ASH PRISON
American industrial metal coalition Ash Prison was formed around 2021 by Matt Auxier of electro-industrial act 6th Circle on guitars and electronics, by bassist J. Thompson of East Coast darkwave cult Child Ov Night, and by California-based Italian vocalist M. Alagna of Abstracter, Somnolent and ex-Atrament. Having met online after being both Sentient Ruin artists, Alagna and Auxier had gone back and forth for some time prior throwing around ideas for a dark metal-infused industrial project following their shared appreciation for bands like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, G.I.S.M. and Slayer, along with a mutual love for goth and darkwave, death industrial, and punk. Auxier wrote, composed and mixed the bulk of the band's 2023 debut full-length album "Future Torn" at his home studio in midst of the COVID pandemic while also handling guitars and all the electronics, while Thompson (an old friend of Auxier) was tasked with the bass tracks (also recorded remotely from the East Coast), and Alagna composed lyrics and recorded vocals from his home base of Oakland CA. The ensuing work materialized as a sonic molotov launched straight and bigotry, ignorance and corruption, with dark, spiteful political commentary in the lyrics delivered by a hateful, ominous vocal delivery inspired by black metal and Japanese punk, and a vitriolic onslaught of cold heavy industrial electronics, pummeling drum machines, scorching electric guitars and smoldering bass lines. "Future Torn" was complemented on the visual side by pertinent artwork by xerox/high contrast Canadian visual master P. Van Trigt, depicting an embittered, ominous corpse-like figure glaring through wires (an empty worthless remnant of the delusion of consumerism) while the mastering behind the album’s raw and blown out sound was handled by iconic underground punk audio engineer Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios.