Ashdöd

Ashdöd is a European stenchcore duo that joins forces between Mieres (Asturias-Spain) and the Czech Republic. A band formed by Dani Olivar (Gruesome Stuff Relish and Obsessed by Speed  among many other projects/bands) and Martin Bilos from Malignant Tumour and a true European underground veteran.

First , we´ll start with courtesy. Welcome to Vinilako´s Blog and thank you for the precious time you spent in answering this mail.

1.- First question is: Do you keep an account of  all the material that has been published from your bands and do you have any copies of all the Eps, Cassettes, Cds, Lps or Splits? I ‘ve counted  48 Malignant Tumour releases and 40 recordings in which Dani appear, from both past and current projects published in underground labels across the world.

D: Wow, that´s a lot of stuff! I think you counted wrong hahaha! The truth is that in the last years I´m just trying to finish things off. I have many hard disks full of projects I didn´t  culminate. There are just ideas, songs or even full albums that ,I think, will never emerge. And answering your question… yes, I try to own at least one copy of everything that is released.

B: Holy shit, I never counted all records I made with my band or with any of project i participated in. Sorry but it should be more than hundred, I guess. Sill nothing to Agathocles guys, right? Hahaha. Even, I am trying to have at least one copy of every recording  I am on, one way or another, I probably don´t have all of them. I don´t really know.

2.- Can you make a summary of  what you´ve been doing along these last years? Current bands and projects.

D: Lately I´ve been involved in a lot of projects and bands. I´m full focused on Gruesome Stuff Relish and Obsessed by Speed. And in my free time I´m preparing nothing less than two repertories for a pair of new Garage Rock bands. One of them is a classic 60´s Garage and the other band is a more Punk focused one. In terms of projects, I have many going on at the same time. I just change from one to another when inspiration comes to me. I´m making Gore Grind / Death with Dead Hand Caress, Blackened Punk with Industrial and Sludge sonorities in Mörkt and raw Punk in Cromograma. Papagore Six is an art project and a studio band in itself. We are recording stuff that includes texts as  fundamental part of the songs, wrapping them. And of course Ashdöd, a project that evolved as a band.

I never know Dani would ask me, but material from him was really excellent so I put my voice to his music.

B: It´s four years when last Malignant Tumour album was released, so there were certain time to promote this record with gigs and whole time we are making new music for next album but it going very slow, I have to say. And because I am also into very extreme music, so meanwhile I joined grindcore project called Pure, with some ex members of Ingrowing and we made one minialbum so far. Then Dani got me into Ashdöd. This was pure magic, I never know Dani would ask me, but material from him was really excellent so I put my voice to his music. Yeah. These days I started a very oldschool pathological grindcore project called Sick Sinus Syndrome with my friend Jurgen, who is knows as ex guitarist of Ahumado Granujo band, but he plays drums and he is really tight and fast. We are currently working on first album. This is gonna be some gore grind sounding thing from end of 80´s and early 90´s.

3.- How does the idea of recording these six songs arise? Is Ashdöd built to last? If that´s the case, are you going to perform live? Or it´s just a one-off collaboration?

D: As I was saying, Ashdöd started as a project. I made almost all the songs in about two weeks but when it was the time to record the vocals I realised that I just couldn´t because of the COVID lockdown. So I called Martin and he agreed to record the vocals. It was such an honour for me to have Martin in the project. The situation in Czech Republic was not better than in Spain, but he managed to record the tracks and I mixed them with all the music in my small studio. We are considering the possibility of performing live. We have a new Zcech member playing drums that I hope will record his tracks in future Ashdöd releases so… the band is almost complete. Maybe, we can make some shows together when this strange situation ends and, who  knows what else? For the moment more songs are been done, maybe a new Ep or maybe something bigger it´s coming around!

B: We are both, many years, in underground scene so it was same honour for me when Dani called me. In fact, I was a bit in shock and I immedately say yes. And the rest is history. Hahaha. About new songs, I am sure that Dani have certain plan, so I will wait till he will make new songs. I am sure it will be great material again!!! So if our cooperation will stay or if there will be any live shows in future, it all depence on Dani. This is, how it should be, because Ashdöd is his project!

4.- I perceive the Ep with a fierce sound. How will you describe your sound and what kind of  topics  inspire you when writing the lyrics? Does Ashdöd have any kind of meaning?

D: When crafting the songs I intentionally tried to sound like my favourite racords from the nineties. Disrupt , State of Fear , Genocide SS or Disclose were my references in terms of overall sounding. For the lyrics we both fully agreed with the anti-war topic. For me, wars are mostly intented to serve capitalism and his bloody profits. Ashdod is a town in Israel that Martin discovered in one of his trips. He liked how it sounds and we just added the dieresis for a northen punk feel. Hahaha!

B: Same as music, Dani wrote the lyrics and his aim was to make anti war lyrics which i found very good and very contemporary topic as you can see whole world situation. War is on horizon…

About Ashdöd… I found it when I was on tour in Israel and I saw a city sight from the highway. So it´s a name of a town… but it sounds great!!! We just put the ö to make it more crusty! Hahaha!

5.- Apart from Driller Killer, from whom you make a cover on the Ep, which bands may have influenced your music in the making of this record? How is it different from your main bands?

D: In the last question I explained our influences in terms of sound, but for the song structures and singing style I must name a few more. Driller killer of course is in the list but I must add Discharge , Disgust , early Disfear and Wolfpack. This project is so different from my other bands. It can resemble Obsessed by Speed a bit but it´s a complete different approach to Stenchcore since OBS is a rock infused Crust band with Spanish written lyrics.

B: Yes, I like very much Driller and Dani choose very good song, one of my favorite, really. I am wondering what guys from Driller will say when they will hear that.

6.- Who is the cover illustrator? Has he designed any other record releases?

D: He is Raulo Caceres. A gifted cartoonist and illustrator from Cordoba. He has designed a bunch of record covers. “Metaphysical Failure” from the band Sine Die or “Homicidal Ideation” from Goreatorium are two of them. You can contact him at raulocaceres.es .

7.- What kind of music have you been listening to lately? Has any band surprised you? How do you describe the underground scene these days? Do you think this new vinyl resurface benefits the underground scene? Dani: With this release you start your label Devil Elvis Records. Apart from having more control over your work, what else motivates you in order to have your own label?

I must say that I´m a man with eclectic taste in music. I love extreme music but I like a lot of different genres too. I can listen to Bebop Jazz, Garage Rock, Crust Punk, Doom Rock or Metal and Classical Music all in one day!

D: I must say that I´m a man with eclectic taste in music. I love extreme music but I like a lot of different genres too. I can listen to Bebop Jazz, Garage Rock, Crust Punk, Doom Rock or Metal and Classical Music all in one day! I´ve been listening to a lot of  60´s Garage Rock and 80´s Garage Revival lately. What never dissapears from my list are all the Swedish Death Metal classics from the 90´s. You know, Bands like Entombed , Dismember , Edge of Sanity, Grave and of course, early Carcass albums.

A band that surprised me lately is Blood Incantation. I think “Hidden History of Human Race” is such a masterpiece, I love it. And Benediction´s last album is killer stuff too.

I´m afraid the underground scene is slowly fading away. I can not see young people at the shows, just a few of them here and there. I don´t see kids wearing band shirts on the streets. Maybe these are just cycles, maybe we did something wrong along these years, I don´t know… we must try our best to bring our music to the young generations before it´s too late. We must persevere and never give up. Maybe this COVID situation is an opportunity for us to re-start the scene when this mess finally ends.

Vinyl and cassette tapes are intrinsically linked to the underground scene. I hate CDs and I can just name a few friends of mine that like the format. So, I think that the more vinyl records available the better for the scene.

Having my own label (focused on vinyl records) means that I´m trying to do my bit in keeping the scene alive. Nothing more, nothing less.

We are old, so I like to see youngsters who kicking asses to us, old boilers. They have to take over the scene and make it stronger.

B: Well, I am a bit veteran, you know, hahaha. So music I like is the same what i liked when I was getting into this extreme music scene and it´s over 30 years now. I love 80´s metal music, dirty rock n roll, german thrash, britcore and the grindcore music. I am not really into any other musical styles as Dani. Sometimes i am listening diferrent music, but don´t ask me for names. Oh yes, i can say Kosheen as singer Sian is my good friend, but I beter drink vodka with her than listening her music, hahaha.

There were some bands who surprised me lately, oh yes. Czech thrash trio called Faüst, they are fantastic live band. Or this very oldschool death metal from Prague named Snet. And i like they are young blood in the scene. It´s very important. We are old, so I like to see youngsters who kicking asses to us, old boilers. They have to take over the scene and make it stronger. This is only way how all we build, can survive.

8.- Which is your favourite time of the day for music composing ?

D: Ha ha ha, everytime inspiration comes to me! I can jump from my bed in the middle of the night or stop eating my dinner just to take the guitar or the notebook! The sad part is that many many times this occurs while I’m at work. Sometimes, I can take a note for later but most of the times ideas get lost forever.

B: If I am home so this is always early morning. Sometimes I am going very early morning to rehearsal room to compose. Evening I am exhausted mostly, so no ideas comes to my mind.

9.- This one is for Dani, can you tell me which is the main task for an endorser? And congrats for your Skull Strings deal!

Thank you! For me,it is such an honour to be part of the Skull Strings family. They not just manufacture one of the best strings for Metal and beyond in the world but they have an eye in the underground scene supporting it. I see an endorsement as a kind of mutual visibility. I think it benefits both parts.

10.- Lastly, would you like to place a written statement of any personal, political, social or whatever subject?

D: This quote appears in our Ep “Murder Awaits”: “Bring back the noise against War!” And noise is not just music!

B: Thank you boys and girls for reading this. Stay safe in these weird times and see you sooner or later in front of stage!!!

You can get this 10″ by contacting the labels that have participated in its co-publication:

Fasting Records, Vinilko Records, T-ShirtsFuzz, Devil Elvis, Base Records, Hecatombe Records, Crust as Fuck.