Anton has been suffering from a repetitive strain injury in his shoulder since October 2010. Unfortunately it has been becoming steadily worse with time and drumming seems to aggravate it more.
With the future of Architecture of Aggression in mind and with full support, the band has decided to give Anton the necessary time off he needs to recovery fully from his injury.

Anton is a vital member of Architecture of Aggression and thus the band is unable to perform without him.This will be the longest break in the history of Architecture of Aggression’s sixteen year existence.

Thank you for understanding and rest assured that Architecture of Aggression will be back as soon as possible to deliver their hard hitting controversial technical Death metal to a stage near you!

Long standing Bassist(7 years), contributor and all round crazy guy William “the Tempest” Bishop; and Manager Genevieve Watkins have decided with heavy hearts to part ways with A.O.A.

“It is with great sadness that I submit my resignation as the bassist for A.O.A”
William cited his need for more time to work on his Solo project(G.O.D) and that his heart was no longer in Death Metal the way it used to be, as his reasons for leaving.

William joined A.O.A in 2003 and added a lot of extra flair and insanity to the extreme sounds of  A.O.A.
Known for his crazy antics on- and off-stage, excellent musicianship and genuinely friendly nature, he was very influential in raising the standard for bassists in the South African underground scene.
He featured on two Albums; “Democracy: Consent to domination” and “Acts of God: 4000 years of Phallusy”(for which he helped do all the click tracks, pre production, recorded some of the interludes at his “Isandlwana” home studio, wrote a couple of the songs and helped put it all together). He also organised and arranged many shows during his 7 years with the band.

Genevieve was an integral part of A.O.A over the last 2 years and helped us become an even more well oiled and efficient killing machine. She helped create order from the chaos of our lives and helped put together many prominent shows and tours.
She is also heading for a change in direction and fulfilling her other dreams

It is the end of an era and William & Gen will be sorely missed but we support them in all their future endeavours and wish them well.

As a sending off, Friday the 25th of February @ The Factory(Centurion), will be William’s final gig with the band, so come out and show your respect and appreciation one last time and make it a night to remember!

-Anton “Belial” Alberts

16 years ago in a Pretoria suburban garage, the three miscreant school children Van & Anton Alberts and Brian Liebenberg got together and formed the fledgling idea, hoping but never knowing that it would stand the test of time.

Unfortunately line up changes were inevitable through the years.We added a vocalist (Gareth Den) and parted ways again, decided to do the vocals ourselves, We let Brian go, played as a two man band for approximately two years, added bassist Nardus de Lange(on loan from Shadow lord at that time), parted ways after a while and instated William “the Tempest” Bishop on bass duty.

Now an untold number of gigs, a 2 ½ year stint in the UK, quite a number of national tours, spreading the word to such exotic locations as Namibia and Botswana, organising and hosting the controversial Rock Against Religion, playing with such renowned bands as The Entombed and Carcass, destroying the stage at Oppikoppi 4 times in the last 5 years, releasing an Ep.(Manifest Destiny) and two full length albums(Democracy: Consent to Domination & Acts of God: 4000 years of Phallusy), printing the legendary and hyper controversial God Kill shirts(Fuck your Church, Burn your God), torn ligaments, a broken leg, stitches, burns and stolen equipment we are going stronger than ever.

This is our dream and we are living it.

Happy 16^th birthday to The Death Metal Juggernaut that is AoA and eternal thanks to you, our fans that have driven us and supported us through it all and helped us to push not only our boundaries, but the boundaries of the moral majority of this country!

Hailing from Argentina, they travelled to our shores and graced us with the most Raw, Intensely Evil brand of Old School Blackened-Death Metal to be found anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere!

Extremely proud connoisseurs and purveyors of Metal as it used to be, think early Sepultura(Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation), Slayer(Show No Mercy) and a bevy of other extreme underground bands circa early 80′s.

So dedicated are these two to that sound, that they performed live with effects on the vocals to give them that true vintage metal sound(with monstrous reverb, sounding like they eminated from a cathedral trapped in the bowels of Hell) and banning from stage such fancy modern gimmickry such as bass drum triggers. True, raw sound is their trademark.

They destroyed the stage with their intensely angry underground fury, doing a scathing rendition of Sepultura’s “Anti-christ” , keeping it short, sweet and very brutal! The South African crowd was turned into a mob of rabid dogs!

We were the last stop on their gruelling three month 3^rd world tour, including such exotic locations such as Sri-Lanka and Bangladesh and left a good impression. There’s already talk of a follow-up tour including our neighbouring countries, Botswana and Namibia. If you missed out on this vintage experience make sure to catch them next time!

Our most esteemed thanks to: Gen Watkins Manager extraordinaire, The Black Dahlia, The Wolmer events arena( Special thanks to the Van der Walt’s for hosting the event and making it so special), All Forlorn, Architecture of Aggression, Bile of Man, Death By Ninja, Haggis and Bong, Necromantion, Tranquil And of course the reason this all happened: INFERNAL CURSE!

So the 2nd half of the tour was just as interesting and intense as the 1st part! On Monday the 13th of Dec. we got lost in Cape Town on our way to the UCT Fm studios for an interview, drunken frolics the night before, lost luggage , a dysfunctional GPS and Rush hour traffic conspiring against us, but we made it with 10min to spare!

The very esteemed and clued up Dj “Barbie” interviewed us and it was tons of laughs and interesting questions. Architecture of Aggression (Paedophage) being played during the “drive time”…. Wonder how many accidents and/or heart attacks we caused?  Probably the 1st time Death Metal was played during  peak hours on air.

The next night Tue the 14th we walked into “Cheetahs” in Brackenfell (Northern Suburbs) to the sound of the “5fm top 10 hits” blaring over the sound system, we just knew it was going to be “One of those” Nights!

The venue was pretty cool though and the people really friendly! Arc Reactor opened the proceedings and Kicked Ass, cool “Groove Metal” tunes. We came on and destroyed the crowd (the ravers all ran away!) but at least we got free drinks so it was cool in the end!

Wednesday was one of the highlights of the tour….. We played at “Die Balke”  in Worcester for the “Punk vs. Metal” fest. What a great little venue and spectacular crowd! We got there late (had to take it easy seeing as we had to drive back all the way to Pretoria after the show) so only got to see “Mind Assault” and “Half Price” two seriously Kick -ass bands!

We only got on stage at 00h45 but the crowd was still strong and very supportive as only small town crowds can be! Even though only a handful of people there had heard of us before everyone went nuts, moshing it up for the entire show!  Special thanks to everyone there, bands, organizers, the venue and most of all the crowd! The best way to end a tour! We’ll definitely be back! And any bands interested in doing a Western Cape tour would do well to stop @ Worcester!!!

After the show we got off stage, packed up, said our farewells and got in the car sweaty and smelly and took to the road! Needless to say we made it home safe, through the driving rain and floods in the Free state and Gauteng!

Can’t wait to go do it all again! Death Fucking Metal!

Once again thanks to all involved in the Tour in any and every which way!

P.S. I hope the Fucker who stole some of my Drumming equipment at Muzone get’s a serious case of Herpes and Anal Warts!  Seriously not cool to steal, especially from Muso’s.

Architecture of Aggression is very pleased to welcome Infernal Curse to South Africa on the 11th of February 2011 at Black Dahlia and the 12th February 2011 at the Wolmer Events Arena.

Infernal Curse was formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in late 2007 by Nocturnal (guitar, bass & voice of damnation) and Mutilator (Drums of doom). Their  influences are Expulser, early Sepultura, Rator, Mortem, early Mayhem, Abhorer, Infernal Death, early Slayer, Libation, Tormentor, etc.

The band has released 4 EP’s, namely “Black Forces Of Evil”, “The evil is not dead…it waits to be reborn” under  Sodomistic Rituals, a German Record Label and in collaboration with Iron Bonehead. Followed by a two song EP which was released by Chalice Of Blood Angel Records in France and most recently “Demented Visions Of Darkness” which was released in November 2010.

Along with having extensively toured their home country of Argentina, they are currently touring Asia performing in Dhaka (Bangladesh), Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), Manila (Philippines), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Colombo (Sri Lanka),  and finally Johannesburg (South Africa) and Pretoria (SouthAfrica) during their “Cursed Tour”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FksuS63wX1Q

On receiving the performance contract and performance time on the 14th of December 2010, Architecture of Aggression queried certain clauses within the contract as well as the performance time. Negotiation was requested on both points.

The Performance contract was understood as being very one sided in Thorn fest and its promoters favor and should any breach occur, Architecture of Aggression would be held responsible on all accounts even if Thorn fest or its promoters committed any breach of contract. There were other clauses which Architecture of Aggression could not agree to signing.

Architecture of Aggression were informed that the contract and performance time is non negotiable and that by the end of the business day on the 14th of December 2010 all contracts had to be signed and agreed upon, this was stated to be the deadline, even though Architecture of Aggression had only received the contract that same day. As Architecture of Aggression had not agreed to sign the contract and its terms or agreed to the performance time by the end of the business day on the 14th of December 2010 they were therefore removed from the line up for Thorn fest 2011.

“We are very unhappy with this turn of events. It felt like we were being bullied into signing a contract that did not uphold the interests of both parties as equal. It felt like pure exploitation. As a band and as musicians we are not willing to compromise ourselves in such a way. Unfortunately South African Metal festivals have a history and tendency to exploit local bands. This only brings down the music scene instead of building it up. We apologize to all of our fans that were looking forward to our performance at Thorn fest 2011″.-A.O.A.

It has been great so far, seeing old buddies, catching up with some of the intense motherfuckers from the Cape band scene and deliviring some crushing blows from the AoA war machine!

1st up was Fri 10 dec @ MuZone in Brackenfell (Northen Suburbs), what a fantastic and professionally put together venue!The place is huge, has a phenomenal stage and HUGE sound/lighting. It feels almost like a main stage a t a big festival. The crowd was utterly insane and the stage got “Invaded” more than once! The Northern fans really know how to party!

Next up was “Whiplash” festival @ R.O.A.R in Observatory in Cape Town. Great turn out and spectacular sound, what a killer show! It was good to see such great talent from all over!

Thanks to the guys from MuZone for running such a beast of a venue and “Oom” Dave Sass for putting together such a cool fest @ Whiplash!

Tomorrow we destroy “Cheetahs” in Brackenfell and Wednesday it’s the Punk vs Metal show @ “Balke” in Worcester! See you crazy Fuckers there!

The Premier South African Fest!

Great sound, great lighting, crazy assed crowd, christians praying, people moshing, what more can a band ask for?! Dust? Heh heh heh…..

The highlight of our gigging calender each year we play it, ‘Koppi’ is what every band in S.A yearns for, the most proffessional festival in the country.

All organisers should take a page from it’s book and see how it’s done. We were looking forward to it for months and definitely were not dissapointed.

We took the stage at 9pm and laid waste to all and sundry! It’s always great to see “newbies” in the crowd all “wide eyed” and “shell shocked”.

The show was streamed live to great acclaim amd even got a mention on Radio Jacaranda of all places. This year ‘Koppi “upped the ante” by turning the 2nd stage (Most amazing myn stage) into a metal stage for the saturday, supporting local metal and giving the fans what they deserved!

Thanks to Misha, Renee and all the rest of the organisers for putting together an Epic ‘Fest

Anyone who hasn’t attended are well advised to make a plan next year!

Ps. here’s a link to a Pre ‘Koppi article that Metal4Africa wrote:

http://www.metal4africa.com/2010-08-05-news-oppikoppi

Just go to www.antfarm.co.za