ONSLAUGHT's NIGE ROCKETT Explains SY KEELER's Departure

U.K. thrashers ONSLAUGHT will release their new album, "Generation Antichrist", on August 7 via AFM Records. The long-awaited follow-up to 2013's "VI" was mixed by Daniel Bergstrand (BEHEMOTH, IN FLAMES, MESHUGGAH) at Dugout Studios in Uppsala, Sweden.

"Generation Antichrist" is the first ONSLAUGHT album to feature new vocalist Dave Garnett, who recently replaced longtime singer Sy Keeler.

ONSLAUGHT guitarist Nige Rockett spoke to "The Metal Command" podcast about the band's latest lineup change. He said (hear audio below): "Sy's kind of struggled with tours for the last couple of years. And he's got a new job which he's [dived] head first into and he's really enjoying the kind of work he's doing. He was unable to take lots of time off, and, as I said, he wasn't really enjoying the whole touring thing like the rest of us. So we kind of made a mutual decision that he was gonna go — as sad as it is, obviously, for us, [because] he's been with us a long time, and he's a fucking great vocalist. At first, it was a kind of worry, what was gonna happen, but then we found Dave Garnett."

He continued: "I've known Dave for many years, and his vocal style in previous bands was really kind of very 'un-ONSLAUGHT,' if you like. But he said, 'I'd really love to have a crack at it. I think I can do it.' So Sy was unable to make a show back in February, I think — kind of a late-notice cancelation — so we really didn't wanna pull the show, so we asked Dave to stand in and see what he can do. And he was amazing — absolutely incredible. He nailed everything. Some of the guys in the crowd, die-hard ONSLAUGHT fans, were saying they didn't even realize it wasn't Sy when they closed their eyes — it still sounded perfectly ONSLAUGHT. So that's what we did. Dave pretty much learned all the new material for the album very quickly, and our live set as well. And we put him in the studio with a very old-school producer who he knows also very well, a guy called Pete Hinton who actually produced the first two SAXON albums. Pete knows all about the band and he's very good to work with under pressure. 'Cause Dave's also gonna feel a lot of pressure during that. But Pete really got it out of him and did an absolutely fantastic job, I must say. So the transition between Sy and Dave has been really smooth and it isn't anything too drastic in the overall sound of the band. Obviously, Dave is his own character and he's not Sy, but it still sounds like ONSLAUGHT."

Garnett made his live debut with ONSLAUGHT at the House Of Metal festival in Umeå, Sweden in late February.

ONSLAUGHT announced Keeler's departure in April, explaining in a statement that "some things simply aren't sustainable year after year due to the nature of the modern-day music industry."

Back in August 2018, ONSLAUGHT debuted a new song called "A Perfect Day To Die" at the Bloodstock Open Air festival at Catton Park, Derbyshire, United Kingdom.