Onslaught recently unleashed their latest release, “Origins of Aggression”, and Myth of Rock had the pleasure of catching up with the legendary band for an in-depth interview. We spoke with guitarist and co-founding member Nige Rockett, diving into the band’s thrash metal world. Below, you’ll find all the questions and answers from our conversation; Onslaught are again making history in the genre, and we’re lucky enough to witness it firsthand!
by Alex Nikolaidis
What was the real reason for revisiting and re-recording classic tracks for “Origins of Aggression”? Was it to honor the band’s legacy, or was it more about correcting production flaws from that era?
The whole concept of ‘Origins of Aggression’ was to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the ‘Power from Hell’ release and of course honour that legacy. We didn’t want to re-record the full album as it could seem kind of boring, so we came up with the idea of telling the story of Onslaught from the very beginning up to the making of PFH and onto the following releases, we felt it would be far more interesting for the fans. I think it also very cool to hear all the tracks from 82-89 with the same production and line up giving the tracks a nice continuity…
The production on “Origins of Aggression” is notably modern yet retains the raw energy of your early work. What was your vision for the album’s sonic landscape, and do you think it was ultimately fulfilled?
Thanks… As i just mentioned we wanted the fans to listen to these songs with the same sonic landscape on each track and bring it all together on one album. We still play a majority of these songs in our live set so they’re very much a part of our DNA in 2025 and everything feels real comfortable with a lot of natural
energy. We did a lot of the work at ‘Tellus Studios’ in Rio De Janeiro – Brazil because we wanted to capture some of that cool Brazilian vibe, a majority of the tracks were mixed in analogue which I think helps give the album the desired overall sound. Oh yes, totally happy with how this album sounds!
How did you choose the punk and heavy metal covers featured on the album? What is Onslaught’s connection to these tracks?
Both album choices were kinda easy to be honest, we wanted to make what we saw as a “Best of Album 82-89” and all the cover tracks played a very big part in our conception as a band and were super important as influences in our early days and beyond. Each cover track has its very own backstory to its inclusion on the record, just to give an example, the Sex Pistols album ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ was the first record i ever bought, i got it first day of release and ran home to listen. ‘Holidays in the Sun’ was the opening track of that album and it completely changed my life forever, in the best way possible… All the covers have special stories behind them just like this one so i made a bunch of sleeve notes that explains each one.
Re-recording old tracks can be a double-edged sword. How did you balance preserving the spirit of the originals with introducing something fresh?
Definitely, that’s why we didn’t re-record the whole PFH album. We play these tracks year in year out so they never lose any energy, in fact they become stronger because we fine tune the parts in every song, we never stray too far from the original, especially with the covers.
Your current lineup involves some younger, talented musicians. How did this lineup influence the sound of the re-recorded material?
Talented is the important word, that’s exactly the reason they are in Onslaught… Of course, being great musicians that is going to shape the way the tracks feel overall, everyone performs with great precision but also with great aggression…
Why did you decide to include two songs from “In Search of Sanity” in the track list? Considering that album wasn’t highly appreciated by fans upon release, was this an opportunity to align those tracks with Onslaught’s current standards?
It’s extremely important to us to give the ‘In Search of Sanity’ tracks the anger and the energy they truly deserve, the album was massive for the band but it wasn’t a true Onslaught record and it was very divisive among the fans…
So yes 100% it was definitely a great opportunity to align these cool songs with the rest of our early material… I personally love how they sound right now…!
Does this album reflect your journey as a band over the last 40 years?
No, not really, But I do think it’s a great reflection and a fantastic celebration of those early days for sure having reached the amazing landmark of 40 years since PFH was released and actually 43 years since Onslaught was formed. It’s just one small but very important section of our career, a 9 year period. Since
the reformation, Onslaught has now been back for 20 years and we have gone on too much bigger things in this time.
Onslaught began as part of the British hardcore scene. How has that background influenced your sound and career up to today?
It still influences us today of course, it’s where we originally came from. On the most recent studio album ‘Generation Antichrist’ I used some old riffs I had from back in 1983 and they fit in so perfectly… There’s always been a punk element somewhere in our music its part of our sound and identity…
When you started the band in the underground scene, did you ever imagine Onslaught would still be active after 40 years?
In a word – NO, hahahaha … Not in a million years did I think Onslaught would still be here and relevant in 2025, its crazy to even think about that…! 43 fucking years. No way… I’m not going to complain though…!
What has been the most challenging period for the band, and how did you overcome it?
I think the period around the release of the ‘In Search of Sanity’ album was the most difficult period of our career, the band stopped being fun and became very corporate having signed to a major label, a lot of things happened that weren’t cool and everything went to shit basically. We overcame it in the only way possible, we split up hahaha …
Looking back, are there any decisions or directions you wish you had approached differently?
Yeah, as i just mentioned, the whole ISOS thing was a massive clusterfuck from start to finish…
We signed to the wrong label to start with, we went with Polygram when we had a choice of three other labels to sign with also. Polygram gave us a great story and a big pot of cash and we fell for it, they had
no real interest in the music, it was all a huge ego trip for what was a trendy label at the time. They made terrible decisions regarding the album and wanted us to become the UK’s Metallica overnight which of course would never happen… Looking back we should have basically chosen a better label with less money but more heart.
As veterans of the metal scene, what advice would you give to younger bands navigating the music industry today?
Really get your shit together 100% before you let anyone hear your demos and go out to play live… keep fine tuning everything until you think it’s beyond perfect. There’s a saying that goes “You only get one chance to make a first impression” and that is so true. Get a cool logo and some great artwork to start with… There are so many bands out there right now as competition, you have to be the best. I know it’s hard to hold back playing those first shows or releasing the first demo but trust me be patient.
In the next decade, iconic bands that shaped our music (Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Judas Priest, to name a few) may stop performing. What do you think will happen to heavy metal and thrash? What will be the next day?
I’m really not sure to be honest… I don’t see any real potential festival headliners coming through and that’s a slight concern. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the scene changes in the years to come, I guess the headliners will become less important overall and opportunities will open up for the next level bands. The fanbase for metal will still be strong so I hope the future will still be great.
You signed a new contract with Reigning Phoenix Music. What can fans expect from Onslaught as part of this collaboration?
Pretty much more of the same from the band, heavy dark aggressive thrash metal, but now with a bigger and better machine to back us up around the world… RPM have been awesome so far and we expect the partnership to get stronger and stronger as we move forwards, we’re really looking forward to making some new music…!
