Ahles: Between Dreams and the Waking World
Reimagining Progressive Metal with Strings, Steel, and Fire
Photo: Amanda Brenchley
Australia’s Ahles have obliterated the line between classical mastery and extreme metal. Their debut album, Between Dreams and the Waking World, released July 10th, 2025, is the sound of centuries colliding. On one hand, intricate nylon-string guitar passages and the elegance of formal composition; on the other, blast beats, eight-string chugs, and guttural roars. It’s the kind of collision that doesn’t just coexist—it fuses into something entirely its own.
The quartet—Ian Ahles (vocals, guitars, lute), Alix Bandiera (drums), Monash Lal (bass, flute), and Will Towne (8-string guitar, vocals)—are a living experiment in hybrid musicianship. Ian and Alix go back to their days in Born From The Ashes, but years apart saw Ian deep-diving into classical guitar studies and Alix sharpening her death metal chops to a razor’s edge. Add Monash and Will, both classically trained but metal at heart, and you have a lineup that can shift from a Bach-like delicacy to earth-shaking brutality without breaking stride.
Across its nine tracks, Between Dreams and the Waking World plays like a journey across unpredictable terrain—complex time changes, polyrhythms, and acoustic interludes weaving between crushing riffs and explosive percussion. Lyrically, the album is both personal and confrontational, moving from social critique to emotional vulnerability in a single breath. Songs like Concerto push the boundaries of arrangement, while tracks like Will Nothing Grow? and Product confront the listener head-on.
It’s a debut that sounds like a veteran statement, and it made me want to dig deeper into where this all comes from. So I spoke with Ian Ahles on the origins, challenges, and soul of the record.
Interview with Ian Ahles of Ahles
Elevar: The lineup brings together musicians from both extreme metal and classical backgrounds. How did that chemistry form, and how does it influence your writing process?
Ian: Hi Christine, thanks for the engaging questions! I received my first guitar at age 16, I'm pretty sure this was because I was generally a very disappointing school student and had somehow managed an A in my year 10 music class. Initially I just borrowed and photocopied friends TAB books as lessons weren't really in the budget, this was in the mid 90's where internet TABs weren't a thing. But I did change schools after failing year 11 the first time and lessons were on the agenda.
I am a theory nerd, and went on to do a composition diploma in my early 20's. I then played in bands for a while, starting with Praetorian in Melbourne, then Born From The Ashes when I moved to Queensland. And also played in a few others including Metallurgy, Klokblok and Dragonsmead, as well as filling in for a few shows with Puncture Wound. In the metal scene you get a range of different styled musicians who have learned in different ways, and you learn different ways of communicating different musical ideas. In the 2010's I pursued classical guitar at Queensland Conservatorium and was in the same cohort as Will Towne, who was a metalhead and we played together a lot. That chemistry from playing with someone over a number of years really does stick, as it has done with Alix! So moving back and forward between those worlds has always been quite natural for me.
You and Alix first played together in Born From the Ashes — what was it like reconnecting after so many years for this project?
It's been a lot of fun! Alix has always been one of my best mates, and when I was off being a classical guitarist, I've been cheering her on in various ventures. I was really stoked for her when she undertook a drum clinic with Nile's George Kollias, and then went on to undertake online lessons with him for a few years. She really hit beast mode when she was playing with Puncture Wound playing awesome death metal, and I was lucky enough to perform with them when I filled in on lead guitar for a few shows in 2022.
Interestingly, one of the things that kicked my butt into restarting this project was seeing a playthrough video Alix published of one of the old Born From The Ashes demos that was never released. It kind of felt like maybe both of us had unfinished business there, and it all just fell back into place really easily!
What was your most challenging track to arrange on this album, and why?
It was Concerto for sure! I quite literally transcribed a work for orchestra and classical guitar for metal band and classical guitar. I didn't change the classical guitar part at all. But so many decisions had to be made over what kinds of sounds to use with which orchestral parts and we also had to figure out a drum kit part from scratch. And then we had to rehearse and record it. It was a very rewarding process and final product, but also one we're very unlikely to perform live.
Weeper on the Shore was also challenging, but that was a little more of a standard song structure. I arranged the synth part for 2 flutes, and having our bassist Monash being an amazing flautist as well really made it a lot of fun. I actually gave the bass line in that to Will as he plays an 8 string, which goes almost as low as a 4 string bass, I played a lute on that one as well!
How important was the mastering process with Ayden Perry in making sure all those delicate classical moments still hit hard in the heavier sections?
I think that's got a lot to do with both the mastering as well as the mixdown process that we had with Nik Carpenter from Core Studios. When creating the mix, I did notice some difficulties in using a nylon string, classical guitar in heavy arrangements. I found that while using a lot of reverb covered up some deficiencies in my classical guitar playing, it also took out some of the cut in the full band mixes. I think that's probably why you generally hear more steel string acoustic in metal than nylon classical, as you get more of those higher frequencies.
I do think Nik did a fantastic job in bringing those tones through, and Ayden certainly found some ways to bring it out even more. I didn't get to see much of that process, but his work absolutely took the album to a new level. I really appreciate the work both Nik and Ayden put in making so many layers really come through while maintaining the intensity of the heavy material, I don't think we made their life very easy there!
I've got a few ideas with tracking the classical guitar that I think should make that job easier on the next album. I recently read that Randy Rhoads used to double his classical guitar parts with a steel string, and that has inspired a few different ideas that I plan to try with demo recordings of new material.
Given the complexity of your music, do you feel more at home in the studio or in front of a live crowd?
I love both for different reasons. When recording, I love nailing a track, and getting into that serious listening space where you listen very carefully and super critically, not to mention getting a redo when you after messing up!!! But I love live energy as well; the connection with the other band members and an audience is quite magical. On stage is where it's more real in a way. It's in the moment, and you really feel it, and it's quite life affirming. But I'm an analytical thinker as well, so the opportunity to pick things apart and play with ideas is something I really enjoy as well.
What do you hope listeners walk away feeling after hearing this album?
I hope there's a few emotions felt while listening. There's certainly a lot of emotions that went into the material in both writing and performing. I resonated a lot with something I heard in a James Hetfield interview, where he spoke about music being his way of conveying his thoughts and feelings that he couldn't do with words. I have always felt that way about music I write and perform, when releasing something like this into the wild, I feel that if people get the music, that in some way, they also get me.
