Master of the Nebulous Reach
Out 14th March, self-released
Despite the unevenness of Dis Pater’s body of work, he remains an artist I enjoy following closely. This latest EP goes some way to remind me why I am enamoured more with the idea of Midnight Odyssey – and indeed the other projects he has dabbled in over the years – than with the execution itself. He is an artist that continues to push himself, often revealing the guts of his creative process to the listener in doing so. And therein lies the unique enjoyment to be mined from Midnight Odyssey owing to the unique intersection of influences he sits on, twisting and developing them whilst retaining a clear vision guiding these disparate elements.
His willingness to expand on atmospheric black metal in ways that both challenge the form whilst remaining true to its original impetus may still be his USP, but with the conclusion of the ‘Biolume’ trilogy we saw him pull in other forms – such as heavy metal and epic doom – to widen the terrain of what was still effectively black metal. The integration of early Christian music, Berlin School ambient, new wave, goth, and electronica all seamlessly knitted together by the distinct atmospheric vision of Dis Pater, founded on an unmistakable identity regardless of the extent of filler peppering these albums.
The ‘Biolume’ trilogy was accompanied by a concurrent trilogy of ambient albums serving as a pleasingly austere companion piece to the at times hubristic ambition of the later metal material. Here we see Dis Pater push himself further via the ambient arm of his project by writing entirely on guitar. Notable not least for the fact that it clocks in at under an hour, there are elements of the early Berlin School when guitars still factored into their music as an important textural device, alongside later post punk and jangle pop elements and even some synthwave adjacent tracks, in spirit if not in raw mechanics.
From the perspective of timbre, ‘Master of the Nebulous Reach’ is surprisingly limited. Whilst reverb and delay play an enormous part, along with modest distortion and a number of other synth effects, the tone remains within the confines of 80s post punk with an atmospheric black metal twist. But this in itself makes the album more of a curiosity, an exercise in self limitation.
A track like ‘Cosmic Whispers of a Distant Past’ pivots on layers of guitar noise defined by minimalist harmonic progressions that stick closer to the ambient tradition. The aim is to convey size and age, a process of scene setting in order to place the listener out of their immediate environment and into a wider cosmos.
But then we move through tracks like ‘The Nebulous Reach’ which is structured more like an expanded pop song over eight minutes. There is a discernible lead guitar acting as stand in for vocals, the central refrain has a wistful, almost anthemic quality to it. A reimaging of sugary 80s pop or stadium metal through the lens of a submerged minimalism, intriguing in its playful single mindedness.
Whilst newer fans may be nonplussed by yet another stylistic and tonal left turn from this artist, it satisfies my ongoing curiosity through its exploration of Midnight Odyssey’s identity from yet another angle. The overall tone and feel of the music is very much in keeping with prior material, the slow march to a brighter, less black metal aligned ethos notwithstanding, but here unpacked from a very specific, meditative place. The result is an album limited in its ambition, but successful in achieving exactly what it set out to do.
Hate Meditations 
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