artist: Unreqvited
title: A Pathway to the Moon
year: 2025
genre: Black Metal

type: Album
label: Prophecy Productions
language: English
rel. date: 2025-02-07

source: WEB/MP3
quality: CBR 320kbps / 44.1 kHz / Joint Stereo
runtime: 00:43:04
size: 103.47MB

rip date: 2025-02-06
source url: http://play.qobuz.com/album/cjv8upxws2mnc

tracklist:

1.  Overture I: Disintegrate                                        2:19
2.  The Antimatter                                                 10:34
3.  The Starforger                                                  8:04
4.  Void Essence / Frozen Tears                                     9:07
5.  Into The Starlit Beyond                                         5:23
6.  Celestial Sleep                                                 1:49
7.  Departure: Everlasting Dream                                    5:48

release notes:

And just like that, another of 2025’s most anticipated releases is
upon us already.  This year is kicking off fast, but it would be
ludicrous of me to let a release by Unreqvited pass me by.  Slowly but
surely, this project has morphed beyond a simple studio exercise, and
now that A Pathway to the Moon is imminent, there is a full-fledged
touring band assembled and a new ethos for playing live added to
frontman ?’s (Ghost) compositional thought.  This is a different sort
of Unreqvited than someone familiar with the project might expect, but
the changes are not completely out of nowhere.

It’s hard to believe that A Pathway to the Moon marks Unreqvited’s
seventh full-length release (not including some absolutely stellar EPs
like 2019’s dual combo River and Rain, or the Sylvaine collaboration
Time Without End), but the math checks out.  I feel like it was rather
recently that ?’s brand of almost cloyingly sweet blackgaze came up on
my radar, but from the moment it did, I was hooked.  The Canadian
knows his way around a good melody, if nothing else, but it seems like
each release has topped the one before it, culminating in Beautiful
Ghosts from 2021.  Unsurprisingly, all this excellence made the masses
want to see Unreqvited live, and they have officially begun life as a
full-band, touring project.  Naturally, this had an effect on the
writing of A Pathway to the Moon, where the songwriting focus isn’t
simply around creativity, but execution.  For the first time, ? was
forced to think about playing these songs in front of an audience, and
so there are a lot of big risks taken this time around.  Namely,
vocals are much more a focal point of the album, especially clean
vocals.  They’re all over Pathway, but ? is such a good singer that
it’s hardly a flaw.  It is something pretty different as far as
Unreqvited goes though.  Secondly, is the fact that these songs are
much more streamlined and “traditional” than even blackgaze gets.  To
me, Pathway is almost more of a post-rock album than a post-metal
album, although there are moments that couldn’t be described as
anything other than black metal.  Still…

I think the black metal moments are actually my least favorite parts
of the record.  They’re solid as far as black metal goes, but they
don’t really blend well with the rest of the more post-rock oriented
record.  They stick out a little too much for their own good, even if
they are well executed.  I find myself wishing that ? would have
leaned *more* heavily into the post rock/slowcore, kind of like
ISLEPTONTHEMOON did last year.  A Pathway to the Moon sees ? in
transition, but I really like where this all is going.  The new
emphasis on clean vocals, synths and a touch more accessibility is a
very exciting direction, and ? clearly has the compositional skill to
pull off the soaring, moving crescendos necessary.  Take “The
Starforger”, for example.  It’s such a gorgeous, haunting and
unexpected gem from a band that doesn’t really make this kind of
music.  I can see it going over gangbusters live, so call that a job
well done on that front.  Similarly, “Into the Starlit Beyond” takes a
long build with choral vocals and suitably spacey synths before
growing into an anthemic, rousing conclusion.  There are some truly
special moments on A Pathway to the Moon, and it’ll be really
interesting to see if ? leans into them more in the future.

Also, if you happen to see the artbook bonus CD version of this album,
snag it: as the proud owner of several Prophecy artbooks, they’re
stunning, but you also get Unreqvited’s cover of Hans Zimmer’s
“Cornfield Chase” from the Interstellar soundtrack.  Neat!  Seeing as
how a lot of A Pathway to the Moon sounds like a movie soundtrack
anyway, this really couldn’t be a more fitting cover to include as a
special bonus.