How did Ashen form and the inspiration for the name?
Shannon Over (Guitars) “Ashen was formed in 2019, we’ve all been playing together for the last 5-15 years together in Various projects, Ashen was just intended as a fun band playing songs we thought where cool and fun to play.
‘’The name Ashen came from Richard’s childhood cat lol
How will Ritual of Ash differ from Godless Oath. The two early tracks suggest it’s going to be heavier and darker.
‘’You're not the first person to make that observation, it definitely wasn’t a conscious thing.
‘’The process was definitely more organised and deliberate as we set out to write an album where that wasn’t the case for Godless Oath, those songs were written without any intent, other than fun.
And it is definitely death metal! Gravemind suggests the intensity has gone up a notch or 2?
‘’It definitely is DM, Gravemind is definitely one of the more intense songs on the album, I think you'll find the album has a good range of feels, I do think we've become a more well-oiled machine as far as the song writing goes
How do you define death metal, and why do you think it is so ageless?
‘’Hard question ha-ha, to me it’s the playing style and note selection, intensity and groove.
It seems to age very well; I think because good songs are ageless.
Is it the only possible outlet for your anger and thoughts?
‘’It is definitely an outlet for creativity and frustration, I’m not really good at writing when angry though ha-ha need to be in a creative frame of mind, If the songs sound angry then I guess maybe I’m crazy and don’t know it ha-ha
is to be Uncompromising the only way to be honest?
‘’For me the context matters, you can't collaborate in a band and be uncompromising or you have no band lol.
''In terms of vision for the music etc its important the band members have a similar vision so to speak and are heading in the same direction, having said that it's nice when an idea you didn't consider turns out to be great, you can’t have these moments if you are uncompromising.
What is the Ritual? and who is the shepherd for the ever lost?
‘’That is none of our business lol what I mean is that it is up to your imagination to decide, Richard writes the lyrics, and he purposefully leaves them open to interpretation in most cases, it inspires the imagination.
What is the personal mission of Ashen and how do you tackle your demons head on?
‘’The mission is to definitely to have fun doing this, enjoying ourselves, we'd love to get bigger for sure, but the first goal is to always make sure we like what we're doing and that it's mostly fun.
‘’Our biggest demons... well for me anyway is balancing the band commitments and life commitments, we all have full time jobs and families etc I pretty much manage the band and sometimes it means I have a lot going on from all sides.
When did Death metal become OSDM?
‘’When I got old ha-ha, I think though any dm that’s mid paced by today’s standards and more traditional song writing structure could be considered old school perhaps?
The moment and music that drew you to this music.
‘’The first death metal I ever heard was a tape my friend had of Morbid Angels Alters of madness, I'd only listened to early Metallica and slayer as a kid, so it scared the shit out of me lol they’re still one of my all-time favourite bands, no surprises there lol
The next release and plans for the future?
‘’We’re always writing new stuff, not sure if the next release will be an ep or a full lp just yet, we'll see. We’d like to do a national tour in 2023, we'll see how that plays out
The Perth scene? still growing and what makes it so different? is it the isolation? Or the heat?
''We have a strong metal scene here in Perth, some world class bands here that’s for sure, isolation makes it hard and expensive to get out and tour, Australia is so vast, can’t just hire a bus and drive through 10 countries or states in 2 weeks like Europe or the US so a lot of planning and financial planning is needed for that also.
Top 6 albums of all time
This is hard, it changes all the time:
Entombed- Clandestine
Edge of sanity-The spectral sorrows
Morbid angel- any of the first 4 albums
Carcass-Necrotiscsm
Death-Human
At the gates-At war with reality