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Ashley Dayour

@ashleydayour

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is a part of @whispersintheshadow &
@thedevilandtheuniverse

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Goat Shows Autumn 2026. Who's coming?
First one next week!
Tickets for all shows now available.

#thedevilandtheuniverse
#ontour by @ashleydayour

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7 days ago

Here we go. That 9Album trend reminds me of the good old days, when people shared what they liked rather than what they hated, and nobody tried to convince you your taste was wrong. Social media was a nice place... once upon a time. Anyway, here's my 9 album thingy by @ashleydayour

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10 days ago

With faces like ours everyday is Halloween! DJ-lineup from last NEAR DARK: DJ Eraserhead, DJ Dust and Special Guest DJs Ashley and David from The Devil & The Universe.

#neardarkvienna #djeraserhead #gothicparty #dark80s #viperroomvienna taken in Viper Room Vienna by @ashleydayour

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16 days ago

30 Years of Whispers In The Shadow, Part XIV

Believe it or not, in 30 years we only released one EP. I don't really know why that is, and it never dawned on me until now. I guess I never really got the concept of an EP. Why not commit fully, write three or four more songs and have a complete album? Anyway, the EP in question was The Lightbringer EP (2011), and as it happens, the title track is our most successful song in terms of clicks and streams. I have mixed feelings about that song, though. It was one of the few times I sat down and wrote a song that was actually designed to please the audience. I wrote exactly what I thought our audience would like, and it turns out it worked.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like the track, but I honestly believe we have better songs in that category of upbeat Goth Rock stompers: "The Lost Souls," "Damned Nation" or "His Name Is Legion." Basically, they're all more or less the same song. Anyway, "Lightbringer" really hit the nail on the head, and we now play it a lot again. Live, it's one of those tracks that always works, especially when played after a slow song.

The EP included other unreleased material, and for the first time ever we recorded a cover version, Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan," which we had played at live shows for quite a while.

Around that time I got in contact with Artaud Seth of Garden Of Delight, who had just laid his band to rest and started a new one, Mercidul Nuns. He had also formed his own label, Solar Lodge, and he offered us a record deal. We said yes and off we went to record our next album, which would become "The Rites Of Passage". This was a very successful album in every sense. It also marked the point in our history when we became a bit bolder in terms of instrumentation, with a lot of oriental percussion on this album, as well as different guitar styles and a hammered dulcimer. I still absolutely love the arabesque-sounding "The Tempest," and "Back To The Wound" became one of our trademark songs and has been played at pretty much every show since then.

Read on in comments...

#whispersintheshadow by @ashleydayour

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18 days ago

AUTUMN SHOWS 2026 - The Goats are back:
24.10.26 Porta Nigra Festival, Aarschot (BE)
13.11.26 Nambucca, London (UK)
14.11.26 Ivory Blacks, Glasgow (UK)
28.11.26 Chelsea, Vienna (AT)

Tickets for all shows are now available.
Come and see the Goats in ecstasy!

Picture by @karokratochwil by @ashleydayour

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a month ago

30 Years of Whispers In The Shadow — Part XIII

After the success of our fifth album, Into The Arms Of Chaos, which to this day is considered by many to be one of our best releases, we started working on the follow-up pretty much straight away. I had the idea to expand the sound and overall theme of that album into a tetralogy, a 4-album cycle, with each album representing one stage of the alchemical process toward reaching the magnum opus, the great work. That means nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, and rubedo. Got it?

The next album, The Eternal Arcane, became a mixed affair. Some of our most beloved songs are on it, for example "If Uriel Falls," which we've played at pretty much every show since, and the goth-rock stomper "The Lost Souls," but the album itself is way too long. I wish we'd left some of the songs off. I think it's our longest release, and it shows a pretty broad spectrum of sound and style. There's acoustic stuff like "Blessing In Disguise," heavier songs like "The Wheel Of Pain" (a personal favorite of mine), pure gothic rock like "The Lost Souls" or "From Aeon To Aeon," and the epic, longer stuff like the title track and "Amenta Descending," a song we still play from time to time, as it's a favorite among all band members. The album is almost like a showcase of everything the band was capable of. The downside is that it's a bit unfocused.

The Eternal Arcane was recorded and produced by Zebo Adam and me in Vienna in autumn 2009. We recorded most of the tracks live in a room together and added overdubs or replaced parts later on.
It worked on some songs, on others not so much.

As was so often the case, a lineup change followed right after we finished an album. Our drummer, Curt, left the band before the album was actually released...

Read on in comments

Snow Promo Pictures by Manuela Melichar by @ashleydayour

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a month ago

Save the Date: NEAR DARK - October 3rd! This time we have Ashley and David from The Devil & The Universe as Special Guest DJs.

#neardarkvienna #viperroomvienna #gothic #thedevilandtheuniverse #dark80s taken in Viper Room Vienna by @ashleydayour

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a month ago

AUTUMN SHOWS 2026 - The Goats are back:
24.10.26 Porta Nigra Festival, Aarschot (BE)
13.11.26 Nambucca, London (UK)
14.11.26 Ivory Blacks, Glasgow (UK)
28.11.26 Chelsea, Vienna (AT)
Tickets for all shows are now available.
Come and see the Goats in ecstasy!

#thedevilandtheuniverse by @ashleydayour

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a month ago

There have been many unexpected turns in my life, things I never thought would happen. Turning from a true night owl into a full-on morning person is among them. People are generally surprised when they find out. I guess the Goth tag demands living at night. 😂

But there's nothing like enjoying a morning after a good night's sleep and a proper breakfast. A few hours before things start rolling, spending them with a good book (Tim Pope's Book is such a delight, i love it so much) , some great calm morning tunes, and Wilma on my lap.

Also, it's September. The light is absolutely beautiful.

I know the world has gone completely bonkers, and looking into the future gives you an uncanny feeling, but what good would it do to sit here and despair? No. I refuse to do that. I refuse to mirror the darkness! Nothing is going to change with beeing afraid and having a bad mood.

Enjoying every day as much as possible, as if it were the last one, it's been said so many times, I know, but — now is all we have, and the eternal now is what we're actually all after.

Having said that, I'm aware that so many of you are afraid about all the shit going on in the world. Germany, I feel you!

However, don't let the bastards grind you down. Even this will pass. You'll see.

Have a good day everyone! Love! taken in Wien Währing by @ashleydayour

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a month ago

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2 months ago

30 Years of WHISPERS IN THE SHADOW Part XII - 1/3

After some line-up changes and a rough patch, the band that had toured our 3rd album and written our 4th was finally back together. Our first show with that old/new line-up was at Szene Vienna in 2006. We recorded the gig and released it as a live album. A Cold Night is a document of that time. Listening back now, there's a real urgency to it, a noisy, ragged edge to the sound. It also turned out to be the last time we ever played some of the older songs, so in a way A Cold Night marks both an ending and a new beginning.

In 2007 we started writing new material. I'd already let go of the album we'd recorded back in 2005; it just wasn't meant to happen. What came next would turn into one of our most important and best-loved records. That same year, our first two albums, Laudanum and November, were also remastered and re-released through Alice In... Records. They'd been long out of print, so it was nice to finally have them available again. In 2008 I got in touch with Echozone Records, who agreed not only to release the album but also suggested we mix it in England with John Rivers, who'd worked with Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, Love & Rockets, and other bands we admired.

The recording itself still happened in Vienna, this time at Pink Basement Studios, owned by Zebo Adam, who'd been part of our original line-up and has since become a highly successful producer. With his help we got everything down fast, which is how we've always liked to work. I've never been one for endless tinkering in the studio; drag things out too long and you lose the urgency and rawness that, to me, matter far more than technical polish.

I remember recording most of my vocals in a single night session, during a huge storm. At one point the hallway of the studio actually flooded.

Once recording wrapped, Zebo and I flew to Leamington Spa to mix the album with John Rivers. It's still one of the best sounding records we've ever made. I remember hearing the final mix straight through for the first time and just feeling completely happy with it. I knew right away it was going to change things for us. And it did. READ ON IN COMMENTS by @ashleydayour

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2 months ago

Sunset, Ostende. 22.08.26. Few hours before the @whispersintheshadow show. Good Times. taken in Ostende by @ashleydayour

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2 months ago