After their 2020 debut album, Eternity's End, introduced ASTRALBORNE as accomplished purveyors of both compellingly intricate melodicism and dexterous brutality in equal measure, Across the Aeons' creative process began immediately following their lauded first full-length release. Commencing writing in spring of 2020, the group soon found themselves expanding upon the more grandiose passages of their sonic foundations, with conscious efforts made to accommodate cellist and composer Kakophonix's contributions.
Opting to keep the formula that served them so well on Eternity's End, Across the Aeons was produced by the band. Recorded in 2021 by Paul Fuzinki (bass and vocals) between Call of the Yeti Studio in Swanton, OH and North Shore Studios in Fife Lake, MI, Across the Aeons was then mixed by Unnus Latif at Black Moon Recordings, Columbus, OH and mastered by Orden Ogan's Sebastian Seeb Levermann at Greenman Studios in Germany. The end result of Across the Aeons' production sees ASTRALBORNE's knack for lofty fretwork and rhythmic pummel shine among sanguine acoustic arrangements and beguiling orchestration.
Across the Aeons' 12 tracks chart a journey of acceptance in the face of humankind's impermanence within a cosmic void, be it Fuzinski's bellowing promise of hell itself, chaos, death and fire on lead single War Vessel or interdimensional overlap on Gemini's celestial death metal pomp. Elsewhere ASTRALBORNE team up with labelmates Steve Redmond (Foretoken, The Day of the Beast) and Yegor Savovin (Fires in the Distance) on December Flower and the resplendent mid-album instrumental Promethean Fire respectively.
ASTRALBORNE's interstellar voyage is visually brought to life in evocative fashion by Spanish artist Juanjo Castellano (The Black Dahlia Murder, Voidceremony, Coffins). For as alone as we may be in the cosmos of ASTRALBORNE's second full-length, Across the Aeons shirks the nihilistic connotations of such a realisation, opting instead to revel in the totality of all beings and things.
