One of my favorite albums is Sepultura’s revered 1991 opus, Arise. At the time of its release, it was the perfect blend of the thrash metal sound that had pushed heavy metal music into the extreme, and the newly emerging death metal sound that bands like Possessed and Death had worked so hard to champion… a perfect middle-ground. Today, it is a metalhead’s classic and is still considered one of the greatest death / thrash records of all time.

My first encounter with the texan metal outfit As Eden Burns was met with both hope and skepticism. Far too many bands have set out to achieve this coveted middle-ground but never managed to sound natural (at least to these ears) in their musical endeavors. After a brief listen, most of my skepticism had dissolved and I found myself going out of my way for their independently released 5 song EP the next day.

I was stunned at how tastefully everyone in the band approached what modern death / thrash middle-ground has become- only exercising bombast when most appropriate and maintaining unapologetic, haunting melodies throughout. To this day I remain awestruck at the depth of the lyrical content, and the placement of the dedicated dual-vocal work capturing it.

Now, just under three years since their formation, As Eden Burns have finally released their debut LP, entitled The Great Celestial Delusion and it is every bit as satisfying as the original EP. Despite their youth, these texans sound as though they had been playing death / thrash straight through the 90s. They’ve got a natural maturity that is supposed to only come with age, and in a relatively short time they’ve managed to develop into a tight, concise outfit despite some lineup changes.

For the most part, the songs are of average lengths. But with vicious, memorable hooks in every song and a dense and epic style (think Protest The Hero meets early Morbid Angel) every one’s an excursion. The hardest knockout comes from back-to-back triumphs Ever Again and Conceptual Decay. The closer, Lost Counsel And Untimely Doom, is a wooly mammoth, the likes of which every heavy metal album ought to end with. Have a taste- here’s Ever Again:

All in all, this album is a top-to-bottom thrasher only stopping to catch its breath (and for one acoustic guitar interlude) between its eight barrages of double bass and tremolo picking, and never once straying from fully focused songwriting. All of the modern death metal adornments are present… swept guitar lines, dual melodies, standout basslines, tastefully executed blastbeats, everything you wanna hear in late 2008 without losing sight of the objective: That balanced middle-ground. The Great Celestial Delusion is a massive debut any extreme metal fan is sure to enjoy.

The Great Celestial Delusion
November 11, 2008
Willowtip

1. The Great Celestial Delusion
2. Endless Rebirth
3. Enemy
4. Ever Again
5. Conceptual Decay
6. Guilds
7. Golden Age
8. Lost Counsel And Untimely Doom