Mind Assault

Mind Assault
Origin	Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa
Genres	Melodic death metal
Years active	2004 - Present
Labels	Independent
Members	Jacques Fourie Francois Pretorius Patrick Davidson Donovan Tose Andries Smit
Past members	Stephan Lenhoff

Mind Assault is a heavy metal band which began formation in 2003 but first emerged in public by that name in October 2004, based in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa. They were the first band of extreme genre to bring an equal use of their native language of afrikaans into their music, having a roughly 50/50 balance of Afrikaans and English songs in their repertoire. This language usage was owing to a re-emerging consciousness (see Voëlvry) during that time amongst young people in alternative sub-cultures, also reflected by bands at that time such Fokofpolisiekar and Kobus!, of taking stronger observation of one's own cultural heritage.

Mind Assault has become known across South Africa as representing something of an activist on stage and in writing. Lyrical content varies from issues of state and political interest through to matters of personal frustration and social problems.

The band has been represented by a stable line-up, still consisting of all four founding members today. Whilst Mind Assault originally had trouble finding a suitable drummer in their home town, Stephen Lenhoff (a high school friend and multi-instrumentalist) joined the band on drums for a period of almost three years until Andries Smit took up drumming duties on 1 January 2007. Andries quickly become a vital contributor to the band not only by drumming, but also as composer, bringing an end to the search for a fifth permanent member.

History

In October 2004, Mind Assault made their first public appearance. The founding members of the band were: Jacques Fourie; Franscois Pretorius; Patrick Davidson; and Donovan Tose. Because the Band couldn't find a drummer, a friend of the band, Stephan Lenhoff, took the position, until Andries Smit replaced him as a permanent member from 1 January 2007.

Mind Assault attempted their first recording and released it as a demo EP in 2005, titled Social Engineering. During this time they playing a number of Underground Music concerts/festivals, and initiated a fresh concept of organizing large “party buses” to select performances, which in itself became an event that attracted a lot of additional fans.

By early 2006, Mind Assault had also played their first cross-genre music festival to very receptive audiences, and completed their first national tour (DESTRUCTOUR'06) in partnership with one of South Africa's most legendary metal acts, SacriFist (begun in 1993). The success of the tour had ensured the bands progress on a national level. Throughout that year, the band continued shows in their home province, and beyond, gathering material for the planned home DVD release which was to follow.

2007 saw the release of Mind Assault's home DVD, F*k Voort En Suip Baie (the first of its kind in South Africa). They concluded the year with headlining slots at festivals such as “METAL4AFRICA”, “EMPYREAN FEST”, and “WHIPLASH”.

2008 proved to be even more exciting for Mind Assault, but has also been the most challenging so far. In February, Mind Assault released their debut full length album Stigma at “METAL4AFRICA Summerfest”, smashing attendance records in the region for an all-African, all-metal event. 2008 included a headlining slot at “RAMFEST”, which is by far the home provinces largest annual cross-genre music festival. Also, they toured beyond the South African border into neighboring Namibia. By half way through 2008, Mind Assault had already been booked to play alongside international visitors: Devil Driver (USA), Carcass (UK), and Nile (USA) for later that year, as well as to headline yet another “METAL4AFRICA” and “WHIPLASH”. Incidentally, Mind Assault are the only band ever to have been invited to play “WHIPLASH” five years in a row!. The band also initiated another round of the country with old friends, SacriFist for DESTRUCTOUR '08., but settled down towards the end of that year in light of economic down-turn, and owing to a vehicle and equipment theft from which they would take some time to recover. Consequently, neither Nile nor Devil Driver reached African shores, as had been scheduled.

In 2009, and after the loss of the drum kit, Mind Assault maintained a slowed pace under the public eye, but continued work on new material and worked on delivering some of the most entertaining performances seen in African metal until that point, repeating appearances at some festivals such as "RAMFEST" and "METAL4AFRICA".

In addition to the usual gig circuit, 2010 saw Mind Assault's first appearance at one South Africa's oldest and most well-known festivals, Oppikoppi, and took the remainder of the year to track their next self-released EP called Metal Rites.

Metal Rites was released at the end of January in 2011, with the band immediately embarking on another round of shows across the country, including a first-time appearance in the city of Bloemfontein that year.

By the close of 2012, the band had begun a major shift of focus from the live scene towards becoming a more studio-orientated band. This shift was primarily prompted by the return of lead guitarist Franscois Pretorius, who was also a founding member, to his country of birth Namibia. Despite the move, members of Mind Assault elected to not change the members of the band, but to continue writing and recording with the original permanent line-up.

Mind Assault reached another milestone in 2013 when they traveled to their first Gauteng province RAMfest to join South Africa's Pestroy in opening for UK's Bring Me The Horizon and USA's Rise Against.

The year of 2014 started off with a bang as Mind Assault released four self-produced tracks and a music video in anticipation of their support tour with USA's Lamb of God in South Africa.

Musical style and direction

The band's music combines brutality with melody to create a powerful mixture. Guttural vocals in a mix of English and Afrikaans (one of the native languages in South Africa). They were the first band to use Afrikaans on a regular basis in extreme metal.

"This band has a very brutal side that reminds me a bit of old Sepultura crossed with Divine Heresy as well as a speedy technical side that brings Dragonforce to mind"

"...powerful guttural vocals, strong riffs and aggressive drumming..."

The band's lyrics focuses on social issues and frustration, but also upliftment in the metal scene.

Tours and Live Performance Highlights

• 2006 - Destructour'06 - Destructour was the title given to a collaboration project between Cape Town-based Mind Assault, and Johannesburg-based SacriFist. Each band took it upon themselves to prepare a number of dates for the tour in and around their local region, thus gaining powerful exposure for each other when both bands appeared as co-headliners at all dates and in all of the cities of the tour, in addition to more localized support acts. The territory covered included the Western Cape, Gauteng and Mpumalanga regions of South Africa.
• 2007 - A Showcase of African Metal - Mind Assault co-headlined the first concert of a continuing series hosted by metal4africa.com
• 2008 - Destructour'08 - This was a repeat of original Destructour concept.
• 2008 - Windhoek Metal Festival'08 - Was Mind Assault's first performance outside of South Africa, as they traveled to neighboring Namibia.
• 2008 - Withfest - Mind Assault was included as local support for Carcass (band) who headlined the same night of the festival.
• 2010 - Destructour'10 - This was another repeat of the original concept, this time including both bands finishing up the tour by co-headlining the metal stage at RAMfest Cape Town.
• 2013 - RAMfest Johannesburg - Mind Assault was included as local support for Bring Me the Horizon who headlined the same night of the festival.
• 2014 - Resolution Tour - Mind Assault was included as local support for both dates on South Africa's leg of the Lamb of God international tour cycle. The dates were 24 January 2014 at Cape Town City Hall and 25 January at the Johannesburg Expo Center (Nazrec). Mind Assault's appearances alongside the USA greats was met with very positive review

Band members

Current members

1. Jacques Fourie - vocals (2004–present)
2. Francois Pretorius - lead guitar (2004–present)
3. Patrick Davidson - rhythm guitar (2004–present)
4. Donovan Tose - bass guitar (2004–present)
5. Andries Smit - drums (2007–present)

Previous members

1. Stephan Lenhoff - drums (2004–2007)

Timeline

Live sessions done with Mind Assault

1. Karen Pretorius - Keyboards (2008-2009)
2. Tim Brown - Vocals (2010)
3. Neil Bezuidenhout - Guitar (2012)
4. Theunis Cilliers - Bass (2013)
5. Ryan Eberlin - Guitar (2013)

Discography

Albums

1. Stigma (2008) Lords of Metal Review

Ep's

1. Social Engineering (2005)
2. Metal Rites (2011)

Single track releases

1. Tiete (2013)
2. Mag Verkrag (2014)
3. Annihilation Of Man (2014)
4. True Force (2014)
5. New World Disorder (2014)

Compilations

1. Fear the Noise (2006)
2. Innocent Blood (2006)
3. Hammer The Masses (2007)
4. Kopskoot (2009) [1]

DVD's

1. F*k Voort en Suip Baie DVD (2007) Review

External links

• Official website
• Mind Assault MySpace
• Mind Assault Facebook
• The District Mail - 28 August 2009 02:10 PM - (SA)
• Litnet article on Afrikaans metal