Ashen Wings
Vocalist and guitarist M.
Live interview with Lady Kat Chaos,
Lori DeLuca and guest Astarothria Myurr
January 13, 2016
Lady Kat Chaos:
Hails M.! I hope you’re having Great New Year thus far. It’s been a busy New
Year for you, you’ve played two shows; January 2, 2016 with Monsignor Meth,
Horrible Earth, HepaTagua, Gowl, Gorepedo at Ralphs Rock Diner in Worcester, MA
and January 8th at O'Briens with Vivisepultre and Aversed. What other shows do
you have currently lined up?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, it was a pretty
crazy beginning of the year with two shows that fast. They went quite well
though. The next show we have lined up is Feb 19th. It will be nice to have a
slight break in that time frame. I'm sure we'll have more shows coming in the
spring. There's talk of playing a show with Sorrowseed at some point. But
that's all we've got planned so far. We really want to see if we can nail down
some time to write, but things have been hectic with life outside this project.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Indeed, sometimes a good opportunity can arise and you don't want to turn away
a good show. December of 2015, you also performed a show and proceeds were
going to Sancta Maria women's homeless shelter in Boston. Are you a supporter
of given back to your own community?
Ashen Wings: That's a tough one for
me. Personally, I think it is a good idea to do these things, but I don't
participate very much on my end. I think the others in the band can be more
involved in this aspect. I have spent a lot of my time away from being involved
in anything for quite a while and it's a very different experience to get
involved with any community of this caliber.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Being that you've hidden yourself and not involved within the underground scene
as far as socializing at shows and attending shows for a few years. Do you feel
it’s difficult to communicate in person with other bands and fans since you
preferred for many years to associate with your own inner circle?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, it's very
difficult. We get very positive reactions, J.M. and Meraxes have talked with
quite a few fans. Meraxes is certainly the far more sociable one in the project
and it's really good he's involved in that capacity. I'll talk to a few people
at the shows we play and there are some local bands we are getting know a lot
better, which is nice in many ways. But it's all very counter to how I've
engaged metal, especially Black Metal for most of my life.
Astarothria Myurr
(Hellbrats Zine): Some have a lack of understanding about Black Metal live
stage performance. I have read reviews in the past that they tend to say that
band is boring on stage, hence I don’t think the reviewer truly understand the
stage atmosphere. Care to baroque to those who don’t get it?
Ashen Wings: I sort of lean on the
realm of not being sure Black Metal was ever intended to be performed live. So,
it's sort of an anti-performance in many ways. I remember a lot of comments in
the old days akin to "this is like people attending a mass worshipping
some band" and it was not meant as a kind remark, instead to show this as
a sort of similarity to Christianity. I think this was back at the time of
Black Metal vs. Death Metal. One of the problems Black Metal has in its design
is its supposed to have a sort of ice cold droning feel behind the music. If
you really like the genre, it translates well live, since you expect a less
than exciting stage performance. This music isn't designed to be a catchy
experience for people to mosh to or have a lot of "fun" at. In
practice this isn't exactly how it plays out live depending on my audience, but
the music isn't really designed around pleasing a crowd.
Astarothria
Myurr: I’ve haven’t seen Ashen Wings perform live yet, do you have a commanding
stage manifestation?
Ashen Wings: Probably. I mostly just
stand there and do my thing. A lot of this is related to the fact that I have
to sing and play at the same time, so it takes a lot of concentration to do
that for me.
Astarothria
Myurr: You mentioned Sorrowseed earlier. Have you ever had a discussion about
doing a tour together?
Ashen Wings: Not a tour or anything,
but definitely playing shows in the area. It's tough for Ashen Wings to do a
real tour because of the way our jobs work. But someday maybe we will consider
doing this. I feel we really need a full-length out and ready before we can
even consider this kind of question.
Lady Kat Chaos:
At least from my experience I can say that, although bands from diverse genres
will perform together at festivals and most of the time they will overall have
friendly relationship with each other but they do not stand for any nonsense or
bullshit when it comes to shielding their musical identity. Has anyone ever
approached you after a live show and you had to defend your bands creations or
what about a review that you felt was inequitable?
Ashen Wings: I don't think we've had
a bad response to what we perform. I mean, if people don't like us, people
usually don't come out say "you suck". At least I've never observed
that in our local scene. The most you'll get is "it's not really my
thing" or someting like that. Which is fine. This is art and not everyone
is going to like your particular art. For our area, I think we are a somewhat
unusual project with a Black/Death blend rooted out of the Polish style, but
people seem to enjoy it. As for reviews I don't think I've seen too many out
there. But I'm sure that will change once we get a full-length together. As
someone who dos reviews, I definitely understand that not everyone is going to
enjoy everything I do.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Indeed, Ashed Wings has been receiving a great deal of positive feedback and
other hordes have been speaking of your live shows. Do you attend the full
show?
Ashen Wings: Yes, at least I always
try to. There has only been one show that I wasn't able to fully attend and we
had to get there late because of schedules not lining up correctly. I usually
don't leave early either, unless I'm not feeling that well. I remember I had to
play a show with a bad cold one time and I stayed as long as I could put up
with, but eventually I ended up leaving early because of it.
Lori DeLuca: Do
you play any covers? How many gigs did you play? With which band would you like
to tour?
Ashen Wings: The only cover we've
played so far is "Carnal" by Vader. A lot of this was motivated by
filling out the necessary time for a live set list when the band first started.
We talk about cover possibilities all the time, but lately we just focus on
writing new material. Though, we are likely going to cover "Forging Towards
the Sunset" by Anaal Nathrakh in the near future. This is the only one
that we've really discussed doing seriously. I actually have no idea how many
gigs we've played so far... after a while I just lost count, but it's not like
we've played that many... we might be near the 20 mark. I don't really have any
strong opinions on who I'd want to tour with. There are a lot of bands I would
like to work with, but I think a lot of those on my list don't really fit with
Ashen Wings. There are also a lot of bands I, realistically, don't think we'd
ever get to play with, such as Trauma or Endstille. I don't see them coming to
the US any time soon for a tour, nor do I see us touring Poland or Germany
anytime soon.
Lady Kat Chaos:
How did you become interested in Metal, particularly Black Metal? Is it part of
your identity/lifestyle? Are there any interesting stories that come to mind?
Ashen Wings: Hah, I don't know if I
have any interesting stories. When I was growing up I feel like I was always
searching for more extreme forms of metal. Back in the mid-90's Death Metal was
getting quite popular and the storm of Black Metal was just starting to come
over to the U.S. So, when I was in grade school I found some early Thrash bands
through my cousin who was a little older and was also into music. While I
enjoyed bands like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth etc. they just paled in
comparison when I eventually found Death Metal. Hilariously, a lot of exposure
came from music videos aired on Beavis & Butt-Head, a favorite show for
many boys in middle school. But they seriously aired videos from Morbid Angel,
Carcass, and Entombed and it was through there that I finally started looking
around for more music at my local record shops. I found all these bands I heard
in the music videos and bands like Suffocation. So, I started getting a sense
for what extreme metal looked like, then Century Black started bringing over
the Black Metal and I bought a copy of "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas"
when it finally made it to the U.S. I think my musical life changed there.
Inside the CD's, as many people will remember was that little order form to get
more music from the label, so from that order form I picked up releases by
Emperor, Arcturus, Satyricon and many more and I've followed the Black Metal genre
ever since.
I think Black Metal really ended up
being part of my identity in a lot of ways. It's a very introspective genre and
that's something that really works for me. I think the approach to the
philosophy and genre over the years has matured a lot more, but then again, we
aren't in our teens lashing out at society like the early days.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Not only thru little order forms but I would find out about bands who would
distribute their tapes through Fanzines, tape traders, bands, promoters, record
stores, mini flyers in other bands tapes or mailed out press-kits, people
handing out mixed tapes at shows, let’s not forget about word of mouth and so
forth. Do you still do mail orders? What companies do you order from or do you
order directly from the band?
Ashen Wings: There were a couple good
distros in my area in the 90's like Lost Disciple Records and Dark Symphonies.
They would setup at shows a lot and that's one of the major ways I was able to
track down a lot of material. I also ordered from Necropolis Records, Full Moon
Productions, and Red Stream regularly in the 90's. Back then I relied on them
to get stuff from the international labels. I remember it was always a big deal
when one of those labels got an order from No Colours or Folter Records in
stock! Actually... I think that's still kind of a big deal today, at least for
me haha. Today I still do mail order... or whatever the online equivalent is
and it's not unusual for me to do some big orders overseas. I do try to order
directly from the band if that's an option, but most of the time it's easier to
order from a distro/record label. There's a number of companies I try to
follow, like Witching Hour Productions, Pagan Records, No-Colours, Folter
Records, Tour de Garde, Sepulchral Productions, Ossuaire Records, Humanity's
Plague Productions, Seance Records, and there's probably more I'm sadly
forgetting about. In addition to being great record labels with great releases
all these labels have wonderful distros!
Astarothria
Myurr: While reading your response a few questions has stimulated my thoughts,
therefore, I will ask the next of my questions in parts. Do you still have your
80's and early 90's tape collection? What about vinyl records? CD’s?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, I still have some
of my old tapes. I did eventually replace some of the releases with CD's as
that became the major part of my collection. So, my collecting policy on tape
and vinyl is that, I usually only buy those if it is the only option I have. I
tend to prefer CD's mostly because of ease of storage and ease of listening
(i.e. listening in the car). Plus... vinyl tends to be on the more expensive
side, so while it has it's own merits as a format, I think I end up saving more
money by collecting this way. This means I can get into more bands, which I
don't think anyone would complain about.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Did you ever own an 8-track tape or even a 45” record?
Ashen Wings: I have never owned an
8-track... I think that was a bit before my time. I do remember have 45's when
I was really little though. But it wasn't too long after a while that the
cassette tape came into existence and then everything just converted to that in
the 80's.
Lori DeLuca: What
would be your oldest cassette tape and your most recent you would have in your
collection?
Ashen Wings: My oldest cassette is
probably Metallica's "Master of Puppets"... well in terms of my
purchasing, because I think I got "Ride the Lightning" and "Kill
'em All" after the fact. I'm trying to remember back that far, because I
also have the Star Wars soundtracks on tape and the Aliens soundtrack on tape
too! I'm actually not sure which came first. The most recent tape additions are
the demo from Vermont's Contempt and the latest Evilfeast promo from 2015.
Although someone did just sell the first Lunar Aurora demo to me, but that
isn't in my hands yet.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Compact cassettes came in two forms, one that included content as a
pre-recorded cassette, or as fully recordable "blank" cassette. Many
would purchase blank cassettes to make mixed tapes by recording songs off the
radio, copying songs off different tapes, which this term is mixed tapes. Also,
many bands would record themselves live from a radio and release it a demo
tape. Soon cassette tapes started to replace stereo 8-track cartridges. Have
you ever thought of recording live on a cassette tape while having a rehearsal?
Nah, I've never thought about doing
that. That kind of gear is really hard to come by today as well. I used to
record all my material onto a four track when I was younger. I think I ended up
recording 9 albums worth of content and would put these out on demo tapes...
that I was way too shy to distribute anyway. I eventually started making demo
CD's when CDRW's came into existence, again, was pretty shy about doing all
that stuff. But I did put out a couple on an old friends DIY label.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Many are going back to the roots for releasing on a cassette tape. Are you glad
to see many underground bands are going back to these roots? Do you like the
sound better on a tape?
Ever since I moved I haven't been
setup to actually listen to tapes too well, so I can't really listen to my new
tapes on a stereo like I used to. I think the tape format is just an
interesting thing, especially with how you have to layout a booklet. I don't
think they sound better or worse than other formats. I'm not sure I'm such an
audiophile to declare one format sounding the best ever like I see some
collector's do. To me, they all have their merits and downsides. Though since
I've started collecting, CD's have been my favorite more because of ease of
use, I think, than anything else. I mean, modern cars don't even come with tape
decks anymore.
Astarothria
Myurr: How many hours can a cassette tape hold of music?
Ashen Wings: Depends on the tape. I
remember you could find tapes that would hold up to 120 mins. I think these are
the kinds of tape my Moonblood rehearsals are on, since things like Rehearsal
10 or 11 are quite long. I can't remember if I saw anything longer than that...
at least not commercially available when I was recording on a four track and
buying blank tapes at local department stores.
Lady Kat Chaos: I
feel a history lesson will be spewing about cassette tapes, compact cassette,
tape, cassette, audio cassette, and musicassette (MC), which ever term
individuals feel like calling it.
Lori DeLuca: I
would use cassettes that gave me about an hour worth because you would get 30
minutes on each side.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Actually, there were several tape lengths. The C46 would have about 23 minutes
per side, the 60 played 30 minutes per side, you also had 60, C90, C120 and
it’s not hard to figure out how long each side was. Simple math. But I remember
when TDK came out with the C180 and honest it was not great. The tape was way
too thin and would snap faster after a few plays. To me it also made the sound
quality suffer.
Lady Kat Chaos: I
learned at early age by my father how to splice a tape to fix it even if some
music would get cut off for a few seconds. Did it ever piss you off when your
tape got eaten up?
Ashen Wings: I only ever had a couple
tapes get eaten, and luckily they were just mix tapes I had made personally for
my own listening. None of my demos have been eaten, but I've since backed up
everything on mp3 format and these days I mostly listen to tapes in this
fashion, especially if it's a demo tape. Having a tape get eaten is
infuriating, same with scratching a record or CD.
Astarothria
Myurr: What would be a good tape length for bands to record on today? What
lengths do you feel comfortable releasing your music on?
Ashen Wings: Honestly, I just
purchased whatever tapes I could find, these were not things I could buy easily
when I wanted to do the demo rehearsal we made. That was more in homage to
things that Moonblood had done in the past, as well as many other bands and I
also wanted to include some rarities that I had on my harddrive from over ten
years ago in some cases. I think the length of the tape should be dictated on
how long your music is, if you buy 120 min tapes to record 20 mins of music
then that's annoying to deal with.
Astarothria
Myurr: How do they last for?
Ashen Wings: That depends on how well
you take care of your player and tapes. I've had tapes from the 80's that still
play fine for me. The blank tapes a lot of demos are made on don't have the
same level of quality though, so those can degrade over time. Kind of like
CDr's aren't as high quality as pressed CD's.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Take good care of them and they would last a life time. In the 1970’s both
cassettes and LP records were the two main resources for prerecorded music,
until 2000’s when CDs started to become one of the main formats for music. Now,
it’s mainly about digital, in which I dislike not the same as having it in your
hands. Do you like this digital moment?
Ashen Wings: I think the CD format
really took on fully in '96, that's when everything started to convert. I like
the access I have to international music in the digital age. It really is much
better than in the 90's when I was blindly buying material without hearing it.
Now, I can almost always sample a band before I buy their album. With so many
bands and so many releases out there, it's important for me to buy music I will
listen to more than once these days. The quality is much better now compared to
when things first started. Now it's not uncommon to have music compressed to
320kbps. It's still not as good as a CD or tape in quality, especially for the
more raw projects, but it's a hell of a lot better than 128kbps when things
first started out.
Astarothria
Myurr: What were the greatest moments about going to a record store? Do they
still exist in your area?
Ashen Wings: For me, the greatest
thing was being able to get the music right away. As someone that had to always
special order everything from various parts of the country or overseas, there's
a, sort of, special excitement about being able to listen to your purchase as
soon as you leave the parking lot! Today when I import out of countries like
Russia it can seriously take a month to arrive at my door. This length of wait
is not that uncommon.
Astarothria
Myurr: This show that you speak of Beavis & Butt-Head and even Headbangers
Ball, which today many will have no idea what either one of them were. If you
were to do a short written piece about this metal history what would you say
about them both?
Ashen Wings: The Beavis &
Butt-Head part was sort of funny for getting introduced to this kind of music,
mainly because everything about that was centered around making fun of it. However, Mike Judge's opinion on Death Metal
wasn't enough to sway my enjoyment the first time I saw it! I never watched
Headbangers Ball much, I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that at
this point I had gotten extremely into Black Metal, and there were very few
Black Metal bands that had videos, so there was a very slim chance they would
ever play them.
Astarothria
Myurr: What was the main reason for you to experiment so much with the music,
even including your vocals?
Ashen Wings: In the newer material
we're working on I feel like there's a bit of a higher degree of
experimentation as we try to blend certain material together. I think the EP
was a bit more straight forward and not too different from what is already out
there. I always try to do vocal performances that are a bit more varied and
interesting. I think there are too many bands out there that just have a very
monotone type of vocal performance. I don't hate this or anything, as I love
lots of bands that do this, but for me, I always appreciated the bands that
could deliver a much more dynamic vocal experience and I try to do that.
Astarothria
Myurr: Would you say that Mayhem "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas" was the
first band who started it all for you? Would you say that they are true
Norwegian black metal forefathers?
Ashen Wings: I think that album
really started my keen interest in Black Metal, that's for sure. I had been
searching for a sound that really matched my...ideal, I want to say and on a
personal level Black Metal really achieves that better than any genre. Mayhem
is certainly one of the major forerunners. I think them and Thorns really
invented the guitar concepts that became prevalent in the modern style.
Astarothria
Myurr: Explain what entails about you lashing out about the society in your
teen years?
Ashen Wings: That had more to do with
the church burnings and violence of the early 90's. A lot of these guys are in
their 30's and 40's now, some even in their 50's and that kind of action is not
something people my age really bother with anymore. I mean, regardless if you
want to see churches burnt to the ground or not, it's something you are not
likely to do when you're older.
Lori DeLuca:
Although, I have been into rock and metal for a very long time and also an old
schooler, one style of metal most would feel that Black and Death Metal has a
completely different approach and vibe. Because both vocals can be hard to
follow, do you feel that some don’t pay attention to the lyrics one sings?
Astarothria
Myurr: Lryics are important. I enjoy reading them if they are available. Do you
read other band lyrics?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, I don't think a
lot of people pay attention to lyrics. I, honestly, don't anymore. I used to
read the lyric books when I was younger, but now I find I rarely ever do this
anymore. Perhaps at this point I don't think anyone has anything new to say. Honestly,
I have nothing new to say and I'm not sure how important it is I even bother
writing lyrics for anything. Who cares what I have to say anyway?
Lady Kat Chaos:
In October of 2014, you released your first single, “Tearing Flesh from
Angels”, did you receive a good response?
Ashen Wings: I'm not sure, Meraxes is
the one who set that up. I think that was more to test out how bandcamp would
work because none of us had ever used it before and we weren't sure how the
format would play out. We wanted to make our tape and EP available for people
to order shortly after that, so I guess he made a single. Meraxes wrote that
song anyway, so he would know more about it.
Lady Kat Chaos:
These days do you feel it’s safer to release a single to see where it will lead
you in the underground scene and see if others would accept it before putting a
full demo, EP or album?
Ashen Wings: No, I never listen to
singles. I think singles are a waste of time if you release one seriously and
we'll probably never do that kind of thing again if it's up to me.
Astarothria
Myurr: What inspired you to write this song?
Ashen Wings: I think the song is
heavily influenced by Dark Funeral, which is a band Meraxes likes a lot and
that is where he drew his inspiration. Lyrically I tried to write something
that matched up with that inspiration.
Lori DeLuca: Do
you like Thrash Metal today?
Ashen Wings: It depends, I tend to
like Thrash blended with another genre like Black or Death Metal. I prefer
harsh vocals over clean, so I like it when bands do that. For example, I really
enjoyed the first Ketzer album.
Lady Kat Chaos: I
remember the days of listening to Thrash Metal and Death metal. When Black
Metal first started many were calling black metal "fake" and yet I
began to embrace it. Do you feel that a lot has changed within the Black Metal
scene do you think it is less controversial these days?
Ashen Wings: I remember when the term
"norsecore" was thrown around a lot! Do you remember that one? In
retrospect this kind of made sense with the constant blasting, so it did feel
similar to Grind from those old days. I don't know if it's less controversial
today... As hundreds upon hundreds of bands come into existence, I think it has
merely become common. It's not rare to hear a viscous wall of sound while a
drummer blasts away at his kit with some guy screaming about Satan. Even though
this sound is more common, I still enjoy it and I can still find merit in a lot
of modern and newer bands.
I think the biggest change has come
with attitude. A lot of the people in my generation don't really care about
being the "biggest" or the "most true", we just are. The
world is messed up enough and our inspiration to reflect that through art is
really where a lot of us are coming from today. I don't think people need to
burn churches anymore to get certain ideas and messages across. I think they
made for an interesting gesture in their specific time, as "this is the
resistance to religion." I'd like to hope that all of us understand that
burning religious symbols is merely symbolic and it is not something that
erodes an ideology. In order to do that you need to have far more convincing
arguments. Forcing someone to your way of thinking through "fear" is
ultimately meaningless, because you haven't convinced them to change their
ideas, you merely convinced them they are afraid of you. This seems to be the
concept of the early fight against Christianity, but I think it has matured a
lot beyond that. Even though these tactics may appear effective in a short term
basis, I don't believe they are sustainable, which is why you don't see such
things done that much anymore. Also, I think these tactics of fear mongering is
someting religions often use to ensnare their followers, so I'd like to think
we are a little better than them. I think Black Metal has also begun to work
beyond Christianity and reject a lot of the religions the world over as well,
which makes sense.
Lady Kat Chaos: A
few would call it "Norsecore" but it was barely used. Many didn't
know what to make of it either. Even today the most credit the term "black
metal" goes to Venom, because of their release of the album by the same
name. Hence, there were other versions and secular ideas long before that.
Around 84' many were starting to get into Bathory and Celtic Frost and people
were stating they were occultist of evil hell. lol Many also felt that Aleister
Crowley and Anton LaVey are prominent figures in the Black Metal scene, what
are your thoughts?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, and if we look
back at history I think Black Metal was originally supposed to really follow
that Venom style. I mean, just looking at something like "Deathcrush"
and that doesn't sound anything like what modern Black Metal became in the
90's. I think the style changed and the name just stuck. Now a lot of people
are very angry about that, but I think that's what ultimately happened.
As far as those two guys are
concerned, I think Crowley has influenced the scene more. I mean, I'll see some
LaVey stuff show up in USBM, but it was pretty well known in the 90's that the
European scene really rejected him and his version of Satanism. The occult
stuff, like what Crowley was more into has really taken off more though. I
think a lot of bands deviate from his original stuff and draw from other areas
for inspiration. However, I kind of look at occult topics to being similar to
any other religious or spiritual idea... I'm very dismissive of these things
today.
Lady Kat Chaos:
As you have begun to be frivolous, today, there are many different religions
and cultures creating Black Metal music. Do you reject any of these bands or do
you not pay any attention what path they follow?
Ashen Wings: I definitely care if a
band is religious or not, I've always been like this. These Christian people
performing someting like "Black Metal" just sounds silly. They have
no passion for the art form anyway, they can't. While, I was into the occult
side of Black Metal years ago, I'm starting to dislike this current trend. I
think it's a good backdrop and perhaps makes for a decent historical metaphor
in fighting religions... but bands are getting really into this stuff. A lot of
the occult practices are even rooted in ancient Hebrew stories. Stuff that was
rejected by the greater canon of their religious texts. So, I question how
demonic a band really can be when crying out for "Adonai" or "El
Shaddai"... which are names for God and often invoked in the ritual
occult. In any event a lot of this stuff is all made up fantasy to me. I don't
know, even though I do enjoy the music some of these bands put out, it's a bit
harder to stomach the nonsense sometimes. I tend to prefer when things are used
more for artistic metaphor against the major religions of the world than
someone trying to explain their beliefs to me. To my mind, the greatest threat
and insult to any belief or deity would be in not believing in any of them. I
mean, what is worse the person who allies themselves with Satan, which affirms
the existence of God or the person who says, "neither of these things
actually exist". As a believer, I would think the latter is far more
insulting and concerning.
Astarothria
Myurr: I don’t think it has to do with how old one is because there are many
from each generation who would like to be well-known and hence you have those
who just glad to be heard. Do you feel that some individuals fear those in the
Black Metal and Death Metal scene and how so?
Ashen Wings: I'm not sure. It depends on where you're coming from I guess. I
imagine deeply religious people should find these kinds of things quite
fearful, especially with the idea that there's this whole music genre dedicated
to opposing you. I would imagine that to be unsettling for people.
Astarothria
Myurr: Do you find war paint or corpse paint symbolic in the Black Metal Scene?
Why do you feel that some have stopped using this image as well?
Ashen Wings: I think corpse paint has
always stood as a symbol and it really helps generate a good atmosphere. I
think there are bands that do this especially well and their imagery really
mirrors the music perfectly. It also helps us disassociate with the human
aspect behind the music, as they rarely look human anymore. This is an aspect
that I like quite a lot because it allows the listener to engage the music at a
slightly different level. In some ways, I think some people have stopped doing
it simply to change things up a little bit. The practice is far more prevalent
in Europe and it's really in the US that it is not used very often. In some
ways, for me, it's merely something I don't feel like taking the time to do.
Astarothria
Myurr: What are your thoughts about bands now wearing different types of mask,
for an example a band like Ghost?
Ashen Wings: I think the mask thing
is a little weird. I think the only issue I have in my head, is that I can't
get the image of Nu-Metal bands out of my mind when I see this thing show up...
so I think whatever imagery is intended by this bands is kind of ruined for me.
I don't really see this taking off in a grander sense though.
Lady Kat Chaos:
What do you think is the difference in the North American Black Metal scene as
compared to the European? Do think many bands in the European are more coherent
in their idealization of pagan beliefs?
Ashen Wings: When it comes to the
belief end of things, I don't think we're that different anymore, but maybe I
shouldn't opine since I haven't followed many others in USBM over the years.
There have been some good bands, but even today I still get the majority of my
music from Europe and Canada. There's just something about the music coming
from there that strikes a chord with me that a lot of USBM doesn't. I mean, if
I had to hypothesize it may come from the differing in roots as musicians
growing up. You hear this slight difference in sound when you listen to, say,
German Thrash vs. U.S. That difference in tone, or song structure or whatever
it is really affects me as a listener. At least, I hope that made some sense...
it's very hard to qualify in words.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Many have felt that in the USA Black Metal scene that most are caught in the
image, lack in the ideological and some feel that many USA bands in the Black
Metal scene suck. What USA bands have impressed you over the years?
Ashen Wings: Now, I'm not really sure
it was lack of ideology that was a problem for US bands. I know a lot of people
out there that can hate Christianity just as hard as anyone from Europe. I
think my issue is more the "feel" of the music. I don't think they're
really caught in the image, I think it has more to do with the way a lot of new
bands are coming into the scene today. A lot of new bands today have a lot of
baggage to work through, meaning they have a lot of influences to sort through
before they can really sort out their own particular sound. So, a lot of times
I'll get a debut album from a band and they sound just like this other band I
heard in the late 90's or something. That's fine, if they sound good it's good,
but a lot of times it's the 3rd album where a band starts to come into their
own sound. So, you just have to be a bit more patient today. A lot of people
don't like this and I think the need for instant gratification has gotten worse
in our culture, so this works against new bands. This is kind of a shame,
because I feel like every musician goes through this. Mayhem's original sound
wasn't what we heard on "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas", so why do we
expect it from new bands today?
Anyway, a recent discovery on my end
has been the band Fin. Their prior albums were okay, but the latest one,
"The Furrows of Tradition" they put out was very very good. So good,
in fact, that it will surely hit my top 10 when I finally publish that on my
'zines page. The latest album from Panopticon, "Autumn Eternal,"
actually did something for me in the Atmospheric Black Metal genre. Now, I
haven't liked any of the prior Panopticon albums, but he really sorted out his
sound really well on that album and there were only a couple parts I didn't
enjoy. But for the most part it was quite a welcome change!
Lady Kat Chaos: With
your observation, what image do you feel they are lacking and haven’t grasped
on?
Ashen Wings: It's not really image.
It's more the way the songs are approached. There's something in the way they
arrange things like guitar tone that must put me off. It's like that really
subtle difference between the German Thrash tone and the American.
Astarothria
Myurr: But any band will create similar or somewhat different within their
music because of their own roots they have grown up on. Do you feel if a black
metal band adds death and thrash metal roots have also lost the vibe and feel
and aren’t sure which genre they truly want to be?
Ashen Wings: I'm not sure it's about
knowing which genre as it's taking all these influences and figuring out a way
to blend them together in a cohesive manner. In a sense, you want to create a
sound built on those before, but also have the blending be different enough
that you stand out as a band. Rather than say, rote copying a particular
Darkthrone album. I think that's more what I mean by trying to write new
material in this world and trying to find a sound that is unique to you.
Lady Kat Chaos:
What waves of Black Metal do appreciate the most?
Ashen Wings: I think I can find
appreciation in most eras of Black Metal. The early 90's are special in their
own way and then the late 90's has their charm... although I think in the late
90's there were problems with the sheer volume of bands available. Not
everything was spectacularly well done and in the late 90's is when you started
to find generic projects popping up. I'm not sure this marred the era entirely,
but it made it harder to find the gems. In the 2000's I think people just got
used to this new fact of the genre and now we just deal with it generally. I am
really impressed with how long the genre has stood and how fresh and new some
things can still sound today. That really says something about the truly
creative people out there, far better than I could ever be at any rate.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Speaking of influences some bands that is listed in Ashen Wings band page are
as follows: Anaal Nathrakh, Funeral Mist, Vader, Dark Funeral, Behemoth, Mgła, Deathspell Omega, Nomad,
Decapitated, Marduk, Trauma, and Drudkh (to name a few), but what guitarist or
vocalist has influenced you most?
Ashen Wings: For guitarists.... I
mean, we have to consider the era. In the early days of playing guitar I was
heavily influenced by Snorre Ruch of Thorns and both guitarists in Emperor.
Satyr was another major favorite of mine as well. These days I seem to listen
to bands like Annthennath, Kältetod (especially the album "Reue"),
Peste Noire, Forteresse, Csejthe, and things like that a lot. I think they all
do very interesting things with their composing style. Mgła is a band I've
followed ever since their participation in the "Crushing the Holy
Trinity" split, so that should give you some idea of their influence on my
work over the years. Naturally Kriegsmaschine comes into play as well. For me,
I think Hate Forest is more influential than Drudkh, but the other guys like
Drudkh quite a bit.
Otto Kinzel IV
Hey dude. You guys had a great song on the 27 Tons of Metal New England comp.
Which I was lucky enough to help produce with Bill & Lisa Richards. It was
the first time I ever heard you guys & I was immediately impressed!
Lady Kat Chaos:
Great comp indeed! Since Otto, mentioned the comp, do you feel that it has
helped you with getting more notice within the underground? Thus far you also
have two releases, a demo tape and an EP and also a single which were all
released in 2014. The demo tape is called “Devourer” and is from your rehearsal
recordings, and the EP is called “Echoes of Carnage” which is a studio quality
re-recording of your demo tape. What changes have you made between the two?
Ashen Wings: Between
"Devourer" and "Echoes of Carnage" the only difference in
songs is recording quality. I think we ended up finishing the "Echoes of
Carnage" EP a lot faster than we anticipated. For whatever reason I
thought we'd have to wait till Spring 2015 to put that out, but we cranked
through it pretty fast.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Your first demo, “Devourer” was released on November 15th, 2014 on cassette.
Opening up with a dark intro, how important do you feel an intro is on a
release?
Ashen Wings: I don't think they're
that important. I'm not sure we'll even put one on the full-length, but we
haven't even discussed that yet. I'll have to take a long look at how the songs
wind up being arranged. Sometimes an intro is a good idea to lay the
foundations of atmosphere for the album that is about to be experienced, but
sometimes it is a good idea to just get on with the music. A boring intro can
really hurt an album and be annoying, so if what you're making doesn't call for
much of an intro then you should stay away from them.
Astarothria
Myurr: One of the best demos that I have heard in 2014. Vocals that brings you
deep into an abyss that you don’t want to come out of, soaring guitar riffs
creating a blasphemous sensation making your heart beat off its pattern, thunderous
drums striking you down like a bolt of lightning penetrating right to bones,
while the bass follows the aftershock. What was the inspiration behind the
following songs “Cancerous Bones”, “Devastate the Palaces” and “Firerealm”,
which these three songs standout in my mind at the moment?
Ashen Wings: "Cancerous
Bones" I wanted something really inspired by the catchiness of Vader and
it's really turning into one of the songs we always play live. The riffs on
there are very high energy and I wanted something that would work well in a
live setting, which I think that song does.
"Devastate the Palaces" is a very old Death Metal song I wrote
in the early 2000's. We've toyed with adding it into the Ashen Wings fold, but
who knows if that will ever come to be. I actually don't remember the
inspiration behind that song. "Firerealm" was born out of a project I
was working on with my friend who is now in Pathos Sutra. That song became
"The Great Devourer" and "Firerealm" is the original
version of the song, but this is very different from what it ended up becoming.
Lady Kat Chaos:
“The Great Devourer” appears on both sides of this release. What was your
reasoning behind this?
Ashen Wings: One is the rehearsal
recording from 2014 and the B-side version is an old studio recording made
before Ashen Wings even existed. My friend Sean and I were intending to do our
own project called Adversarian, but life and time made this hard to work out. I
really did like the song, so when I was asked to participate in Ashen Wings, I
proposed adding it to our setlist and the other guys loved it, so here it is in
its slighlty re-arranged form.
Lady Kat Chaos:
As many know I am not a huge fan of cover songs, but you did a great job with,
Vader’s “Carnal”. How did you feel this would make a great ending song for side
A?
Ashen Wings: Thanks, I think a lot of
the other material is heavily rooted in the Polish Death Metal style, so ending
with "Carnal" made a lot of sense. Since we wanted it in our set list
we had to keep the choice on the shorter side, but it's a song I have always
loved ever since I saw Vader on their "Black to the Blind" tour.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Which are you favorite songs off this demo that you enjoy playing live?
Ashen Wings: "Cancerous
Bones" is one of our favorites to play by far. We've used it as a closer
for quite some time, but we're thinking about changing up our set list now. I
actually quite enjoyed "Carrion Eater", because the chorus sounds
really good in a Khold kind of way.
Astarothria
Myurr: It was a short run with only having 66 copies. How fast did it sell out?
Ashen Wings: It didn't, we still have
a lot of copies. I think it will be a while before we sell out of all these
tapes, to be honest.
Lady Kat
Chaos: When creating your EP “Echoes of
Carnage”, did you choose the songs most of your friends and fans enjoyed who
were unable to get a copy of your demo? Is this CD still available?
Ashen Wings: The EP is still, sort of
available,we've been trying to make more from time to time as people order
them. When we get a properly pressed full-length, we'll probably stop making
the EP and leave bandcamp as the only way to get it.
Lori DeLuca: One
day do you hope other bands will follow in your footsteps?
Ashen Wings: I'm
not sure what I would say to other bands coming up. I actually got into a
conversation about this recently in terms of giving advice. Aside from luck
being a massive factor the most you can do is work on things the best you can.
We are very fortunate to find a group of people that want to play this music
together, many musicians out there are not lucky in these regards, especially
when it comes to playing some variant of Black Metal in my area. Music is an
extremely subjective realm in which to work and as soon as you step on stage
people will judge you. If you're not convincing enough or sound good enough it
can really hurt people's perceptions. I think we can bring a serious and
convincing way about our sound to the stage, which people respond to favorably.
I'm not sure how much someone can really "practice" this kind of a
thing. I know I did not. It's just something I've seen other musicians do when
I attended shows growing up. I really appreciated the serious approach to their
craft and the lack of a "stage show", which was very counterintuitive
to a live setting. It was like a giant middle finger to all the pomp of the
popular 80's style. I mean, sure you'd have some of the bands do corpse paint,
but they didn't do much beyond that. They kind of just stood on stage and let
the music speak for itself and that's what I try to do as well.
Lady Kat Chaos:
When speaking of perceptions of a band. There will be times where a band is
better off in the studio compared to a live setting and vice-versa. How do you
try to maintain the same for both?
Ashen Wings: We'll see how that holds
up on the full-length. For me, when I am writing Ashen Wings material, I am
trying to design material that will work well in a live setting. This is a very
different intention when I write for my studio projects. If the material
translates to a studio setting nicely, all the better. I think the new songs
will work well in a studio, much better than what is on the EP even. With
sounding good live, I think it just comes down to sheer practice. We practice
quite a bit.
Astarothria
Myurr: How do you feel about theatrical stage settings or props?
Ashen Wings: I wouldn't use them for
anything, but I prefer more of a minimalist approach to things. If someone's
music is actually really enhanced by this stuff then they should use it. I've
seen bands that go for theatrics and that's all they had, because the music
didn't do much. Other times bands will add a little something to their stage
set, not much, but it really makes the experience a lot more engrossing. This
is how it was seeing Sortilegia live.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Mgła
did the split 'Crushing the Holy Trinity 'with Clandestine Blaze, Deathspell
Omega, Musta Surma, Stabat Mater and Exordium in 2005. I have noticed that
their full length 'Exercises in Futility' released last year most will say it
was one of the best albums released. Yet, now many are just finding about them.
Are you a fan of Polish Black Metal scene?
Ashen Wings: I'm a huge fan of the
Polish Black and Death metal scene. The Ashen Wings sound is really drawn
mostly from that region. But I'll go after bands as well-known as Infernal War
to as obscure as Pustota as far as my interests go in Poland. I try to follow
their scene as closely as I can from this far away. Anyway, even though I
didn't think "Exercises in Futility" wasn't as good as "With
Hearts Towards None", I really think it's about time Mgła got the
recognition they are getting. They're an extremely hard working band and very
good at their art and concepts, so it's very well deserved. I've had the
pleasure of seeing them live twice and both times were spectacular.
Lady Kat Chaos:
Do you create mainly on acoustic 12 strings? And speaking of creating you have
been working on your debut album since last year. How is the process coming a
long? Have you decided on a title or is it still being thought about?
Ashen Wings: I mostly create music on
an electric guitar. I've never owned an acoustic, sadly. Often times I just
play the electric without amplification and write music that way. We've been
working on trying to write for a while. I had to record a full-length for a
different project over the past few months and with how often Ashen Wings plays
live, it's been very difficult to find time to write. Now that my recording
process is completed, I'm hoping we can focus on writing our own music a bit
more. Half the new songs don't even have titles or lyrics yet, so I'm not even
at the album title stage. The only thing working in that department is an overarching
concept to the lyrics.
Astarothria
Myurr: Will this be a concept album or is it too early to tell?
Ashen Wings: I don't think it will be
a full on concept album like some bands put together. I think this will be more
of a growing theme throughout the lyrics, rather than having a full story being
told as each track goes on.
Lady Kat Chaos:
When composing your music over a certain time, do you feel you have evoked the
right feelings with your musical compositions?
Ashen Wings: Not always. Ashen Wings
writes considerably faster than I'm used to and a lot of times I feel that
things can get a little clunky with the way evoke certain atmospheres. The real
question I often have as a writer is whether or not there is a certain charm in
that? Is that a feature or would it be better to write a far more cohesively
flowing album or song? As a writer I'm extremely concerned with the way music
flows from one track to the next or within a song. I'm trying to get better at
harnessing this power, but it is very difficult and often I feel like an
amateur crafting thing so messily. But perhaps that chaotic structure is
something of a boon for Ashen Wings. It certainly feels that the riffs I write
vs. what Meraxes writes can be at odds with each other, but perhaps that
conflict is a good thing.
Astarothria
Myurr: Are you more comfortable writing riffs in the veins of Death Metal or
Black Metal more?
Ashen Wings: I am definitely more
comfortable writing Black Metal. I find it hard to write Death Metal riffs,
despite what the song "Cancerous Bones" might have you believe with
it's main riff. Sometimes, I feel I have to pull back with the Black Metal
parts, such as if I write something that is more fitting for a more raw styled
Black Metal song, which is a vein Ashen Wings doesn't really write in.
Lady Kat Chaos:
When it comes to writing new material for different projects, do you ever find
it difficult to choose which riff will go to what project? And indeed we will
not discuss your other project nor shall it be asked of you by others.
Ashen Wings: Yeah, there are not
enough details ready for the other project yet. So, perhaps another day when I
know more about it. Sometimes it's very difficult to write for the two. Some of
the riffs in Ashen Wings almost certainly belong in the other, but we wound up
incorporating them into Ashen Wings instead. Mostly because they are good
riffs, but I didn't know where to take the other project just yet. I have more
direction now in that regards, so it's getting easier to separate them. It
helps if you have a distinct vision in mind for your sound, but Ashen Wings is
such an amalgamation of sounds and influences that it's a little hard at this
stage to see where things should go. We're running into that 3rd album problem
I referenced above.
Lady Kat Chaos:
At times it can be difficult to create a new opus. Do you ever get frustrated
and walk away from it for a few weeks?
Ashen Wings: Absolutely. I definitely
take a step away from things. We've actually written quite a few riffs that we
have no idea what to do with them. They're good riffs, but they just don't
really fit anywhere. Maybe someday we will reconcile the problem, but I don't
see it coming up anytime soon. All I know, is I feel like we're writing as a
more cohesive unit, so that's a very good thing. For me, the time I really need
to step away from music is after recording an album. The recording process
usually makes me really dislike what we work on, because I have to listen to
the songs over and over too much. So, I spend a few weeks away from music as a
whole and then I come back to what we made and think "hey, this actually
isn't too bad!"
Lady Kat Chaos:
With a mixture of death metal, black metal and including atmospheric regime.
Can you tell the reason for showing such diversity within your releases and do
you feel it’s more accepted compared to back in the days because both scenes
were once divided?
Ashen Wings: To me, the scenes
weren't divided for very long. I mean, if you think about when the current
style of Black Metal came into existence it was only a few years later that
Necrophobic hit the world with this style. I think the Death Metal vs. Black
Metal is more accepted today... then again I don't think it was ever an issue
in the U.S. like it was in Europe. The early Norwegian scene, at least, really
had it out for Death Metal calling it things like "Life Metal", but
at the end of the day I'm still going to listen to Vader and Suffocation etc. I
think this was always more accepted out in the US. Now Black/Death is just a
style that has existed so long that no one seems to really care anymore. You
even have Norwegian greats like Gehenna releasing albums like
"Murder", so I don't think anyone cares anymore.
Lady Kat Chaos: I
still see a good handful who will not accept it.
Ashen Wings: That's fine, they don't
have to, the music isn't being made for them specifically anyway. I mean, if
someone is so arrogant as to think a band writes music just for them, they're
just crazy.
Astarothria
Myurr: Have you ever written a riff and then tried to play it backwards to see
what it would sound like?
Ashen Wings: Certainly, when I was
recording a guitar line on my four track back in high school I played the tape
backwards and used it in one of my early demos. But that's going back to
like... 1996 maybe?
Lady Kat Chaos: A
brief history. . . Ashen Wings, was thought about 2013, when both J.M.
(drummer) and Meraxes (lead guitarist) decided to create a death metal side project.
In 2015 Rahovart filled the bass position (now left and have a new bassist, but
with you M. joining in 2014 as the vocalist and rhythm guitarist, do you feel
because of your black metal background the direction of Ashen Wings changed to
blackened death metal band?
Ashen Wings: I don't think my
involvement is what changed it. Meraxes and J.M. are pretty influenced by
things like Behemoth and Azerath's style, so that was already there. We've just
tried to blend my writing style into the project. On the EP most of the songs
are either composed by me or Meraxes individually. The only one I think is a
true joint effort is "Carrion Eater". All the other songs might have
a single riff contribution from the other guitarist, but the other songs definitely
have a primary author in my mind. The new material we're writing is very
different from the EP. It's got a certain atmosphere and quality to the
material that just feels different for me.
Lori DeLuca: How
did you come up with your bands name?
Ashen Wings: The band name came out
of a song title, actually. We had songs, we had lyrics, but we had no band
name. One of the songs we had was called "Ashen Wings" and Meraxes
came to practice one day and said "you know, that actually might make for
a good band name". So, we checked around the internet to see if anyone had
a name like that already, and no one did! Lucky for us. All of us tend to
prefer one word names for things, but sadly in today's age, just about all the
good single word names for metal bands are taken!
Astarothria
Myurr: By all means brother, I mean no denigrate, but many lately have been
using their magic names for their personal name. I am honestly intrigued with
yours, “M.”. There can be many different meanings that comes into mind such as
“M.” is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, The 13th in a series, in
mathematics terms million, Roman numeral 1000, measure, medium, mass, meter), a
symbol of magnetization, general Physics (mutual inductance), in chemistry
(chem molar), majesty, metal, medievil, and even also in astronomy which it’s
also listed in numerical system that has been cluster with Hercules. Would you
care to share how your name about or will it remain a mystery? Do you think
that some may confuse you with M. from Mgla?
Ashen Wings: I hadn't considered the
possibility for confusion, but the M. stands for Metatron. Which came out of an
interest in the ancient stories of the Middle East. I was really into the
history of things like Sumer when I was in school. Anyway, where most bands
often take the names of demons, when I was reading stories in the Bible you
come across this term "Seraphim" and often these are thought of as
angels. But in further looking into the lore of things, they are actually giant
fiery serpents... so like the common images of Satan as the grand dragon, I
thought this would be an interesting choice. Metatron is also called the scribe
of God, and there is even a legend of him sitting on the throne of God, in
which the teller exclaims "there is more than one God in heaven." I
thought this was a wonderful thing, because it undermines the concepts of
monotheism so heavily. Perhaps choosing such a name for myself is a bit of
arrogance, but my intention wasn't to proclaim myself as God over others... at
least outside of the notion that we are, all of us, our own gods, in the sense
that we are the ones responsible for our own lives. I'm not so into these
things today, but that is where the name comes from. That was over ten years
ago and I'm not sure changing my pseudonym would be all that worth it.
Shortening it to M. has more to do with my disinterest in the implications the
name brings up, but I have already published under this name... so changing it
now seems like a poor idea. I don't know, I am still on the fence about the
whole thing, to be perfectly honest.
Lady Kat Chaos: I
know you need to head out and I thank you for this interview. Any last comments
you like to make before I lock you out of my hellish throne?
Ashen Wings: Yeah, I think you will
always have some division, but in the grand scheme I don't think people worry
about it so much. I guess, all I can say is thanks for having me and thanks to
anyone that gives Ashen Wings a chance. Have a good night.
