Band:	M-81
Album:	Astral Pilgrimage
Style:	Ambient, Drone, Black metal
Release date:	September 2012

01. Astral I
02. Astral II
03. Astral III
04. Astral IV

Metal Storm user Oaken (or Oaken Bough as he styles himself on Bandcamp) brings us his debut stab at atmospheric/ambient black metal. Now, without wishing to embarrass anyone, we have all seen and heard the results of a previous effort by a fresh-faced and youthful member of the MS community. Let me assuage any fears of a repeat performance with M-81.

Astral Pilgrimage is, at least, a genuinely competent slab of droning, buzzing quasi-black metal. I say quasi-black, because the focus here is stacked heavily in favour of atmosphere and ambience rather than towards your classic rusty buzz-saw guitar assault. After intro "Astral I", which is little more than a snippet of space-launch radio chatter followed by a short burst of noise, "Astral II" gets the core of the record going. Replete with swirling white noise, distant, echoing percussion and occasional slivers of guitar, "II" has just about enough about it to keep you interested for most of its 9-minute duration.

Where Astral Pilgrimage falls apart at the seams a little is that Astrals "III" & "IV" don't bring much unexpected outside of "Astral II"s template. There is a little more substance to the guitar on "Astral III", combined with some well-placed sound effects. Ultimately though, some of the space-shuttle talk is at times more engaging than the music itself, and the middle of the track is a bit too ambient for its own good, before resolving into a slightly aimless, meandering conclusion.

There are some elements of Astral Pilgrimage which show real potential. The carefully doled out guitar licks of "II" & "III"; the progression in the dying seconds of "III"; the more driving, brooding entrance of "Astral IV" - which is undoubtedly the standout moment. Some of the ideas here could really stand a little more development to make a more interesting record, and there is the odd rough edge to the editing and production, but given the circumstances in which this was conceived, written and recorded, this is a reasonable listen.