Apoch's Metal Review - Midnight Odyssey: Funerals from the Astral Sphere CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Funerals from the Astral Sphere (2011)
Demo(s):	Forest Mourners (2008) • Firmament (2009)

Review

After two demos, and the reissuing of the latter, Firmament, through the label I, Voidhanger, Midnight Odyssey has made some serious waves in the Black Metal community. The one-man-project was in the studio working on the debut album, Funerals from the Astral Plane while the reissue was made available to put the Midnight Odyssey name out there, a move that worked well in the favor of both band and label. Funerals from the Astral Sphere, however, will be a release that fans of the two demo recordings will be quite astonished by, encompassing two full-length discs totally over two solid hours of Ambient Black Metal compositions. But, will this become another case of quantity versus quality, or is this going to be one of the most definitive releases of it's style?

Funerals from the Astral Sphere establishes that more astral effect alluded to in the title well with the first track of the release. "Fallen from Firmament," which comes off more as a continuation of Firmament in the atmospheric elements and keyboards, which is a nice little touch to kick things off with. The twelve and a half minute song introduces the album nicely with a rather clear space-like yet haunting keyboard instrumental that could have been a track itself, and why it wasn't really is unclear given the gap between it and the actual Black Metal that kicks in a little later. The start sounds a lot cleaner and louder compared to the actual music, which finds strong guitars that sound sharp, but also feel into that atmospheric keyboard sound nicely through the distortion on them and the keys that support them in the background, as well as the bass that is just loud enough to be heard and add that extra kick to the mix. The audio quality itself is a little raw with a bit of a higher pitch, but not too much to clash with the melancholic and depressive tones of the songs here. The drums have a nice thud to the bass kicks that really stands out and helps to amplify the overall bass presence here, with decent snares that sounds a little more wooden but work nicely against the distant sounding cymbol crashes, all setting up a fantastic environment while the vocals are performed in a typical rhaspy manner for the style, though a little deeper then the higher wail and further in the background to give the music a bit of a haunting vibe. All of this works to make "Fallen from Firmament" a strong opening track, though the actual music that hits after the keyboard introduction feels a bit too short in comparison to how long it's set up here.

Sadly, this is something that becomes a bit of a burden after a while, though doesn't happen all the time throughout both discs. While it's great that Midnight Odyssey really focuses in on the atmospheric elements of the recording, the build up to the actual Black Metal within the song ends up being rather long. These instrumental bits that come beforehand are not necessarily drawn out, or even bad, it's just they often eat up most of the song and when the Black Metal kicks in it feels as if it was more unwelcome then anything, feeling awkward and out of place despite how good it sounds. Take "A Death so Pure" for example. This track is largely just the atmospheric instrumental part, then a very small amount of actual Metal that you can't help but sit back and just think to yourself about how you'd rather it not have been in there in the first place, especially given it's shorter track length. And then there's "Against the Moonlight" which doesn't follow this theory and is clearly more geared towards a depressive, yet, thanks to the atmospheric tones set in by the keyboards, a majestic sounding track the blends both the music and atmosphere well without having to do the whole instrumental intro or outro to the actual song and cut the music these parts were building up down to insanely short lengths. The song's mystifying sound brings in both harmony and a magical sensation well with the melancholic and haunting sensations it gives off, and despite the distortion wreaking a little havoc through a larger amount of noise then probably shold be there, this track highlights the potential Midnight Odyssey has more then the opening track "Fallen from Firmament" does.

One of the main gripes you can have about this release is the volume problems, which become a little hard to deal with one some songs, like with "Against the Moonlight" and what was pointed out. The album is already pretty loud to begin with, so when you turn the volume up on your end, that slightly higher pitch can add a little more noise to the instruments, which is something the rawer quality doesn't really work to keep in check. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but there are times when you'll want to turn the music up because of how catchy or emotionally moving it is, and when you do it just becomes so much louder then it needs to be on a production end. This would work well if the band were going for a booming, energetic sound, but considering much of the recording is actually pushed into the background, it ends up feeling restricted by the the audio levels. "Silently in Shadows" benefits from this sound considering it's somewhat lighter sound in comparison to the louder and faster "Against the Moonlight." The same can also be said for "When Death Comes Crawling." These two tracks sound fantastic with a cold atmosphere, no long introduction or outro to the Metal, and they are just solid tracks that keep the listener engaged from start to finish. "Tears of Starfire" stands out though, closing the first disc, and giving the climax of it more of a traditional depressive Black Metal approach. The pace is a mid-tempo approach and while it's nothing too fantastic or really atmospherically charged like some of the other tracks here, this song's lighter approach and more focused Black Metal offering does help make it sound a little more melancholic while using keyboards that keep it from being a rather generic sounding track.

The audio quality of the second disc is about the same, but for some songs the vocals do seem to be a bit louder, and more higher pitched in the sense of traditional underground depressive Black Metal material. The music itself does seem to follow the change laid out with "Tears of Starfire," but again it seems to be more varying tracks then all of them. "Journey Across the Stars" does take on a slightly more astral sounding atmosphere. "Never to Return" becomes notable on this disc for it's much slower pace and heavily atmospheric environment, almost taking on a more Progressive sound to the environment established on disc one, but also just generally being colder as well. "A Midnight Odyssey" is an instrumental track that clearly is aimed more towards an atmospheric sound, but it becomes one of the few songs on here that is just not really worth listening to and ends up becoming dull, much like the cleanly sung tracks on the first disc. "An Ode to Dying Spirits" really departed from the atmosphere of the album and, while it felt like it should be part of the album for a conceptual stand point, whether there was one or not, it's another track that suffers from the volume issues, and just doesn't work out too well. Perhaps had it been the closing to the first disc for the sake of fluidity, but right after "Against the Moonlight" left the song feeling weak on many levels.

The final disc closes with a few more Ambient tracks that really are not the most engaging, or even the most atmospheric of material on the recording, but after going through those, the listener is greeted with the song "Those Who Linger at Night." The track matches the more epic atmospheres of the release, and really stands out as one of the finest moments of the release, meshing together the Ambient and depressive Black Metal concepts nicely to really cement that astral environment that has popped up from time to time as the more dominant sound of the release. The tone of the track is more laid back then others, but given the chance you could easily close your eyes and be carried away with the music's enchanting sound, especially the Ambient elements that do kick in a little more then half way through the song and create almost a 2012: A Space Odyssey film style sound to the recording that eventually gives way to including some of the slight ritualistic ideas of this track from the Black Metal that continue to build up the epic foundation of the release, as well as the song in general. This track leads to the title song, "Funerals from the Astral Plane," which ends up being another strong track similar to "Those Who Linger at Night," but without that strong atmospheric charge that it had. The slower pace sets up a very mournful track though, encompassing the general idea of the track's title, and making for a very beautiful yet grim sounding conclusion to such an interesting release.

Funerals from the Astral Sphere is a strong, atmospheric Ambient Black Metal release from start to finish. Really the only gripes you could possibly have towards this one is the fact that there is just so many changes to the music and atmosphere over time, and that the quality can sometimes get in the way depending how light or intense the material comes across. The volume issues here also present a challenge, and restrain you from turning it up due to sacrificing some of the quality sound to the recording due to the more distant sounding music. But, for an album that is over two hours, Midnight Odyssey did a good job at keeping it enjoyable. Sure, there are plenty of keyboard elements that drive the length of the albuma long, but they are not that bad, though some tracks are just not that strong. Due to some of the padding from the keyboards and atmosphere driven instrumental type material, listening to both discs one after another can feel a bit like a chore, but there's plenty of solid material to make the waiting for the next real Black Metal song or it's material to start worth sitting through most of the time. Some of the duller Ambient material could have been pulled, and the album could have been cut into two seperate releases and still worked out, but in all honestly it's refreshing to see a two disc release that you could honestly call quality instead of jamming a bunch of filler tracks to peak the roughly eighty minute limit of one compact disc. It may be a little too big in the grand scheme of trying to be an epic atmospheric Black Metal release, but in the end it's an opus that you will come back to time and again.

Digital review copy of this release provided by:
I, Voidhanger Records.

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