Onofrio: Thank you Thomas! Yes, we think that an interview can be the best way to explain the artist's perspective and sharing interesting elements with people

Onofrio: We're very satisfied. Deconstructive received tons of excellent reviews from every country. 95% of the criticts are completely positive, ranging from "very good" to "superb", and we consider it as a great result. A lot of people underlined the personality of the music, and our capability to compose great songs and not only complex music. Deconstructive is an album stylistically very ambitious: its personality has been really appreciated, and this makes us extremely happy. The appreciation gives us the awareness to have worked in the right direction, avoiding the imitation of most famous bands or more redditive trends.

Onofrio: I think that Deconstructive is mainly a prog-metal album full of different contaminations. Yes, we worked consciously in order to avoid every sort of power metal cliches, an approach started since the Flaws of elation's period (our first album). Prog and extreme music are the most important influences, and we've been trying to balance these two different souls since the beginning. So, our songs have a heavier and darker attitude than a normal prog or prog-power band but also a lot of mellow elements and refined passages more close to prog-rock. Our way to mix all these elements is very distant from the constrictions of a single genre and everyone can easily understand it after one listening. Honestly I feel that Deconstructive is a step in this direction, and our artistic path will lead us to introduce new elements, giving light to an evolution of our sound. The next album will be different as Deconstructive has been different from Flaws of elation. This doesn't mean a lack of personality, but a constant process of maturation that, in our opinion, every musician should experience as a songwriter. Definetely, to propose the same package of characteristics is not our cup of tea.

Onofrio: The Italian metal scene has grown enormously over the last 5-6 years in terms of visibility. Now, there are a lot of competitive bands in every sector. The period in which the Italian metal has been only a synonymous of power-metal and orchestration has definitely finished. The truth is that we have had dozens of very valid bands since the nineties but people didn't care about them. Labels were only interested in exploiting the power metal trends, and we saw the evolution of a saturated market full of clone bands. Now, the situation seems to be a little different and italian metal is gaining credibility. Honestly, I think there are dozens of Italian album which sound fresh, inspired, and professional.

Onofrio: yes, I think that since the release of the album in March, the visibility of the band has changed, growing every day. The new music's reception has been really excellent and the exposure has never been so high as now. We receive daily messages of appreciation from people of all ages and from different nationalities. People started to ask to us to play live in their countries, to buy our merchandise as never before, to visit our web-site and myspace-profile in a massive way. So, we can easily notice many differences from the last years. Of course we know to be only at the beginning of a long process but now we have the awareness to have a new fanbase that follows our activities, asking for gigs and new music

Onofrio: After the recording session of Deconstructive we sent promos to some selected labels. Lion Music contacted us doing their proposal and we choose to sign with them for a lot of reasons: first of all, Lion Music in recent years have released very high quality albums and so, to be in their roster, it's a reason of pride for us, a sort of certification of excellence for our music. Another aspect that should be underlined consists in the freedom they leave to their bands: there's a total respect of the band's vision, without any sort of pressures about music, artwork, lyrics and so on. Besides they have the right mix of professionality and capability to be always available and focused on the musician's needs.

Onofrio: in these last years a lot of italian bands signed with Lion Music, so you can understand that, in the end, it's very easy for us to have personal and friendly contacts with a big part of them. Personally, I really appreciated the last Seven Wonder and the last Astra, two examples of great prog music, but I've to admit that the large majority of the Lion's releases deserve to be listened because their qualities. With Astra, we also shared the stage in May, playing a couple of italian gigs, and I can say that they are great guys and fantastic musicians.

Davide: Usually Onofrio, the main composer of the band, submits the new material to the opinion of every bandmate. He usually sends a draft of the song, with a defined structure and some suggestions for every instrument. As soon as we receive the material we start working on our own parts, submitting the results to the other bandmates. We go on comparing our ideas until we realize that the new song is ready to be rehearsed. We work a lot with midi and mp3 files at our home so as we already know the new songs when we decide starting rehearsing the new material during our sessions. The new members enjoyed our work method immediately andsoon became an active part in the compositive process.

Davide: The main composer of the band is Onofrio. He is a sort of volcano that erupts music continuously! He always knows what he wants from Ashent and he is able to translate his intentions into music. Sometimes the other bandmates compose music for the band. For example, I'm the author of "A puzzle sentiment"(in "Flaws of Elation") and "Star-linked innerness" (in "Deconstructive"), Cristiano wrote "Ebb and flow of awareness" and Paolo composed "Music for departure" in our last release. I can say that all of as constributes in the composition, both in music and in the lyrics. We are a very democratic band !

Davide: I think it's our approach to music. We never start from pre-arranged schemes. We simply let the music coming out step by step, growing day by day, developing from an idea that we manipulate and mould during the composition. We never know how a song will be at the end. It happens that we upset it completely before the end. We can start thinking about a mid tempo track and then it becomes a fast song. We have no limits and we love to combine our own musical tastes and experiences.

Davide: Thank you for your kind words, we really appreciare them. Half of us are self-taught musicians: Ono and Gian took some lessons with a private teacher only in the beginning to learn the rudiments; I'm a completely self-taught drummer, but I've always been curious and I learnt a lot watching better drummers playing, asking them some advises and listening to a lot of music. The other half of the band studied music: Steve took lessons from private teachers; Cristiano studied at a musical academy; Paolo, our old keyboardist is graduated in piano at the conservatory ;Gilles, our new keys player studied both piano and saxophone at a music institute.

Onofrio: We are already composing the material that will be in the next album which probably will be ready for a release in the second half of 2010. About tours, we're working in order to play constantly across Europe. To be honest, we already worked for an European tour planned during the last April, but for a lot of reasons out of our control, the opportunity failed. Now we're working in order to tour in the next months.

Davide: every band-member grew up with different bands in his resepctive musical background. However, I can say that all of us have a bunch of bands or genres in common: all seventhies prog-rock (both foreign and italian scene), Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Death, melodic death metal; Cynic, Opeth, Dream Theater (until "Metropolis 2"), Pain of Salvation, Arcturus, Pink Floyd, Alan Parson's Project, some jazz and fusion stuff. All this music influences us every day together with everything interisting coming out day by day in the world.

Davide: I got into metal when I was about 12 years old. My first approach with heavy music was Guns'n'Roses' "Appetite for Destruction". The next steps were: Iron Maiden's "No prayer for the dying", Metallica's "Kill 'em all", Slayer's "Hell awaits" and Morbid Angel's "Blessed are the sick" with a lot of other bands in between these main stages. I think all of us got into metal around first adolescence. Onofrio: I fell in love when I was 11 or 12, when I listened for the first time to the Megadeth masterpiece "Peace sells but who's buying".

Onofrio: We don't like to consider particular bands as specific influences. We love to follow as listeners hundreds of bands but at the same time we don't like to use a band as a precise reference.

Davide: As I told you before, all of us listen to a lot of musical genres. Our favourites are: 70s prog rock, fusion, jazz, classical, extreme music but also electronic, soundtracks, symphonic, italian singer-songwriters and everything crazy and experimental out there

Onofrio: Deconstructive is not a concept album but there is a common thread in all the songs, a common theme raised by many points of view: the meaning of loss. The loss of something important for us, the loss of ourselves and our identity, the loss of a love. It's strange but every day we lose something, and this is what we wanted to describe in Deconstructive. The lyrics take inspiration from everyday life and from all that for us is a source of inspiration, even from other arts like cinema or literature.

Davide: Somenames above all? Novembre, Ephel Duath, Sadist, Hour of Penance, Klimt 1918 and Hypnotheticall.

Onofrio: Only one album? Ok, until now it should be "Crack the skye" of Mastodon, a great example of inspired music.

Onofrio: The last Dream Theater. It's only an OK album with nothing really remarkable, in my opinion.

Onofrio: Yes, I'm really curious to listen to the forthcoming albums of Katatonia, Nevermore, Soilwork, Pain of salvation, Devin townsend, Cynic, Kamelot and Novembre.

Onofrio: Keep in touch with us through our website at www.ashent.net or through the official Myspace page at www.myspace.com/ashentband. Don' t forget to support your passion called Music!