Ashes Divide  Ashes Divide (typeset as ASHES dIVIDE) is the name used for the solo project of American rock musician Billy Howerdel, guitarist of the alternative rock band A Perfect Circle, where he is the primary songwriter, musician, producer, and vocalist. The project's debut album, "Keep Telling Myself It's Alright", was released in 2008. Howerdel formed a live band and toured in support of the album through the rest of the year, but the project fell to the wayside after A Perfect Circle reformation in 2010. Howerdel frequently discussed working on new material for the project as recently as 2017, but no further material had been released, with Howerdel instead focusing on A Perfect Circle's fourth album, "Eat the Elephant", released on April 20, 2018. After being a guitar tech for a number of alternative rock bands such as Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails in the 1990s, guitarist Billy Howerdel desired to start a musical project of his own. In 1999, he formed A Perfect Circle with Tool singer Maynard James Keenan. The project was a success; their debut album, "Mer de Noms", released in May 2000, went platinum in the US, selling over 1 million copies by the end of the year. However, complications arose; Keenan could not commit all of his time to the band, still fronting Tool, and over time, he began to be more and more involved in the creative process of the music, leading to disagreements on the musical direction for the second A Perfect Circle album, "Thirteenth Step". The album, released in September 2003, was still a success, going platinum as well, though the two still decided to take a break with the band, so that Keenan could return to Tool, and Howerdel could pursue a solo project. Howerdel first started working off and on on solo material during the writing sessions for A Perfect Circles second album, "Thirteenth Step", in 2003. Rough versions of three or four songs had been written during the era, including the track "Stripped Away", which was even played at soundchecks at A Perfect Circle concerts while supporting the album. Additionally, the A Perfect Circle demo "Army" was eventually reworked into Howerdel's own "The Stone". Shortly after "Thirteenth Step", A Perfect Circle decided to quickly throw together a collection of anti-war cover songs just prior to the 2004 Presidential Elections, entitled "Emotive".