Band:	Midnight Odyssey
Album:	Shards Of Silver Fade
Style:	Ambient black metal, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	May 26, 2015
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

Disc I
01. From A Frozen Wasteland
02. Hunter Of The Celestial Sea
03. Son Of Phoebus
04. A Ghost In Gleaming Stars

Disc II
01. Asleep Is The Fire
02. Starlight Oblivion
03. Darker Skies Once Radiant
04. Shards Of Silver Fade

What types of art forms can keep your attention for over two hours? A book, perhaps, or a movie? In the case of music, however, albums that do so tend to be pretty damn rare. Creating an album that long that doesn't appear to lag, and that has a good diversity of sound, is a tricky beast to slay. So, is Shards Of Silver Fade, the new 142 minute album from Australia's Midnight Odyssey worth it? Let's find out.

To the point: somewhat. When conducting a long sonic ritual such as this, it's always useful to give one's music a good sense of pacing and variation, to build slowly to climaxes and to compose carefully to ensure that everything doesn't sound as though it's all just meshing together. In this regard, Shards Of Silver Fade has its pacing element down. Opener "From A Frozen Wasteland," for example, starts with some mellow ambiance and almost spoken word type vocals from Dis, before escalating into some black metal riffage that finally peaks into a great emotional crescendo towards the end of the track. "Hunter Of The Celestial Sea" follows similar suit, and is probably the best blend of black metal and ambient that one can find on the album.

The variation aspect however, is where this album can come off as slightly disappointing. Overall, Shards Of Silver Fade leans far more to the ambient side of things than to a heavy, black metal sound, and for people who were looking for more of the latter, or for a balance between the two, this may be a bit of a let down. Dis's clean vocals are a lot more prevalent than they were on the band's debut, which is actually quite interesting, as this aspect of his voice is quite charismatic and powerful, especially when used to a choir-like effect. The black metal, while present, is used more for atmospheric effect than for aggression, to create a sort of mysterious, hazy sound in the background that can then be built upon by the more ambient elements, perhaps best evident on "Darker Skies Once Radiant." This technique is more noticeable on the second disc, and overall it is far more ambient-oriented than the first.

The question of whether or not the monumental journey through Shards Of Silver Fade is worth your time will ultimately boil down to what you're looking for here. If you want to hear something that balances out its mellow and its extreme elements, you probably won't get what you're looking for, as it's far more of the former than the latter on this album. However, sometimes bands that blend various influences together can actually be more interesting when they choose to go more in one direction than the other, so if you were looking to see Dis go deeper into his ambient personality, you'll most likely be pleased with this release. Perhaps a bit different, but still very well written, and proof that if this guy wants to change his sound up a bit, he certainly knows how.

Go to the frozen wasteland.