Midnight Odyssey – Shards Of Silver Fade

Sometimes, just sometimes, when the celestial bodies align , on a clear moonlit night I’ll find myself drawn to the coast. To sit on rocky cliff tops and gaze out onto the ocean, to ponder humanity’s foibles and achievements, as the white Lunar rays dance and skip on the surface of the water. And, if I could choose a soundtrack for such an evening, then this would be it.

For me, this is the absolute pinnacle of what the Dark/Ambient Metal genre should be about, over two hours of pure genius. I drew swathes of air to fill my lungs, cried rivers of tears, shunned love, embraced death, felt empowered and worthless in the single blink of a reddened eye.

To learn that this masterpiece has been created and performed by a single person (Dis Pater) is in itself impressive but allowing yourself to be absorbed and taken over by this album, you begin to get an amazing sense of the vision behind it. Opener ‘From A Frozen Wasteland’, at in excess of twenty minutes in length, is the perfect standard bearer for the rest of the album to follow, a magical journey through Pagan lands, conjuring such vivid imagery from within that it could well justify being an album in its own right. In general the album flits beautifully from traditional Depressive Black Metal vocals through to an almost monastic chant, taking in elements of Folk along with soaring, atmospheric Synth passages and much more besides along its meandering journey. “It is exactly like finding a place in the universe, being given a spiritual connection with everything around you, making you feel alive and very much part of the existence around you,” Dis Pater explains. “But making you feel somewhat important to , and not just another speck of dust.”

To be honest, each track deserves an in depth analysis of its own, such is the depth and complexity of each and every composition but as a listener, I’m sure you will paint your own canvas and draw your own conclusions. Hopefully, it will be seen as an album that transcends musical genres, goodness knows it deserves to be seen in that way. Listen to ‘A Ghost In Gleaming Stars’ and tell me you are not moved, emotionally charged, or at the very least, engaged.

Albums such as this, come along extremely rarely, and as such are incredibly draining on the creative minds behind them, Dis Pater again explains, “I can say that each song has taken an immense amount of time and energy, so much that I have been left with little to no desire to even listen to music over the last 12 months or so. It combines elements of all my previous releases, from all my previous projects, a true convergence of styles and musicality. If this was the last Midnight Odyssey release, I would be very proud for it to be so.”

An album of true brilliance, a beacon of dark order within a chaotic world, buy it

Track Listing ;

1. From A Frozen Wasteland
2. Hunter Of The Celestial Sea
3. Son Of Phoebus
4. A Ghost In Gleaming Stars
5. Asleep Is The Fire
6. Starlight Oblivion
7. Darker Skies Once Radiant
8. Shards Of Silver Fade

Shards Of Silver Fade by Midnight Odyssey is released via I, Voidhanger Records on the 8^th of June

http://www.midnight-odyssey.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXfqZx9jCko