Interview: Shannon Over from Ashen, Australia (Death Metal)

Who doesn’t love some proper Death Metal? Well, if you answered “YES!” … then you’ll love Western Australian outfit, Ashen. Steve, from Aeons Abyss, just interviewed their guitarist, Shannon Over … and here is the result!

Introduce yourself, who is in your band, and when did you first start?

Hi There, My Name is Shannon Over and I am the Guitar Player for ASHEN. We also have Richard Clements: Vocals, Ben Mazzarol: Drums, Josh Harris: Bass
Ashen was officially conceived in 2019 however we’ve all been playing in bands together in various forms for over a decade i.e. Vespers Descent, Burial Ground & Watercolour Ghosts …

“Ashen” is a proper Aussie Death Metal name. How did you come up with the name and can you tell us what it means?

This is a very personal and meaningful name..not really, it was actually the name of Richard’s childhood Cat haha…what is more Death Metal than naming your band after one of Satan’s Minions?!

Your debut EP “GODLESS OATH” releases in July 2021. What are 3 things we need to know about this release?

Well the main thing to know is that it Chuggs, we wanted to write groovy headbanging Death Metal and prioritising the song itself over anything else was our goal here. “Godless Oath” was mixed and mastered in Sweden by Marko Tervonan of “The Crown“

What is your favourite track and why?

For me personally “Asphyxiant” has some elements in the playing you wouldn’t normally hear in a DM song which to my ears sounds cool.

Your album artwork is immense! Who did the artwork and what is the story behind the image?

Yes! The artwork is outstanding and was created by Giannis Nakos (Greece) who has his own design company called Remedy Art and Design, he’s a really great dude to deal with and a super talented metal head, we asked for something in the vein of some really classic 90s DM albums and BOOM this is what he came back with, really outstanding work. He has produced work for Suffocation, The Crown to name a few.

What other bands would potential listeners of your music enjoy?

Probably OSDM fans, people who dig the 90s DM era, we have been put in the OSDM category which is awesome but really it’s more like Old guy death metal lol, we all grew up listening too and playing this stuff in the 90s, we didn’t set out to be OSDM we are just playing what we know and like but hey if the shoe fits!

Tell us an unusual fact, or one funny story about your band

I dont really have any good anecdotes for you but it is funny to me that what i thought was just Death Metal is now called old school death metal, I think it should be changed to “Old guy death metal” more accurate lol

What have you got coming up in the next 6 -12 months

We have our EP Launch coming up here in Perth on July 31st at Lucy’s Love Shack with a bunch of cool bands: Coldfate, Suffer in Rot and Twin Serpents.
We are also releasing another track from the ep this week, there’s also something cool accompanying the track which we’re excited about releasing.We are also half way through the writing process of our first full length album and that’s sounding really cool, i’m excited to hear how these songs turn out on the finished product, fingers crossed it won’t be too long between releases.

What is it like being a Metal Musician in Perth, Australia?

It’s been awesome, with Covid we don’t get to see international acts which sucks and being the most isolated city in the world we do often miss out on Australian Tours from international bands but it does seem like the current Covid situation has people looking to local bands and musicians for an outlet where they normally might not have bothered, there seems to be a new found appreciation for homegrown talent and thats been really awesome.
We have quite a lot of amazing bands here for such a small place, bands like Depravity, Crypt Crawler, Doomcave to name a few so there is some real world class stuff to see.

Last question – How many times have you been attacked by a Drop Bear, and what did you do to defend yourself?

Dont get me started on those fucking drop bears, i only have my middle fingers left on each hand as result of these attacks, makes it tricky playing guitar but i am able to express my most frequent of emotions still so not too bad i suppose.