ASSASSIN have been quiet from couple of years, and when they decided to come back to the daylight it appeared that many things have changed. Robert Gonella and Michael Hoffman parted their ways with the band- which was pretty shocking. Band welcomed new singer in their line-up. The new, really nice album have been released. I decided, that it would be great to ask couple of questions, so every Assassin fan would know what is going on with this band now. Luckily, Joachim Kremer decided to explain us couple of things.

1. Hi ! It's nice to have you again on the pages of Oldschool Metal Maniac! Let me start this interview from questions about line-up. Two years ago Robert Gonella quit the band. What happened?

We came back from the South American „Doomsday Prevention Tour“ in 2012 and prepared and released the „Chaos and Live Shots“-DVD. After that we took care of the pre-productions for a new album. We changed our workwise by splitting the band in different parts. Our drummer Burn took care of the drum arrangements and drum recordings, for example. Scholli, Michael and me took care of writing new songs. It was Robert's part of writing the lyrics for the new upcoming material. He didn't get into this way of working. He prefered working the old way by meeting all together in the rehearsal room and develope and practice the new songs. After a while of working the new way he decided to leave the band. One of several reasons why it took that long untill a new Assassin album was released!

2. Ingo is a really good singer! Was it difficult for you to change vocalist after all this years? How did you find him?

Thank you very much! I will telll him. :) But seriously, it's of course always difficult to change the front man, even more if he is one of the founders of the band. Actually our drummer Burn was the first one who met Ingo. He was on tour as a substitute drummer for „Vibravoid“ another band from Dusseldorf. When they were playing a festival where Ingo's band „Lord of Giarnto“ was one of the supporting bands, the leader of „Vibravoid“ was telling Burn:“If Robert will ever leave Assassin, this guy is a perfect singer for you guys!“ So it was easy to remember Ingo when times were right and changing!

3.Also recently Michael Hoffman left the band? What was the reason of it? Are you already searching for replacement?

He left the band already before the release of „Combat Cathedral“, to be honest. We had a lot of problems with Michael already during the recordings of the new album. He didn't like most of the lyrics Ingo wrote. He neither was satisfied with the guitar sound in the studio nor the decision of choosing for Marcelo Vasco making the cover artwork for us. So you see it was really difficult to make this man happy! After Michael left the band we imediatly started to search for a new guitarist that has the musical personality and skills to be the right one to replace the position of somebody such import_ant as Michael. And guess what? We found him! But unfortunately it's too early to tell you that secret. We are in contact with SPV, our record company and all of us took the decision to officialise these news next month (so August).

4. I need to say, that I'm impressed by "Combat Cathedral", it's a really nice stuff. One of the best riffs that I've heard for months. Tell me more about how this wonderful album was born.

Last year we planned the way how to do the new album. We decided for another producer than Harris Johns, because we wanted to sound the upcoming album more modern. We were searching for a good one and found Marc Gortz, guitarist, producer and master mind of Caliban, the German Metal Core band. So we finished the pre-production last year the way I told you already and in October 2015 we went to Nemesis Studios of Marc to do the recordings.

5. Between 2002 and 2004 Atomic Steif was a part of the band. How did you get into the cooperation with this legendary drummer. Did he put some influence on Assassin that time?

After our reunion-drummer Jason Kubke left the band 2002 we were searching for a substitute. We knew Atomic Steiff from several gigs Assassin were doing with Violent Force, the band he was playing with. Last not least he was living in our area so we decided to ask him being the drummer of Assassin. He was able to play the old songs and in plus could be part of the new material, as well. He fitted in a personal way, but he never influenced the new songs neither the whole band. That was finally the reason why we decided to make him leave the band in 2004, because we were missing something.

6.Couple of years ago you've been in Poland along with Hirax. What are you memories from that gigs?

We had three gigs this tour, one in Warsaw, one in Katowitz and one in Bydgoszcz. It was an awesome, tour and we understood very good with the guys from Hirax. The Polish audience was very intense and freaky. I liked it a lot. Last not least Assassin is still in contact with the tour manager Vlad Nowajczyk and Katon De Pena, the singer from Hirax. Vlad is helping us with the promotion of the band and we have to thank him for his support!

7. Your first two albums have been re-released as a "Chronicles of Resistance". Didn't you think, that releasing demos would be a great idea as well?

To be honest we never thought about that seriously. The first demos were released on tape, as far as I remember. If you want to make a re-release you have to mix and master them again to put them into the right quality. I'm not sure if SPV are ready, willing and able to afford that mysterious missin! But you never know if you never try! :)

8. A lot of new thrash metal bands appeared on the scene last time, and big part of them admires, that Assassin had been an inspiration for them. Which younger thrash acts do you enjoy? What is your opinion about scene's rebirth?

I'm happy to hear Assassin is an inspiration. I appreciate! A couple of month ago I listened to an Australian Thrash band named 4Arm and I liked it a lot. A nice old school song writing and killer riffing. There are other German Thrash Metal bands like Torment of Souls that are more underground but very passoinate. They are keeping the scene alive! Actually I never got the impression that the Thrash Metal scene was dead or something like. You always have your ups and downs, but that's part of life. Of course I'm happy that the Thrash Metal is still live and kicking. It gives us reason to release and play our music!

9. What are your plans for the future? I know, that Michael left the band, but maybe you already got a prepared "how-to-strike" plan?

Indeed we got a „how to strike“ plan but unfortunately I'm not allowed to talk about the details yet, as I told you. But from September on we're on tour again starting a show in the Little Devil in Tilburg/Netherlands. After that there are a couple of shows in Germany like the Night of Disaster Festival in Heilbronn that we are headlining. For more details please visit our homepage www.assassin-online.de

10. Thanks for the interview, last word goes to you. Is there anything, that you want to say to our readers?

Thank you very much for the interview and thanks a lot to the Polish fans of Assassin being that true for all the years. Hope to see you guys back on some tour in Poland. Keep on rocking!

Wojciech Michalak