Interview with death metal band from Australia - ASHEN.
Answered Shannon Over (Guitars), thank you!
Translated Duzl, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Recenze/review - ASHEN - Ritual of Ash (2023):
Ave ASHEN! On January 13, 2023, you released your first album „Ritual of Ash“ with Bitter Loss Records. As the title suggests, it is a ride full of real death metal. When you left the studio, how did you feel? Please tell us, the fans, something about the new album.
Thank you, they day we finished recording was a good day, we where happy with the album and relieved it was finished, it was a bit of a challenge to meet the deadline as we had some covid set backs but we got there in the end.
You are a band composed of all experienced musicians who play mostly death metal. How did ASHEN come into being? I'm guessing a good pub and a lot of beer. Who first came up with the idea to play death metal?
We all new each other from bands that we've played in together over the last decade or so, we made a decision in 2019/2020 to start Ashen and play cool DM and here we are now lol.
I'll admit, your news has me on my ass. What I really like about you guys is that you are not only orthodox and real, but you don't forget the cold and dark melodies. Who is the author of the music and how do you compose and create new ASHEN songs?
Thanks man, that's a very cool compliment!
The way we write songs is usually ill write some riffs i think are cool and put a rough sketch of a song together, ill show the guys in the band, if they like it we’ll develop it into a full song together, then we’ll jam the song through and tweak it again here and there, we like it to be a good song to play feel wise as well. we had about 15 songs for the album and we picked our best 10 for ROA.
What I enjoy about the new album is the sound which is raw and “dusty”. Where did you record the album, mixed and who did the production?
We recorded the album at my home studio and we sent it to Marko Tervonen(The Crown) at STUDIO MT in sweden to be mixed and mastered, Marko really added a polish to the album we love but retained the dusty raw sound you mentioned.
I was intrigued by the album cover too. If I understand correctly, there's a demon on it. The cover is simple, a bit mysterious, but it fits the music perfectly. What is this theme supposed to express? The author is the great Remedy Art. How did you guys get together and why him?
It is a really cool cover, Giannis Nakos is a very talented and skilful artist, he does a lot of metal cover art and merch designs and is an obvious choice, hes a killer dude as well.
The cover for ROA ties in with our first release ‘Godless Oath’ its based in the same fictional universe, we sent him some music and some basic ideas and he ran with it.
As a band, your lyrics deal with dark fantasy, Lovercraft, death. What are they about on the new record? What is the main theme and idea behind "Ritual of Ash"?
I dont write the lyrics, thats really Richards domain but theyre a similar theme, dark themes, Richard likes to not be too specific about the lyrics as it leaves your imagination to do the rest.
I can't help but ask. You play a style of metal that is extreme. You live in Australia. How are black death metal bands perceived by the general public? Do you have any problems with that? Do you get any space on TV, in newspapers? How is life in your country influenced by Christianity, religions in general?
Metal in Australia is still very much underground especially the more extreme forms like Death Metal or Black metal so you dont really her it much on the radio and certainly not on TV, having said that its not frowned upon or anything, Australia is a very free country.
Religions are here of course but Australia isnt an over the top religious country.
ASHEN have only been on the scene for a while. How far do you want to go? Big festivals, long tours? Are you just a project or a regular band that will work classically? After all, each of you have a lot of commitments in other bands.
We are actually all only playing in this band atm, its been our main focus music wise.
Id love to play some big festivals and some tours, its very tricky for us though here in Perth, its very expensive to travel and we all have family commitments, we’ll see what happens you never know lol
How are you doing with gigs? Do you like to play often? And do you prefer big festivals or small clubs? What about promoting the new album, are you planning a tour?
We’d like to play more but Perth is a small place so we can’t play as often we’d like, we have played some shows on the east coast which is cool but like i mentioned before its expensive to travel in Australia as its so vast and you really need to fly everywhere. we havent had the pleasure of playing a large festival yet, one day!!
I feel that extreme styles are very popular in Australia. Especially death and black metal bands there are amazing! I receive a lot of new album for reviews, I do many interviews and I feel that your scene is very strong. But that is my point of view of a person who does not live in Australia. How do you feel about that? What about concerts, promoters, clubs, shops with extreme metal music?
Australia has a really great metal scene, some really high quality bands all over the country. It's really cool, I do feel you’re on to something when you say extreme styles are popular here, it also seems like Australia is getting noticed for the quality of metal bands coming out from here.
Thank you so much for the interview and I wish your album great selling, your concerts to be sold out. I am looking forward to see you at some concert. I wish you also luck in your personal life. Let the force guide you! ASHEN FOREVER!
Hell yeah man, thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview and all the best to you too friend, may your balls be dipped in Gold and Jewels lol
Shannon \m/
ASHEN
Recenze/review - ASHEN - Ritual of Ash (2023):
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