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 鬼’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 鬼’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, 鬼 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 鬼 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 鬼 would have leaned *more* heavily into the post rock/slowcore, kind of like ISLEPTONTHEMOON did last year.  A Pathway to the Moon sees 鬼 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 鬼 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 鬼 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.

-Ian

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A Pathway to the Moon is out now on Prophecy Productions.  For more information on Unreqvited, visit their Facebook page.