I make my preferences no secret. It’s in the realms of extreme metal that my tastes tend to wander when I’m dealing with the wide spectrum of metal, but I know damn well that there’s so much potential to be had elsewhere even if it can oftentimes feel as though there aren’t enough bands to make certain styles interesting in some form or another. Symphonic metal is definitely one of those for me. A sound that is intensely promising with disappointingly few names able to come around and deliver the goods, it relies on the even fewer to show us what the sound can be. Only two years since their debut, Eonian has come a long way to show us what the style still has to offer in massive fashion.

It can feel all too easy for a band dabbling in the symphonic reaches of metal to feel cookie-cutter with similar rhythms and songwriting from one track to the next before over-producing their sound to where everything feels all too glossy and one-dimensional even if there is space for a spectacle. Eonian caught my eye with their debut certainly hitting on all the right marks, yet it is every given inch of what they brought out of the cold reaches of the north to craft “Born From Ice” that it becomes exceedingly clear what kind of talent we’re dealing in here. With a massive list of musicians contributing to the eight tracks, it was clear that Eonian was pulling no punches with their fierce performances that leans further into the realms of melodic death metal while always ensuring the symphonies share the stage with plenty of respect and space for the other styles at play. Constantly shifting in its many different aspects that are always showing off the strengths that Eonian wields with a fascinating level of mastery to ensure there isn’t so much as a moment of the work that doesn’t lack in intensity, majesty, potency, or some combination of the three, “Born From Ice” scratches an itch for quality symphonic metal that we simply don’t get often.

It tends to really be the big names in the sound like Fleshgod Apocalypse or Carach Angren that are able to bring forth really anything in the sound that is more than interesting after the first spin, yet it is here that Eonian doesn’t just exceed the expectations for themselves as a band but the expectations for the genre as a whole. Gripping in many different ways and overflowing with nuance that demands revisiting lest you miss out on some morsel of excellence that flung right past you in the sea of others, “Born From Ice” is anything but boring and acts as a magnificent standard for what the sound can and oftentimes should be.

“Born From Ice” releases on March 31st!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Born From Ice” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Eonian on Facebook here.