The band was formed around the turn of 1999 and 2000. For 3 years, the line-up was constantly changing, as we had a lot of problems with finding the proper drummer and singer for this kind of music. Consequently, it had taken a long time to record anything or to play live. Despite the difficulties the two guitarist, Peter and Mark, and the bassist, Csaba, kept collecting ideas and writing songs during this period and finally, after finding Márton Kliment on drums and Gabor Bittera on vocals, in 2003 we were able to record our first demo, which contained 2 songs in Hungarian language. This was followed by another change in the line-up: Gabor left and a new singer, Csaba Morvai joined the band in the autumn of 2003, which meant the consolidation of Ad Astra, and he is still with us. The vocal tracks of the demo were re-recorded in the end of 2004. We started playing live actively in the summer of 2004, and since then we’ve played in several underground clubs in Budapest and a few other towns inside the country. The band also participated as a guest appearance in two Chuck Sculdiner/Death tribute concerts in 2003 and 2004.
In 2005 we decided to record a 5-song EP, which was done at Denevér Studio in Szolnok. This material was released earlier this year in authorial edition, and we distribute it through our website, at our gigs and in a few local underground shops.
The next step was to record a few songs in English to promote our music outside the borders of Hungary and hopefully to find a label. Originally, all the lyrics on the EP were in Hungarian, but we had the English versions for every song, as well, so the band picked three songs from the EP and recorded the English vocal tracks for them. This promo is called "No Contact".
In 2007 we recorded our first album titled 'Crust of Ego', which contains all our previous songs in English, some newly written stuff and a U2 cover. This album was released in February 2008 by Nail Records, a Hungarian record label, and it is distributed throughout the whole country.
Currently we are looking for a distributor/label who would be willing to spread our materials in Europe or anywhere else in the world. ;) We are also trying to find as much opportunity to play live as much as possible either in Hungary or abroad.
Ad Astra plays complex melodic metal with lots of rhythm and dynamic changes, catchy melodies and loads of heaviness, that is sometimes referred to as progressive power metal. Our main influences are Nevermore, Opeth, Death/Control Denied, Pain Of Salvation, Meshuggah, Psychotic Waltz, but basically we listen to everything from classic rock to death metal, and lots of other stuff outside the genre of rock, too.