The chaos unfolds in front of the listener’s point of view to see someone on the brink of a psychological breakdown. Whether its P.T.S.D., something haunting your past, or right out of the killer’s mind to find out why they did what they did to cause harm and violence towards that person, becomes a nightmarish roller-coaster ride into the unknown.
And that’s what Unreqvited have done with their latest album A Pathway to the Moon. A disturbed bedlam of unrest. Launched back in their hometown in Ontario, Canada in 2016, mastermind Ghost (鬼) has this visual concept of bringing in these brainstorming ideas that reveal the dangers that unfold. Listening to their new album is like a ticking time-bomb ready to explode at any second as all hell is going to break loose. But there’s some softer moments in which they achieve.
Take a look at ‘The Starforger’ it starts off with a gentle, melodic lullaby sending you into slumber land as if Little Nemo takes you by the hand with uplifting vocalisations with epic riffs, angelic choirs, and symphonic arrangements that hits you so hard, you begin to realise the soft snarling beast has enough energy to break through its cage to reign hell.
But its ‘The Antimatter’ that makes the eight-headed beast ripped out of its cage and reigns terror with its snarling vocal lines, string sections, brutal drum work, and a town in massive panic mode, knowing that the beast is eating human flesh, nonstop. When he’s on a blood-thirsty prey, you know you need to run like hell, no matter what!
There’s often a beautiful scenario that comes to the aftermath as the vocalisations come into being, almost like a Beauty and the Beast scenario with angelic and brutal vocal lines that come at you with militant vibes, setting up the scenery. ‘Void Essence + Frozen Tears’ passes through the echoing effects of the early Floydian atmospheres before making the jump to light speed.
This is where the band takes us on this gut-wrenching journey through a spiritual stratosphere, finding the inner self, letting go of the past and the present, and reflecting on what is to come in the future. In the piece, you can hear rain dropping effects from the keyboards, ascending guitar work, climatic drum patterns, and a bridge between The Beatles Abbey Road-era of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’, Gazpacho’s ‘I’ve Been Walking’ from the Demon album, The Doors’ ‘Riders on the Storm’, and orchestrations filling up the void by coming back to reality.
The last two pieces; ‘Celestial Sleep’ and ‘Departure: Everlasting Dream’ are calms after the storm. You can hear a sense of relief from the meditated vibes that you went through with the echoing guitars taking up a chance to open your eyes, revealing that everything is okay and everything’s back to normal before setting on an adventure with this medieval ride into the Grey Havens, knowing that you can’t go back to the things from what they were, and knowing that we all have a chance to go and be at peace.
The bonus track ‘Cornfield Chase’ returns to the ambient landscape once more with piano concertos, mellotrons, and looking through our solar system, reflecting the passage of time. And then ignitions lift up once again as metallic guitar lines go into a post-rock attitude, and giving us one last send-off as they head back to their home planet once more.
The results here are momentous. Unreqvited pull no signs of stopping by bringing in the good, the dark, the uplifting, and heavenly beauty that is brought upon A Pathway to the Moon. This isn’t just a death metal album, this is an album that is a beautiful structure, unfolding in front of your eyes for the public to see.
