FALL FROM EDEN is a Lebanese Extreme Metal band formed in 2012, under the original name of EDEN. Recording of the debut album "Grant us Eyes" began in 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the collapse of the Lebanese government. Finally, the band took it upon themselves to produce the album. Despite the loss of a city, homes, and injuries sustained by friends and families, the band marched on against all odds. The album was released on April 3, and describes a dystopian world of absurdities, where mankind worships death, promotes torture on TV, struggles with being human, and other subjects such as sexual abuse, and troubles of the soul.

"Reaktor IV" leads off the album. It begins with heavy and aggressive guitar, bass and drums, and a long vocal scream. The harsh vocals are intense, and the harmonized cleans add a different layer to the music. The riffs stay mostly in a zone, and do not venture out much. But, a well-done guitar solo does keep the song interesting. "Deafened by Silence" is another track that features rousing drums, weighted guitars, and raging drums. The ambient passage before the half-way mark is a nice change of pace, but the original sound returns through completion.

"Denial of Fate" opens with a slower pace, and big drum and cymbal strikes. As is often the case in this genre, a lot is demanded of the drummer, and Joe Nassar delivers. The mostly clean vocals are another surprise. It pauses for just a few bars towards the end, then rolls to a finish. "Residue" is another heavy, powerful song, with intense vocals and thunderous drumming. The clean vocals are just OK for me. They could be better. Or, as in this style of music, they could be scrapped altogether.

"A Struggle Against Reality" begins with more of those heavy guitar tones, and a change of pace in the rhythm. Just before the half-way mark, the pacing picks up and some nifty meter shifting can be heard. A bit more of this and we would have a better album for sure. Again, I can do without the cleans. There is a heavy breakdown about ¾ of the way through the album, and this is how they finish the song.

"Flesh Made Dreams" opens with soft, tense clean guitars, and pensive vocals. But this sound is dashed pretty quickly by harsh vocals and heavy guitars. The bass guitar is mostly absent in the mix on the album. He either plays in the same area as the guitars, or his mix is down to the point where I can barely hear him. "Black Rider" begins with some tortured screams amidst some ambient tones, including the soft rumble of thunder. But again, everything yields to the un-wielding power of the band, and those somewhat despondent tones in the vocals. At times I hear anger, while other times despair.

The lengthy "Sunless Sea" closes the album. Hopeless sounds come from the opening clean guitars, and the clean vocals are actually well done here. The emotive quality of the vocals comes through strongly here, even when they switch over to harsh vocals. The song waxes and wanes a few times throughout, but I like that I can feel the hopeless and despondent emotions that they are trying to get across in the song. It was a strong closer.

This was overall a good album. There are areas of improvement, but it was pretty good. The first area that I would point out is straying from the path a bit. The band seems to have their sound down as far as what they want, but a little diversity would go a long way. The second area is mixing up the pacing from track to track. Many of the songs had the same pacing, and that can muddy up the album. The third area comes from the clean vocals. Without having an outstanding clean vocalist, I would consider scrapping them. I have every confidence in this Lebanese quintet trying to find their way in the genre to make some of these improvements in their next release.