When I hear a band that comes up with some proper releases I want the world to know about them. Australia’s Ashen is such a band. And when you read the reviews on their three releases you understand I’m not the only on that feels that way about Ashen. Hence some questions were sent to guitarist Shannon Over. His answers will give you a bit of insight in his Death Metal band you really need to check out if you haven’t done so yet.
Hi Shannon, let’s kick off this interview with the latest news. You recently presented a new frontman. Can you introduced him and tell a bit more about your original vocalist Richard Clements’ decision to leave? Also tell us a bit about the Joel Pears who has helped you out in the meantime.
Absolutely! Our new Singer Drew Griffiths is an old friend of ours; he’s an experienced musician/singer in his own right. In fact Ben (drummer) and I played in a band with him some 15 years ago. When Rich decided to leave we immediately thought of Drew as our first pick and it has worked out beautifully. We are currently working on new material together. Drew has a really powerful death metal voice and tone; we can’t wait to hear his voice on future releases and his enthusiasm is infectious.
Richard’s choice to leave the band was purely logistical; he wasn’t really interested in touring and being away from his family for more than a few days, which is fair enough. We all have our lives to live.
Joel Pears is a good friend who plays in Aussie melodic Death Metal band Allocer, I recommend checking them out! He very graciously filled in for us on our Aussie tour run with Dying Fetus and 200 Stab Wounds last December. He’s a talented singer and great person.
You started Ashen around 2020 and it looks like you’ve know each other for years having been in bands like Burial Ground and Vespers Descent together. Can you give a sort of timeline how you guys met and how these bands have been active? Were you in these bands simultaneously for instance? Were there any hiatuses between the bands? And what was the trigger to form Ashen?
Ben, Richard and I all played in Vespers Descent together for almost a decade. I left to do other things and they continued on a bit for a few years after me. Richard and I started writing songs together for fun as Burial Ground with Josh as our bass player. Our drummer back then left and Ben filled in for a show and that led to changing the band name and starting fresh as Ashen.
Back in the day a band usually recorded a demo first. You guys debuted with the EP ‘Godless Oath’. Was this intended as a demo or did you sign to Bitter Loss Records straight away?
We actually had no intentions for the band to go anywhere or do anything. It was more of fun project to be honest. But when Bitter Loss showed interest we packaged an EP together so we had something to release. And we’ve grown as a band ever since which is amazing to me.
Talking about Bitter Loss Records, they were (more or less) a local label. Was it a big setback for you when they decided to throw the towel in 2023? You had then just released your full-length ‘Ritual of Ash’, right? And did it take you along time to hook up with Redefining Darkness Records?
It was very unfortunate for us, not that the labelled followed but more how the owner Rob handled it all. I won’t get into specifics but I will say it was extremely unprofessional and dishonest how the whole thing was handled and it damaged our first LP release ‘Ritual of Ash’ which is something we can never get back. It wasn’t all bad though, Tommy at Redefining Darkness Records had been in contact for a while and when our label disappeared he jumped in.
I can’t speak highly enough of the support he has showed our band.
Before Redefining Darkness released your album ‘Leave The Flesh Behind’ in 2025 they re-issued ‘Ritual of Ash’. Was this decided upon due to the folding of Bitter Loss Records?
Exactly that! Bitter Loss had lied to us about having a vinyl order in production and had taken a decent amount of pre-orders, none of which we saw money from. Luckily we managed to get the orders refunded, but we had nothing for the release date as it was too late in the game hence the later release with Redefining Darkness Records.
Looking at all three of your releases it seems you don’t want to change a winning team. As far as the recordings are concerned you record everything yourself in your own studio Overkill. Mix and master were done in Sweden by Marko Tervonen of The Crown. Can you tell a bit about the way you record and how did you hook up with Marko?
Yes, we do all the recordings production ourselves. I like to be able to take my time doing this and it has been convenient to be able to do it when we’re able to around our busy lives, work, family etc.
We’re fans of The Crown and we saw that Marko does mixing and mastering. We sent him a song and loved what he did and have stuck him. It has been great as we have grown together and developed a good working relationship. He’s a great person to work with.
Same thing applies to your cover art. You have been working with Giannis Nakos from Greece on all releases. How did you find him?
Additionally, the colour scheme for both the EP and debut full-length is quite similar. On your last album you stepped away from these grey/red tones. Was this something you wanted, or is there no deeper thought behind the art used?
We were already fans of Giannis’ work. He’s an amazing artist and very attentive to artists requests. He’s also a fan of old school Death Metal so it’s a perfect fit. We try to go with a different colour pallet for each album.
Musically you definitely can be categorized as OSDM. One of the things that attracted me in your music is the fact that it sounds very pleasant to my ears. You haven’t reinvented the wheel, but it all sounds solid, heavy and catchy. So, what bands have inspired you? And is it something that plays a part when composing to come up with songs that are easy to digest (in a positive way)?
I appreciate this remark. Thank you as it’s something I aspire to. My favourite Death Metal bands have a solid musical identity sound wise. I really like the traditional song structure but playing around inside of that to keep it interesting. I also love a good hook; we want the music to be fun and fist pumping but also heavy and dark lol.
I grew up on 90s Death Metal. Mostly Florida and Swedish stuff, which is pretty easy to spot in our sound. And that is also my favourite music. Bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death, Cynic, Dismember, Entombed, At The Gates, Carcass, Napalm Death etc.
You hail from Perth in the western part of Australia. It seems you have a decent metal scene there. But do you feel you’re somewhat isolated from cities as Melbourne and Sydney? Are you in touch with bands from that area in Australia? Do you feel any affiliation with fellow Aussie bands?
Perth is really a small town, it is also the longest and most isolated city in the world and that does make travel a little harder expense wise when touring for sure. And yes we have built up an awesome network of band friends from the east coast of Australia just by touring regularly and making an effort to be involved as much as possible from the other side of the country.
Within extreme metal Aussie bands gained a lot of notoriety due to their violent approach. Just think of bands such as Sadistik Exekution or Bestial Warlust. Of course there’s a lot of variety in styles by other bands as well. How do you feel the rest of the world looks upon Australian metal in general?
That’s an interesting question; you’d probably have a better idea of that than I would lol. I tend to agree the extreme metal bands we have are definitely some of the most aggressive styles in the genre, with bands like Psycroptic, King Parrot, Werewolves, and Abremalin etc. So far though Aussie metal seems to have a good reputation metal wise.
You perform live quite regularly. Is that mainly locally or do you play in other parts of Australia too? Have you ever played outside of Australia?
We try to yes, these last few years we’ve played more shows outside of Perth than we have played in Perth, touring etc. We have yet played outside Australia yet, but that is a goal for next year; nuclear war pending lol.
I think we can wrap it up here. Any other things you want to share? Plans for the immediate future?
Thank you for the interview!
I’d like to thank the people reading this that have supported us in any way be it, listening on streaming to hard copy purchases or coming out to a show, thank you.
