Biography

ASHTAR is a duo from Basel, Switzerland, formed in 2012. They create an intense hybrid of down-tuned archaic riffing, heavy bass and desperately sick vocals with layered, eerie-saturnine melodies. Appearances at such esteemed festivals as Under the Black Sun and Doom Over Vienna underline their crossover appeal to listeners of both Black Metal and Doom and Extreme metal enthusiasts in general. In the studio the duo play all the instruments themselves. In their live formation ASHTAR are a quartet with two onstage guest guitarists. In 2014 ASHTAR recorded their debut album "Ilmasaari" with mixing handled by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler in his Priory Recording Studio in Birmingham, UK. A year later the album saw release on multiple formats via multiple labels: CD by Czar of Crickets, vinyl by Throne Records, cassette by Antiq. Following its release "Ilmasaari" received excellent reviews worldwide, with special recognition coming from Tom Gabriel Fischer (Celtic Frost/Triptykon) in the German Deaf Forever magazine, where he listed the album in his personal top 10 for 2015. During the interim ASHTAR took to the stage, playing across Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Austria and their home of Switzerland. With that momentum patiently building, ASHTAR entered the studio at Helium Records in Basel with Ramon Vaca and began work on their second album during the summer of 2019. Bearing the title "Kaikuja", it has at last arrived and eclipses the mountainous, miasmic might of their debut.