interview: Ascheregen

On February 15th, 2019 the debut album by Ascheregen (Germany) was released. The album is called Untot (Undead) and the music is perfect to the old-school heavy metal fans. Not knowing anything about the band, it was a good time to find out what this good-time band is all about. Let’s rock and roll!

Your album Untot (Undead) is a lot of fun, it’s like heavy metal for a party! Ascheregen is actually a new band, isn’t it? Tell us about it!

We are happy that you like our stuff. So first greetings to all our American metal fans. The band members have experience in other bands before. Andreas played with HAMMERSCHMITT and ASGARD and wrote guitar lines for bands like GRAVE DIGGER. Christina and Daniel also have been in bands before and I played in the early90ties in the German punk bands FREMDKÖRPER and SCHLEIFSTEIN. At that time I met Andreas for the first time and we did a project in 2007, but the stuff never got released because one of the members had a contract with another band. So we met again in 2017. Andreas worked with Daniel and Christina and two guys of the former line-up, so we came together, because they asked me for the second voice in the first song. Now we also have a new drummer, Detlef Schröder. He also is experienced in music, he is the drum teacher at the music conservatory in Frankfurt.

Who is answering this interview?

My name is Marc Debus alias Kaleun Cronos in the band. I’m one if the two vocalists, the other one is Lilith.

Now that the album is out. Are shows next?

Yes, we are planning to play shows and we are also working on new material for the next album in a few weeks.

Have the metal music publications done reviews of the album? What about radio? Where can fans hear the complete album?

Yes, there are a lot of reviews, some like the stuff, others don’t like it. They say metal with German vocals sounds horrible. Hahaha! The problem of a prophet in their own country! but for us it’s not a reason to stop our music. Because others like it, we have enough motivation to continue our work. In Germany we had our release show as a radio show on metal-fm.com and they also played our album. Also, the metal-crash.de radio played our songs. You can find the “Untot” official video on Youtube and “Lass es raus” from a live show in 2018. Also you can find the other songs on Youtube, but not at the same quality as on our album. You can buy this worldwide on Amazon. So please buy the album! Better for us. hahaha

The song “Untot” seems like a horror movie situation, but what about the song “Hey Christina”?

“Untot” is about a horror movie, because of the hype around TV shows like the “Walking Dead”. But you also can hear the song as a critique on people, following a system without will of their own. So there are two messages in this song. “Hey Christina” is the story of a girl with some mental problems, because of her surroundings, friend, job etc. Problems everybody knows in their own life, so everybody knows the feeling.

The song “Tod im Ascheregen” (“Death in Ashfall”) is a ballad love song, but it is the story of a brutal way of dying ha ha!! Then the song “Hau ab” is an anti-love song! How much of your music and lyrics is German humor that only German rock fans would understand?

“Tod im Ascheregen” is like you say a ballad about a hard part in someone’s life. A soft song about a hard time. “Hau ab” means “Go away” and it is a anti love song, about a relationship in its end. She says GO AWAY, because he was a dirty bastard! hahaha. But everybody can understand the meaning after a translation! It’s not only for Germans, its universal.

Ascheregen is old-school heavy metal but actually your band has female/male singing, the lyrics are in German and there are other surprises, like on the song “Wer bist du” (“Who are you?”) there is death metal growling! Therefore, Ascheregen music is also a bit rebellious against the rules. What is your opinion about experimenting a little bit with other genres in the music of Ascheregen?

Our main idea for our music, but we also like to add some things no one expects. We think the old metal also has influences from punk rock… see the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. Also some of the old punk bands like The Exploited do albums like “Beat the bastard” and that’s more metal! And every American metal fan knows, that Ross the boss from The Dictators is one of the founders of Manowar. So it always was a crossover. You talk about the vocals on “Wer bist du”. It’s not really a growling, because you can understand the words! hahaha But you are right. We like to do strange things sometimes. We hope for the listeners it’s fun, because they get different kinds of cake, not only ten pieces of the same one.

The song “Schnell wie ein Hai.” Every fan of old heavy metal in Germany knows exactly, exactly the title, right?! Is it your tribute to Accept? Maybe on the next album you will have a song called “Rock dich wie ein Hurrikan”?

Nice! You see the idea behind the song! and yes!! It’s a tribute to the old ACCEPT line up with Udo Dirkschneider! If you search you will find the shark also on the cover of the album on the left side. Accept is still a great band, but we are oriented towards the old metal stuff, that’s what we want. Also the song “Rockgott” (“Rock God”) is an homage to Ronnie James Dio, one of the best metal voices ever in our opinion.

The keyboards have the classic and fun feeling of 1980s. How were you able to find the right keyboard player?

That feeling was our intention bringing Daniel into the band. He is a fabulous key-player and we like to create the feeling of the old sounds. We think its old but also modern, because a lot young people listen to that music again. We like it and we don’t change it! … It’s a part of our music and gives us the possibility to sound reminiscent of the 80s.

Do you have any other news? When will you be coming to play in Seattle?! Maybe I need to buy a plane ticket and go to Frankfurt to catch a show!

Playing in Seatle is a good idea, I think. You can invite us and we will come! hahahahaha. But you are always welcome to attend our shows in Germany! Same we can say to each American metal fan. I would also like to extend some greetings to my good friends in Virginia Beach, Gorden, Kent, Kent and Fender. I shared some open stages with them and that was always fun, to play some German-Blues. Cheers to all our American fans, rock on and never forget to drink some beer when you do it!!!!!!

ascheregen.bandcamp.com