Genre:  Atmospheric / Symphonic Black Metal

01 Blood on the Milky Way
02 A Deathly Illusion
03 Lost and not Found
04 Thorns of Deception
05 The Venomous Grace
06 Omen of Doom
07 Somewhere
08 Path to the Motherland

It has been a three year wait since those of us who reamin loyal fans to Sear Bliss have heard from them with a new full-length.  2004's Glory and Perdition was perhaps Red Stream's shining moment as a label, and perhaps undeserving of a quality release such as that.  Regardless, it remains etched in the tomes of time that Glory and Perdition saw its face with Red Stream, and they have done a great deal for America on distroing European metal goods.  Today however, Sear Bliss find themselves embraced by Candlelight Records.  With this change, the band sounds more confident than ever in their style, and they should be.  There isn't another act out there today whom uses the horn and bass infusion style so powerfully and strangely as Sear Bliss.  Listening through The Arcane Odyssey is like riding the Pegasus itself through the stars and watching the constellations come to life.

The past for Sear Bliss has been every bit as much of a struggle as its been for any veteran project in the black metal scene.  Starting in 1993, they have fought their way through countless lineup changes in every position.  They are also one of the only 'atmospheric' black metal bands to date to nearly completely leave behind the delicate string sounds of viola and cello for the more in your face attitude of brass from not only their keyboards, but their full time trombonist Zoltán Pál.  Name another black metal band that can say that!  However, Sear Bliss isn't all beef and balls.  There are indeed spacey atmospheric keyboard moments The first of which can be heard at the end of Blood on the Milky Way before following into an acoustic and electronics based opening to A Death Illusion, similar of a combination of later Sentenced and electronic-afflicted ..and Oceans.

Surely any metal fan can find a release like this one worth checking out.  The Arcane Odyssey isn't necessarily an experimental metal album, but it is certainly unlike anything you've ever heard before unless you are familiar with Sear Bliss' past releases.  And even then, it quite clearly has its own original sound.  The Arcane Odyssey promises to be a milestone not only for Sear Bliss, but for black metal as a whole in the near future.  If only they'd get a french horn player in there, their sound would increase in the epic sense ten fold.