It isn’t too long ago that The Baboon posted some awesome live material of Dutch old-school Death Metallers Massive Assault, shot by Erhan. Awesome to watch and to listen to (so do so if you haven’t already)! Fredde, the band’s guitarist, was all too happy to have a chat with us. Read on and discover these guys’ history, motivation and techniques.

By Niek

Q: You call yourselves Massive Assault, which immediately reminds me of British crap music makers Massive Attack. Did you take any inspiration from their name and made it more aggressive sounding, or is it just my wacko head that makes that link?

A: Firstly, thanks for inviting me for this interview, Baboon. Very cool! You are not the first who links our name to Massive Attack. Others also link it to Nuclear Assault. Mix those two and there you have it. However, this was not the case. Carl and I came up with the name and it sounded cool. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a band name which seems to be a perfect projection of our music.

Q: You guys currently employ two vocalists. How did this happen and how do they divide the tasks of singing?

A: It works out really great! We already had Jozze as vocalist in Massive, but vocalist Carl Christ is the man who stepped onboard recently. Carl was our first vocalist who left the band years ago. He did some shows as guest vocalist shortly before he decided to (re-)join the ranks of Massive Assault. Now he’s back in Massive and will kick some serious ass with us!

Having two vocalists gives this band the right boost and energy which brings Massive Assault to the next level. Both have their own vocal characters and techniques, which fits the band perfectly. Jozze has a more hardcore-like vocal approach and Carl Christ the more classic vocal grunts and screams. Both singers are as energetic as rabid dogs which makes Massive Assault an interesting band to look at.

Q: In some songs your guitar packs a very low-pitched punch. Other songs, such as Man-Kind!?, seem slightly higher up on the ladder. How do you do this and what kind of tuning do you use? A “drop” tuning with a lot of single bar chords and then some power chords on the 3rd to 5th string, or is there another trick to it?

A: I use a lot of 5 stringed power chords, from the 2nd to the 6th string. It’s like playing a power chord and a high octave chord at the same time. This technique gives me a thick guitar sound. I do this on all songs that are lower tuned, and you are right, we also tune in drop A. Besides drop A tunings we also have songs that are tuned in B E A D F# B.

Q: How do you produce that diesel truck grinding guitar sound? And why diesel trucks and not freight trains for example?

A: Our first demo was reviewed by a person called Piotr. He came up with this ‘slogan’, by calling the guitar sound a ‘diesel truck guitar sound’. We thought it was cool to use this in the bands biography, which we did and still use it for Massive Assault up to this day.

It’s easy for me to produce this sound. I can do this with a boss HM-2 pedal or DS-1 pedal in front of a guitar tube amp. My settings and pedal gear are changing almost every week. If I only had a Marshall Valvestate and an equalizer, it would still be no problem for me to get close to that sound. The biggest part of that sound must come from my fingers. I guess.

Q: You play old-school Death Metal. What is it that attracts you to this particular subgenre? And why do you want to keep it alive as you state on your MySpace?

A: Before I played guitar, I played on my mothers keyboard from time to time. I was six back then and really liked to create dark melodies. Nothing spectacular, just a kid with tunes in his head.

Later when I was ten, I recorded myself a lot with keyboard and was more and more busy with composing ideas. I didn’t care for technique, but being busy with music made me creative. Most songs I created back then where dark and melancholic. Later, when I grew up, I recognized those dark melodies in Death Metal. This was in the beginning of the 90′s.

At that time I also listened to a radio program called Vara’s Vuurwerk. This was a Dutch program which broadcasted all kinds of metal. When I listen to one of those broadcastings I got very excited by one particular band. I didn’t know the band’s name at first, but I did tape the song from that broadcasting. Later on a friend recognized it and told me that this band was Entombed. I was blown away, especially by that extreme guitar sound and their varying song structures.

I found out that Sweden had a lot more of those bands. Since then I was hooked to this genre, mainly by the Swedish and British type of Death Metal. Death Metal bands hailing from those countries used a lot of variety in their songs. They were very melodic, loose and dark. I cared less for the American Death Metal bands back then.

Many trends come and go, which was also the case with Death Metal at that time. Black metal was knocking on the door and Death Metal was declared dead at that time. Many people are sensitive to mass behavior and jump to the next trend, but I never gave up on the music I cared for. At that time I bought myself a guitar and taught myself to play it. I got most enthusiastic when I played Death Metal. I played a lot of songs from bands I liked.

Yeah, brothers and sisters, play the music you like. It is a fun thing to do! Death Metal still sticks to me like glue. Heavily influenced by the old style and crust punk I gave birth to this band called Massive Assault. A no-nonsense old school style Death Metal machine with the sound of the early 90′s. What more can I say? I create the music I like, which is a part of my life.

Q: I know from experience that the Netherlands isn’t the most metal-loving nation in the world. In fact, it has absolutely no place outside the underground at all and so there’s no money to be made from it. What do you guys do in daily life to keep the bills paid?

A: When talking about love for national bands I have to admit that I haven’t got many albums from Dutch metal bands in my music collection either. I’m more into Scandinavian stuff. Surprising, isn’t it? Still, I really like Asphyx, Hail Of Bullets and Peter Pan Speedrock. Also Dutch young Death Metallers Sepiroth caught my attention. I recently discovered a band called Bodyfarm, which I think is a good newcomer from the Netherlands as well.

We do get a little money by selling merchandise and records. We then use this for new merchandise. About paying our bills, we do this by selling our well-shaped muscular bodies. We are popular with rich 70+ women and perverted old men!

Q: How are you doing gig-wise? Do you play many gigs in the Netherlands and abroad?

A: We did many shows in the past and we are in negotiation with bookers for a possible tour through Europe. In the meantime we play gigs here and there. So, for those readers who want to help us with gigs in their country/city, you can contact us through our MySpace.

Interested in helping these guys a hand in spreading their word? Buy their merch, buy their albums! Visit their MySpace and drop them a line! Over and out!

Niek
©Deathmetalbaboon.com, 2010
Helping people get deaf since 2009

Tags: death, Dutch, Interview

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.