Hi Dani! How are you doing these days? Hope that you and your family are healthy.

Hi Alex, thank you for thinking of me for this interview, much appreciated! Everything fine here but trying to keep sane in these strange days. Continuous lockdowns and restrictions here in Spain are turning me a bit mad.

Could you share with us a short story about Ashdöd?

Everything started one year ago. I made all the music for a new project, a crustcore (or stenchcore as we used to call it back in the days) project. It had to be as a crustcore record should be in my opinion: noisy, chaotic and full of anger. When I had almost all the music done I realized that I wouldn’t be able to record the vocals because of lockdown. So I asked the ideal person to do it: Martin “Bilos” Bilek from MALIGNANT TUMOUR. He managed to do it (the situation in Czech Rep. was not better than in Spain) and the result was amazing. I am very thankful to him for accepting to do it and for the awesome work he did with those songs.

How much time it takes you to write (all stages of the creation) the whole album?

I usually work in, what I call, “creativity heat waves” hahaha! I work like mad for three to five days to make a bunch of songs. I always discard some of them and the result is an Ep of four to six songs, depending on the genre. Then I rearrange those songs for a few weeks and when everything sounds fine for me I record the vocals in one day. One week or so of mixing and mastering and the work is done. So, more or less, six weeks for an Ep of 15 minutes!

How do you like the reaction of people about this debut LP? And what can you say about “Murder Awaits”, how do you like the final result?

I´m very pleased with this album. It sounds exactly as I wanted. It´s fiery and rageous in the music. Martin´s vocals are just the icing on the cake. The set is just what I want from a crustcore album. I think people like it too, just good reactions for the moment!

I bet you`re old friends with Martin, but do you remember when and how do you met him for the first time?

The first time I met him was in Braga (Portugal).It was the Bracara Extreme Fest back in 2009. I was there playing with ALTAR OF GIALLO and MALIGNANT TUMOUR was headlining the festival. We didn´t even speak to each other there hahaha! So it was years later in Ostrava (his town) when we talked a bit. I was there with GRUESOME STUFF RELISH headlining an awesome festival called Guttural Gore Grind Mafia Fest.

I think this is not your first experience with long-distance projects. How do you like it? What is the hardest part of such work?

Yeah, it’s a kind of work I´m very used to do with my bands. It´s a bit cold, not very musical in terms of musician interaction but it´s amazing for developing projects like this or rehearsal new songs in the distance. Also for music arrangements or add tracks to certain songs. I like it but I prefer the eye to eye contact. I think it´s better for creativity.

Why do you choose crust genre? Both of you love gore as well, but somehow you ended with crust. How that happened?

I started playing the guitar in Grindcore bands back in the nineties, but we quickly changed our path to Crustcore. It´s a genre I love. It´s punk melted with metal and chaos. Contestatory and politically committed. It´s not only music or noise, it´s a way of thinking and living. We are in a world full of selfishness and individualism, capitalism reigns supreme all over the planet. I think that counterculture movements are more necessary than ever.

Obvious but necessary question. What`s about the transformation from a studio project to a real live band? Did you think about that?

Yes, we are seriously thinking about it, in fact, we have a drummer (Matus) who has joined the project and will record his tracks in future ASHDÖD works. The band is almost complete so, hypotetically, we can make some shows in the future. I hope this Covid madness will end someday and make it happen!

Could you share your next plans with us? Maybe there will be a split or EP or?

I will record some songs as soon as possible. Maybe just an Ep or maybe more… I never know! The process will be longer as I have to send the guide tracks to Matus to record his drum tracks and then make a mix to share with Martin for him to record the vocals. I think it will need a lot of hard work but I expect it to be more organic and interesting in musical terms.

Thank you so much for this talk. Hope to share a beer with you very soon!

I hope so, Sasha! It´s always a pleasure to do it, maybe at the next Obscene Extreme! Thank you for this interview and for keeping the flame alive. It´s tremendous work what you are doing with this blog.

Contacts:  bandcamp page