Experimentation is abundant in the extreme bounds of metal today. While a lot of bands look for something worthwhile by trying odd techniques, it’s easy to lose sight of working on a defining sound, something that makes a band have that special pull divorced from just pure technique. Aseitas had that from the start. Approaching death metal from the perspective of groove and jagged rhythms, the band concerned themselves with a sound that can be likened to a hulking behemoth, drunkenly stumbling about. Not quite sludge, but featuring the same kind of bludgeoning crawl, the band has been stumbling around with less aim than I’d like. This was especially true of sophomore album False Peace, featuring some great moments but over a tiring 71 minute run. It seems Aseitas has either realized these two weak points themselves or just listened intently to the buzz around their work, as Eden Trough fixes both issues with ease. This new album is a lean experience, where all of the songs come crafted with clear ideas in mind. From deathcore and sliding scales, to wailing guitars and excursions into progressive rock, there is a well of variety here that opens up Aseitas‘ sound while still retaining what to made them interesting to check out initially. It sneaks up on you at first, as the album puts its heaviest foot forward, albeit with sharp turning songwriting pulling things along. It’s when the lead guitar suddenly takes a page from Opeth in the middle the vicious assault of “Libertine Captor” that things start to evolve.
The instrumental “Null Adam/Null Eve” continues this with a downcast piano echoing Steven Wilson‘s work on Blackwater Park before launching into “Tiamat”, a song I can best describe as Genesis spliced with progressive death metal. The last two songs take up more than half of the album’s runtime, but it’s here that the real meat lies. In a way, this clear stylistic division into two halves reminds me of Defeated Sanity‘s experiment with Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata. The exploratory nature of how it ends makes the album seem longer than it actually is, in a good way. The structure takes what could have been a neat EP and turns it into something with weight in a way that shows thought and direction. Aseitas are to be applauded for going from an unmanageable monolith like False Peace to something that flows as good as this album does. Falling just short of breaking the 30 minute mark, there is more in this album than I have heard in plenty of death metal LPs this year and I find it easy to just spin over again. There have been some promising death metal released during the year so far and time will tell if my score matches how I feel about Eden Trough a few months down the line, when it’s time for list season. While I nearly missed this release because of a few hectic months, Aseitas continued to stick out to me, as they should to you.
