Astralborne: Blood, Sweat and Beers
Three-piece melodic death metal project ASTRALBORNE made a mark for themselves with their space themed debut; Eternity’s End in 2020. They gained critical acclaim and a loyal fanbase and have continued to develop over the past two years.
With the release of Across The Aeons, ASTRALBORNE have set about flying the flag for melodic death metal with a nod to the sound of the genre’s origins. Their debut is a collection of songs that wore its influences proudly on its sleeve. One could pick out exactly the direction the band were moving towards and while it was executed to a high quality, the new release takes all the elements one step further. The progression sees them finding their own voice and proclaiming ASTRALBORNE in all its forms. By guitarist Derik Smith’s own admission, “this album has a more fluid sound all the way through this time. From start to finish.”
With powerhouse tracks like Gemini and War Vessel already released, ASTRALBORNE have certainly indicated that this new release is set to be something special. Colossal sounding riffs, intricate melodic lines, and guttural vocals that define their sound coupled with depth laden lyrics relating to the cosmos. One could be forgiven thinking that this is deeply intense band committed to the vision and not too tolerant of brevity. However, exuding an easy going quality both drummer Jayson Cessna and Derik Smith, the main driving force for ASTRALBORNE, help to dispel any thought of a band that might be stuck up. With beers in hand and smiles all round Jayson and Derik are the epitome of the approachable metalhead.
The dynamic of friendship that is displayed by the band comes across to the outsider too. For those that follow the band online, there’s been a steady stream of behind the scene videos leading up to the release of Across The Aeons. Inspired by the sorts of home movies that they found amusing by bands of previous years, ASTRALBORNE have successfully worked to break down the barrier between artist and audience to help the latter fell included. This extends fully to their personality to give ASTRALBORNE the affable quality that inspires a connection to hang out. It helps that the guys clearly enjoy the social aspect and aren’t afraid to incorporate the interests of fans into their merchandise. The presence of hot sauces, beer glasses and bottle openers highlight that they are just as happy to tap into what fans enjoy as well as provide the more typical merch lines of t-shirts and physical releases of their music.
When it comes to the creative process, Jayson takes the lead by explaining. “We do write what we like, but it’s also a bit of hindsight when it comes to the lyrics. After writing we kind of look back and say well why did we write it this way and what is it about. Sitting back and acting as a listener, it’s a cool and unique way of doing things for us as musicians. It keeps us engaged and excited with what we’re creating.” Derik adds, “from a riff aspect it is very much this is what we write, here it is. My influences span from the Gothenburg melodic death metal, to power metal and 80s metal. It comes out creatively and we make ASTRALBORNE out of it.”
To take that further, it’s definitely clear to hear the Gothenburg melo-death influences clearly on their debut record. While Across The Aeons maintains that vein strongly throughout, those additional influences of power metal and 80s metal are strong undercurrents when it comes to the dominant riff led tracks of the album. That blend is moulded perfectly to help define a uniqueness to the bands overall sound. In terms of wider ranging influences, Derik highlights KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE, but with a laugh acknowledges that Paul [Fuzinski, bass/vocals] has a wide range of influences. “He listens to JOHN DENVER and HANK WILLIAMS and JONNY CASH and all that different stuff.”
It’s clear that while the lyrics are important to the band, it is the riffs that can be considered the keystone of the structure. As Jayson explains, “the riffs inspire the lyrics. I don’t have a list of poems that I try to shoehorn in. I will find a vocal structure, as a drummer it becomes very percussive. The feeling of the song influences what I want to sing about. I take that as inspiration. When we started, I had at the back of my head the whole cosmic thing as something I wanted to embrace. Our previous band had a track about a new born star, and the development of the consciousness in inanimate objects which fascinates me. I didn’t want to force it on Eternity’s End but it was very much at the forefront for Across The Aeons.” This way that the lyrics have naturally developed as a keen interest to Jayson helps build on the landscape of the music. This in turn enables the whole project to come across organically and not forced in terms of being cosmic for the sake of art.
ASTRALBORNE embraces a particular sound, that has been somewhat abandoned by the artists identified as key influences. When asked to dial in on what they would explain to a newcomer. Jayson takes the approach of highlighting their core influences. “All the founders of the Gothenburg sound have evolved into their own style, but no one is really picking up on that original style. It’s free real estate! People should check us out, they might find some nostalgia or alternatively get turned onto that style. Obviously, we’re not reinventing the wheel, but it’s where we’re at.” Derik expands on this, “we’re two metal fans ourselves and this is the sound we got into when we started and we want people to come along for the ride with us.”
Across The Aeons is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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