concerts planned?
Clarence : Definitely! We’re still in the midst Covid-19 pandemic and we hope to have the situation to improve in Singapore within the next few months. We hope to have some live concerts locally in 2021 and resume regional touring in 2022 to support the release of the new album.
In which country or city would you love to play live and why?
Noh: Wacken!!
Clarence: Taiwan and Japan! Both countries are known to have an awesome live music scene! We would also like to play in Sweden if given a chance! Because that’s the birthplace of the Melodic Death Metal!
How do you think you have evolved musically since the first album?
Noh: Our sound evolved from the EP, a heavily influenced Gothernburg Melodeath sound, to our 1st album (Fallen Reich) being alot thrashier, and now, our latest release being a mixture of both our EP and 1st album. We still keep the essence of Melodeath with a touch of Modern Metal and Thrash elements.
How was the writing process like for this album?
Noh: It started in 2017 when we discussed writing new material for the next album. During that period, I was still the drummer of Assault. Coincidentally, our then Rhythm Guitarist Yuda was about to leave the band. I was in the phase of picking up the guitar again after a long while. Somehow, one song came after another and i ended up with 13 songs. Lol. Eventually after much discussion it was down to whatever that's left in the album. My aim was to fuse the sound of our EP with our first album. Thrashy, melodic, modern and headbanging riffs was my aim.
Mitch: Noh wrote the songs this round, and basically gave us a skeleton to work with. From there each of us would add our own intepretation
for our respective instruments, essentially giving the songs a little more colour and personality, so to speak. I guess you could say
that that's how we get the ASSAULT sound haha
What are your lyrics mostly based on and what inspired the full-length’s title?
Clarence: Lyrically this album represent a shift concept wise. Our last two releases focuses on major events that have taken place during the 2 major World War. The concept of this album was inspired by the Bavarian Illuminati and it’s founder Adam Weishaput. I have actually did some extenstive research online before penning down my interpretation of these events. However, i will encourage listeners to form their own interpretations too after listening to these songs.
The album title which translate to “In the Age of the Enlightened” was
What does the album cover represent?
Clarence: The album covers actually features some of the important details in the Bavarian Illuminati and it’s sorts of giving listener an overview representation of the album concepts before they actually listen to these songs. We have the Godness of Minerva in the middle of the album as it’s sort of the symbolic logo to the Bavarian Illuminati. Alongside is the four aliases used by the members of the Bavarian Illuminati during the early formation namely : Agathon, Tiberus , Ajax and Erasmus.
How do you reckon the feedback for your new release has been until now?
Mitch: It's still early days at the moment (at the time of writing, we've just released the album today!), but so far the bits of feedback we've got has been pretty positive! We're also glad you liked it haha. Hopefully this keeps going, but we'll see how it's like when there's more reviews/feedback.
Are there any future plans besides this new album at the moment?
Clarence: We’re currently in the midst of planning a livestream show to celebrate the release of the new album and also our 15th years anniversary! and last of course, we hope to resume touring as soon as possible!
Thanks for the interview, is there anything else you would like to add?
Clarence: Thanks a lot for the opportunity for this interview! We hope listeners are there would enjoy our new album and we hope to continue to deliver quality and heavy music to all listeners out there!
VARG THE MIGHTY
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