Shards of Silver Fade

Iz is hardly routine that an entire band of musicians decides to produce an opus exceeding the playtime of one hour, but when a single individual sets his mind to create a monolithic masterpiece reaching the massive 2,5 hours duration time, there are only two possible and natural reactions, which may be experienced separately or in succession. One would be the sensation of pure amazement and admiration for the genius and vision capable of transmitting so much effort and talent into a single body of work, the other would be the questioning and berating the work for its presumed repetitiveness, linearity and over-reliance on several motifs and tropes for composition and structure. This is not the case with the latest release by Midnight Odyssey, which, admittedly, exercises the style of music quite fond to adapt a cyclical and gradual progression of affairs, but hypnotizes a listener into an altered state of consciousness to aid him in a vivid and acute appreciation of the worlds and wonders it aims to present. And such is the case with this album.

Both the instrumentation and vocals remain at the level of functional simplicity and elementary competence, but the spotlight is stolen by the bombast and emotion coming from the keyboards, whose melodies are quite honestly mesmerizing and monumental, with segues that consume the listener's attention with ease, and provide a significant digression and contrast from the brutality and simplicity of the metal components. The vocals take on a dual personality. Some manly and majestic recitals that do wonders for the massive and morose atmosphere, and some coarse shrieks, that interrupt and contrast them on enough occasions so as not to allow the album to become a redundant and laughable cliche. The variation is completely in service of atmosphere, as most of the songs seem to border the 15 minute mark, or exceed it more often than not. But never do they become tedious or trivial, nor do the synthesizers lose their extremely emotional effect. The guitars themselves will stream a generous soundscape of most genuine feeling, at times being more akin to unbridled aggression and at other times, a fully epic and ethereal escapade into the Dis Pater's marvelous world. How well interspersed these are in this epic and panoramic promenade through the Dis Pater's mental reality is a story of its own, and the delicate balance they craft would ask for an review of its own. The production is also a technical triumph, allowing all these lush layers of sound breathing room, but not becoming deplorably or defectively digital. The cosmic atmosphere is best experienced in its entire duration, and the album asks for complete attention and patience, since most tracks sacrifice any possible individuality for a crucial and copious contribution to the atmosphere, but if any favorites are to be picked, then several would serve as credible candidates: “From A Frozen Wasteland“ with its slow and sudden transition from orchestral ornamentation, onto the blackened bile, and into the recital and choral combination, “Son of Phoebus“ with serene and spacious synthesizers exploding into an absolute monolith of buzz-saw guitars and visceral vocals. Some tracks even attain quite a nostalgic note, with multiple and masterful levels of keyboards, as is the case with “ A Ghost In Gleaming Stars“ and guitars used mainly to accentuate them, On the other hand, “Starlight Oblivion“ places a more relevant role on the aggressive aspect, and is the most riff-based song on the album, while “Darker Skies Once Radiant“ resumes with ingenious and imposing keyboards as the album's most essential and prominent dimension.

That this album was a serious and strenuous undertaking for Dis Pater is not exactly concealed in any manner in all of its delectable duration, and due to the competent balance of all these variations and dimensions, contrasts and details present on it, it requires a quite thorough and unfaltering attention. The riffing premises are quite basic, the drum work indeed quite rudimentary and unimposing, but the fact that all these simple elements are woven into such a fantastic fabric, a fully breathtaking and bombastic expedition into another, forlorn or forsaken world, and the intense emotion so dexterously displayed in abundance makes one realize that music exists for personal expression, and not for boasting and flaunting infallible instrumentation or production prowess. This is what music is and should be about, a piercing and powerful voyage into the depths of soul expressed through sound. This is art at its finest. 100/100