MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY new album

[istaros]

Available now from the label: http://www.i-voidhanger.com/midnight_odyssey_funerals.htm
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After the hearty welcome of Firmament, MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY's debut on I, Voidhanger Records, the Australian one-man band returns with a new epic voyage, an ambitious double album called Funerals From The Astral Sphere.
In 16 tracks and over 2 hours of music, Dis Pater has refined his amazing blend of cosmic black/doom metal and nocturnal ambient thanks to a wider use of acoustic folk passages and beautiful clean vocals, reaching new peaks of emotion and psychedelic bliss.

Inspired by Australia's wild landscape, with its ancient rainforests and stormy nightskies, Funerals From The Astral Sphere is a spiritual and dark observation on Death as a cosmic force of purification, coming from beyond the stars. “From personal experiences and completely imagined scenarios, the idea of death is something that fascinates me. With Midnight Odyssey I explore a world where humanity is void, dying and soon to be extinct. A world where forests reclaim the earth, animals once again are wild, and all signs of humanity are lost."
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Received my copy today, will rip & upload to audiofile tomorrow.

[istaros]

In case anyone's waiting for this to be uploaded, it won't be today after all. My connection's acting terribly for some reason. I will do it the first chance I get, however, along with the two preceding demos.

[nothingnowhere]

Does anyone know if any US distributors are carrying this?

[ChapelOfTorment]

I highly doubt it, given the obscurity of the band. The prices from I, Voidhanger are fairly reasonable though. Just ordered it with the shirt, by the way. Great stuff. I just got back from a fairly lengthy hike where I listened to the whole thing twice through. It reminds me a bit of last year's Into Oblivion album: really groundbreaking, interesting material, but it will probably get ignored by most of the metal scene because of how challenging a listen it appears to be from the outside. I think it would be cool if Dis Pater did an album with no drums at all in the future. This album certainly comes very close to that at points. It reminds me a lot of '70s Tangerine Dream covering Burzum songs.

[Humanicide]

I just grabbed this album, wanted to see if it was any good. Wasn't really expecting much.

Pleased to say it exceeded my expectations. B+ material definitely. Thanks for the rec.

[nothingnowhere]

I just grabbed this album, wanted to see if it was any good. Wasn't really expecting much.

Pleased to say it exceeded my expectations. B+ material definitely. Thanks for the rec.

Be sure to check out the Firmament demo/album.

[aquarius]

I've listened to this a few times now and I honestly think it's not as solid as Firmament. It uses the same technique but that technique isn't used to carry the composition, rather it's at the forefront. The album doesn't develop as well from each piece but sounds like a collection  of similar material and in that, two hours is a bit of a stretch. Also varioius aspects of the instrumentation are more pronounced but without sufficient cause i.e. the drumming, vocal. so it's even farther away from the idea metal without drums.

[istaros]

It's a bit confused. At its high points, it surpasses Firmament with pieces that have an unwavering focus towards their conclusion. One aspect of The Forest Mourners I preferred over Firmament was that, despite the composition being a little less accomplished, the more narrative style gave it a very unique and engrossing atmosphere. Firmament had such an atmosphere as well, but it was more ambient than narrative. So in a sense this album attempts to combine both methods - which is a noble effort, but it falls apart at times. There are also a fair number of points that, although not bad, are essentially filler. This is definitely more of an issue in the second half of the album, although it regains strength right as it begins to close.

Those criticisms aside, this is a good work and deserves both attention and praise. Midnight Odyssey is, so far, the only continuation of the Burzum approach I've heard that I can really appreciate without having to justify why I don't just listen to Burzum instead.

[ChapelOfTorment]

Those criticisms aside, this is a good work and deserves both attention and praise. Midnight Odyssey is, so far, the only continuation of the Burzum approach I've heard that I can really appreciate without having to justify why I don't just listen to Burzum instead.

This is why I enjoy Midnight Odyssey a lot as well. I mean, there are a few other Burzum continuations that I think are pretty great (first I Shalt Become album, some of Branikald's stuff, Forteresse's second album), but this is definitely one of the best. There seems to be some intangible and hard to describe feeling of "getting it" that Midnight Odyssey has and that many, many others don't possess. You can tell that a lot of effort was put into the music, but it was more than an effort just to "be a black metal band," if that makes sense.

The depth of the synthesizer layers is probably what really does it for me. There are a few moments that didn't really blow me away on this album: specifically, the songs "Lost" and "An Ode to Dying Spiritsl," but most of it was really great. I don't know if I would say that Dis Pater needs to "trim the fat" or anything like that, since the long, involved tracks (both the pure ambient ones and the more black metal songs) are the best parts of the album. I get the feeling that I'll probably feel the same way about those songs in a few years as I do now about "Dungeons of Darkness": fairly cool ideas that I can see the reasoning behind, but they just aren't really to my taste. It will be interesting to see if these ideas get expounded and improved upon in the years to come, like how "Dungeons of Darkness" became "Den Onde Kysten" and "Svarte Troner," two very enjoyable tracks.

Also, does anyone else detect a bit of a Summoning influence in Midnight Odyssey's stuff? I know that the man behind the band has confirmed that he was influenced by a diverse array of music like Arcana, Mortiis, and Klaus Schulze, but for some reason, I hear a lot of "Nightshade Forests" as well.

[istaros]

I've heard complaints about those two interlude tracks from others as well. I enjoy them for what they are, "Lost" in particular seems like a good song to me, albeit not a metal song by any means. But that's a statement that can be applied to the album overall; it highlights the accomplishment of black metal as a distinct genre by making clear that it shares very little, compositionally, with previous metal genres, while retaining the same spirit. The only part of the album I dislike outright is the post-rock drumming on one or two of the songs. It's a strange choice and detracts from the otherwise ambient effect of the percussive line in this album(and most black metal).

[Humanicide]

After about a month of listening to this solidly, I must say, this is quality material.

It inspires a sense of serenity and calm, though it is not specifically engineered as such. This music conveys sorrow, wonder, amazement, and fury in a masterful way that feels neither forced nor contrived. I really am enjoying this, and I think this'll be a keeper for years to come.

The post-rock influences don't get on my nerves that much. Admittedly they could be done away with but I don't mind a select few "post" bands, so its not bothersome. Outstanding black metal; part of me wonders why the hell this isn't being praised to the sky universally.

[AVFN]

I don't think I heard a single metal riff on this whole album. Someone needs to tell bands like this that you achieve atmosphere through writing eerie riffs and haunting melodies, not by turning your holy grail reverb pedal up full tilt. All that achieves is a flat, featureless sound. I don't get why this is any better than your average 'atmospheric' Blah Metal record. There are some decent melodies, but not enough for two hours, and personally I think these work best in the sections without guitar - i.e. I don't think he is a (good) metal musician. Sometimes it reminded me of dead can dance, which is nice. Oh, and I think he pinched the vocal rhythm & melody for 'Lost' from 'In the Pines' by Leadbelly (or the cover version by Nirvana), which is funny.

[nothingnowhere]

I finally got around to buying this. I delayed because I heard mixed opinions of it, and, although I loved Firmament, I had a bad feeling about a double album. I was pretty certain it would be full of filler.

Fuck, I was wrong. This album is masterfully crafted; there isn't a minute of it that feels unnecessary to me. Songs like 'When Death Comes Crawling' are absurdly beautiful. Dis Pater really built on the stuff he was doing with Firmament without repeating himself at all. I like that the album isn't as riff-based as Firmament was, the longer and slowly morphing songs are great. The two hour album length is completely justified for this awesome material. Cool to hear someone making music in the black metal scene that they clearly feel passionate about, rather than just making some more christraping black mehtul for the landfills.