Midnight Odyssey/The Crevices Below/Tempestuous Fall - Converge, Rivers of Hell (2013)

Converge, Rivers of Hell is significant for a number of reasons. While I'm pretty sure it's not the sole case of an individual artist producing a split release of his numerous recording projects, it's certainly rare in both its unified theme, and the ability of Dis Pater to create such a consistency of flow between three disparate aesthetics while maintaining the identity of each. And 'flow' is the key here, because we're dealing with a concept album about the Greek mythological rivers, so it's important that he can translate the classic characteristics of these bodies of water into musical form while keeping Midnight Odyssey, The Crevices Below and Tempestuous Fall stylistically flush with their constituent backlogs. To this extent, I was rather surprised by a few choices...for example, I'd have thought "Lethe" was a shoe-in for Tempestuous Fall, but ultimately this is little more than nitpicking, because Converge, Rivers of Hell is overall both an excellent proof of concept, and a fitting swan song for the two projects which would be Dis-continued after this recording. :rimshot:

This is for all intensive purposes a full-length record at around 64 minutes, with six songs all over nine minutes in length, but in this case it's a brilliant tactic which allows the listener to settle in to the current of each 'river' and ride it down- or upstream to its fellows. What keeps the three musical entities coherent is the heavy use of atmosphere and synthesizer orchestration throughout, so that there's a seamless feel to each of the tunes which are alternated in the track list (two apiece). Naturally, the Tempestuous Fall material is slower and more rooted in doom/death aesthetics than its peers; a mix of death gutturals and soaring clean vocals exhibit Dis' arching range over the medieval theatrics of the keys and percussion. Whereas The Crevices Below is still the stuff of subterranean majesty, despite being so expansive and busy with blast beats, driving chords and sweeping symphonic arrangements, you still get the impression you're at the foot of some underground castle, at the knees of some troglodyte liege who raves at you with a combination of slightly higher pitched gutturals and deeper bellowed vocals which ricochet off the stone and earthen borders of his domain. Midnight Odyssey then lives up to its more 'open' nature, beautiful and skyward and without restriction, ever his most varied creative outlet and the one which seems to have survived the purging of the others...

And thank the stars for that, since Firmament remains one of my favorite metal records of the last decade and its successor was not far beyond. Regardless, Dis Pater has seen fit that each of the three projects complements one another more than you might have suspected if you were just to compare the raw recordings each has put out in the past, to the extent that there is some degree of blending amongst them. In other words, while there are differences in style and architecture, he could have probably released this strictly under the banner of Midnight or Crevices and gotten away with it, especially the former since it's quite clear he's bent on evolving that sound over the course of distinct releases. But that's why Converge, Rivers of Hell works so bloody well, why it so effortlessly transports you from the shores of Hades to the euphoria of Elysium. Had the production been wildly jarring between projects, it would feel disjointed and distracting. As it stands, the split proves a fitting finale for The Crevices Below, and even Tempestuous Fall (the one outing of his that I wasn't initially impressed with). Catchy, dense, drifting, textured, absorbing overtures to classicism and tragedy, accessible and yet uncompromising. Perhaps the greatest living musical tribute to its subject matter, and a guaranteed refresher to anyone's appetite for whatever Midnight Odyssey comes up with next. I only regret I didn't cover it sooner.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (in conveyance of the dead)

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

Midnight Odyssey - Funerals from the Astral Sphere (2011)

Midnight Odyssey's demo-gone-debut album Firmament was easily one of my favorite black metal releases of the 21st century to date, a wonderful expose of spacious, cosmic aesthetics given tangible flesh in the form of atmospheric, mesmeric riffing patterns dominating a solid foundation and more grandiose synthesizer than a marathon of 80s one-hit wonder episodes. But more importantly, it was enviably damned consistent, a full-on balance of darkness and beauty that transcended the relative simplicity of its concepts, arks, titles and lyrics. About the only thing wrong with that album was its original, gaudy cover art, a crime to its musical content, and a crime that has been repeated once more for the follow-up. Hopefully this will change with a subsequent release. Don't you worry though, because Midnight Odyssey is a band well worth listening to blind, or blinded by distant nebulae and an infinite void of questions.

Dis Pater has returned from his subterranean side-trek to The Crevices Below, back to the span of stars which crowded his vision a few years ago, and surprisingly with enough material in tow to cover two entire discs! Funerals from the Astral Sphere is approximately 125 minutes wide, an ambitious project for an act so young, but also running the age old risk of courting an excess of filler material. Thankfully, there is very little of such. Midnight Odyssey has the distinct ability to envelop the listener in the most simple of compositions, but he's made sure to diversify the album's roster of 16 songs, even further than Firmament. Cleaner vocals take up more of a priority here than in the past, alternated with Dis' Burzum-like, tortured rasping and often layered against itself to provide a longing, soaring choir ("Journey Across the Stars" and "Lost" being just a few of these). The synthesizers are again omnipresent, but one will note that a good fraction of the tracks here are not metal at all ("Lost", "Shores Serene"), but epic swells of shoegazer-pop rooted heavily in 80s pad tones that recall Vangelis (particularly his score for Blade Runner), Tangerine Dream and even more mainstream 80s fare (like the full bodied keys used in Berlin's great "Take My Breath Away").

But fear not, Dis Pater has not abandoned his niche audience to become the next Peter Gabriel, and there are plenty of potent, eloquent black-fueled pieces here, some of which are the most catchy on the album. Personal favorites included "From a Celestial Throne", and its damn sticky progression of chords, "Silently in Shadow", which is beyond glorious; or "Tears of Starfire", a near 10 minute colossus that runs the range which blends the vocal styles with a lot of double-bass; an incessant smear of the otherworldly, like the last sounds you'd hear internally if you were adrift in space and your oxygen supply ran out. But even the less immediately memorable structures sink themselves in after a few listens, and thus pieces like the title track have their places. What's more, despite the enormous length of the album, even the weightier, 12+ minute tracks stand out ("Those Who Linger at Night", "Fallen from the Firmanent").

Are there moments of filler, where the attention slips from the ponderous atmosphere? I'd say yes, if you're not surrounding yourself with the appropriate listening environment. Seriously, as cheesy as it might sound, try and experience this either still on some hillside gazing upon the openness, or even afloat on a rowboat or canoe, when you've got two hours to kill. Take it all in, and remain patient. Aside from the obvious textures and layers, there is not much subtlety to the album. It shimmers directly into your conscience, the heavily distorted guitars and keys immediately engaging your emotional center. But there's just so damned much of it, the attention span is unlikely to hold forever. Thankfully, even if you cut this into halves of quarters, the songs are relatively consistent. It doesn't have that same sense of exultation and surprise as the debut, since those who enjoyed Firmament will know quite what to expect. It also doesn't have that same precise flow to it. But nevertheless, Funerals from the Astral Sphere is another glorious and engrossing median between star-stuff and obscurity.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

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

The Crevices Below - Below the Crevices (2011)

Being that I was highly smitten with Midnight Odyssey's 2009 demo full-length Firmament, I have naturally been anticipating the newest project from its creator, Australian Dis Pater. The Crevices Below provides a conceptual and diametric parallel to that other work: while Midnight Odyssey provides an emotionally draining, immensely consistent journey beyond our native sphere, this project attempts to drill below the surface of that very same world. Centered around a fantastical underground liege and his gradual spiral into madness, it explores feelings of isolation, loss, and the strange beauty of an alien environment: in this case, the desperation and depression of fighting off the lightless infinity of a crushing, hollow place.

Despite their polar opposition in thematic content, The Crevices Below & Midnight Odyssey do occupy the same niche of their genre, if not entirely. Droning, spacious guitars resonate along the echo of dour, narrative rasping, while synthesizers and percussive, programmed clamor used to imitate the natural subterranean environment, as if you were experiencing lost machinery, the clanging of rocks and metals, the dripping of underground streams. This is captured in six movements, one of which ("Below the Crevices") centers on larger swaths of ambient escalation, another upon pure keyboard instrumentation ("Whispers of Sorrow"), yet another on resonant dementia ("The Tomb of Subterranea"). My favorite chunk of the disc comes at the very climax, between the bleak, Gothic suburbs of "Trapped in Suicidal Depths" and the epic indictment that is "Carrying the Cries of the Lost"; 11 minutes of thundering melodic torment offset with sparse acoustic sequences.

There is more variation here than upon Firmament, which for all its brilliance was of a single, beautiful course. Dis Pater is exploring more clean vocals, and a more cohesive story arc to fuel the emotional undertow. There is still that same, predictable feeling here that dominated most of Midnight Odyssey's compositions, and yet the music is so unabashedly atmospheric that it no impediment to the sediment of sadness and atrophy. All told, I'm not sure I took away quite so much as with that album, which took me entirely by surprise, but it's still amazing. Redundant title aside, Below the Crevices is worth repeated exposure, especially if you can set the proper mood and environment to enjoy it on its own terms. I recommend an old basement, or if you're lucky enough to have a local cave network...go for it. Or just the dark recesses of your solitude, with a single candle lit to remind you of your humanity amidst the ominous oppression of callous, crushing stone.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://www.midnight-odyssey.com/?page_id=146

Midnight Odyssey - Firmament (2009)

While it's cover art might make you want to tear your own eyes with a salad fork, Firmament has a lot to offer the fan of simple, laid back, but beautiful atmospheric black metal. It's the debut of Australia's one man Midnight Odyssey, that sole composer being Dis Pater. While it may not come off as impressive initially, Dis Pater's ability to craft bleak sonic nightmares and imbue them with his bleating vocals (in the vein of Weakling or Burzum) is outstanding, and Firmament is an amazing debut album.

"From Forest to Firmanent" is a graceful indoctrination to the album's dark, starry sky as you sit aside an ocean of pain swept memories. Like most of the great atmospheric black metal albums of olde (In the Nightside Eclipse, Det Som Engang Var, Ravendusk in My Heart, etc.) it grasps your black heart and never lets go. Each track is gorgeous, glittering with sadness and pain. The breakdown at 2:40 of this song is magnificent, I could feel the tears welling up. How could a man create such sorrow? Suffer well, my friend. "Nocturnal Prey" creates almost an early 90s shoegazer atmosphere with its wailing stream of guitars, conjuring a starfall, the great dust of the heavens descending upon desolation. "Departing Flesh and Bone" is stunning, with yet another unforgettable moment of carefully crafted melody and shimmering synth. "A Host of Ghosts" is a synth piece, despite its lack of guitars the rival of any other track on this album. "As Dark and Ominous as Stormclouds" is again beautiful, but more bloodthirsty in its longing rhythms. "Salvation Denied" is slow, pondering, painful. "Storms of Fire and Ice" is another epic masterpiece of synth orchestration. And the album concludes with the inverse "From Firmament to Forest", which struggles to compete with all that came before but still comes out on top.

Firmament is as raw as any other cult black metal record, but it's a gorgeous type of raw. The name of this band could not be any more perfect at describing the style of composition. This album is hopeless and barren yet at the same time...full of longing, adventure....the very faint fire of life. It represents the very best of what a single individual can accomplish with an imagination and a basic knowledge of genre, and exactly which chords to pick out. Australia has produced two of the year's best black metal albums: Nazxul's Iconoclast, and this. The accolades I could rain upon this release seem to only grow with time, with each repeated listen the sorrow only grows. I could die to this album knowing what I know and what I don't, maintaing the endless equilibrium of human futility in a staggering, unforgiving universe.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/midnightodysseyband