Ashen Sun is not a comeback. It's a retreat inward. Johnny Hagel, bassist and co-writer for Tiamat and Sundown for many years, didn't leave the stage to seek light. He left it to distill darkness. This time without a band, without discussion, without compromise. Everything self-built. Everything alone. That's exactly how it sounds.
The project emerged quietly in 2024, almost shyly, written in isolation. You can hear it immediately. Ashen Sun sounds like closed rooms, like thoughts that no longer wander but become stuck. Like a world that doesn't explode but slowly darkens, like a room where someone gradually dims the light and forgets to turn it back on.
Musically, Ashen Sun occupies the borderland between dark gothic rock and cold electronica. A backbone of cold wave synths, overlaid with 90s melancholy that doesn't wink nostalgically but remains serious. Cinematic textures creep through the songs without pandering or trying to sound modern. No trend, no update, no algorithm. Hagel calls it "a requiem for fading empires and dying stars." Pathos? Yes. Undeserved? No.
Following the first single, "Faith's Funeral," which surprisingly quickly garnered playlists and reactions, the six-part EP "Velarium" will be released on March 27, 2026. Lyrically, "Velarium" isn't a monotonous gray, but rather a palette of various shades of black. There's the claustrophobia of a cynical mind. Devotion that tips and corrodes. Cities that vanish in smoke. A wheel that keeps turning because it can do nothing else. The titular apocalyptic backdrop of "Velarium." And finally, this misty piece in which sleep repeatedly drags the dead into the room.
Ashen Sun is not a consolation prize. It's a cold mirror. And sometimes that's more honest than any light…
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"Dravens Tales from the Crypt" has been enchanting for over 15 years with a tasteless mixture of humor, serious journalism - for current events and unbalanced reporting in the press politics - and zombies, garnished with lots of art, entertainment and punk rock. Draven has turned his hobby into a popular brand that cannot be classified.
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