Ashes You Leave

Ashes You Leave is a Croatian metal band from Rijeka, playing a blend of doom, gothic and death metal in which a violin and keyboards are woven into the guitars. The band was formed in 1995 under the name Icon, after the Paradise Lost album, and recorded one demo, ...But Dreaming, under that name. On learning that another band was already called Icon, they renamed themselves after the eighth song on Cathedral's album The Ethereal Mirror.

A second demo, The Kingdom Before the Lies, followed in 1996. Deals with the Norwegian labels Effigy Records and Arctic Serenades came to nothing when both labels went out of business, so the band signed with the German label Morbid Records, which released their debut album, The Passage Back to Life, in 1998. Desperate Existence followed in 1999 and The Inheritance of Sin and Shame in 2000; it outsold the first two albums and was followed by a European tour.

After that tour the singer Dunja Radetić left, and Marina Zrilić took her place on the fourth album, Fire, released in 2002. When Zrilić in turn left to study singing abroad, Tamara Mulaosmanović joined on vocals and keyboards. Recording of the next album began in March 2006, and Songs of the Lost finally came out in 2009 on Sleaszy Rider Records. In 2011 the band signed with Rock 'n' Growl Records, which released The Cure for Happiness in 2012.

Guitarist Berislav Poje and violinist Marta Batinić have played in the band since 1998 and bassist Luka Petrović since 2003. The songs gathered here include "The Passage Back to Life", "Searching for Artificial Happiness", "Song of the Lost", "Soul of Ice", "Fire" and "Devil in Disguise".