Voices from the Fuselage – Odyssey II – The Founder of Dreams

Two years after their splendid debut, “Odyssey I – The Destroyer of Worlds”, British post/prog/pop metal heads Voices from the Fuselage are back with their sophomore effort “Odyssey II – The Founder of Dreams”. Since I already really liked what they had to offer on “Odyssey I”, I was very curious and excited to see (or rather hear), what the direct successor would sound like, and if they were able keep that high quality level. To spare you the surprise: they were even able to raise their game to an album chock full of hits, hits and more hits, refining both the different ingredients (read: more of everything) and also their very own blend of them all.

The atmospheric intro build-up of the first song ‘Via’ with the first majestic post rock/pop explosion close to the four minute mark is the perfect opener luring us once again into the sci-fi world of Ashe O’Hara and his boys, before the monolithic riff of ‘The Monolith’ starts the action for real. Balancing the fine line between overtly pop melodies, vast atmospheres and chugging prog metal like only these guys can do, I can’t help but feel that they have perfected their unique style with those two first songs already. Luckily, they are able to maintain this highest quality standard throughout the whole album.

The pop sensibilities come back to the fore in the epic ‘Life on Titan’ with its beautiful chorus, enhanced by spacey underlying post rock guitar tremolos, whereas the orchestration in the subsequent bridge somehow reminds me of (a proggy version of) Rammstein‘s ‘Engel’. After the hectic ‘Nine Levels’, one of my favorite songs, namely ‘Vault of Heaven’, falls back into slower and more atmospheric waters. The play on dynamics is expertly handled and especially that last chorus coming out of seemingly nothing is pure genius. The powerful video single ‘Vestibule of Hell’ brings back the energy, gonna be a crushing song live for sure.

‘Grave Digging’ and ‘Destitute’ are shorter and to the point, while ‘Domus’ and the epic nine minutes closer ‘Machina’ explore the atmospheric post rock side. Like with these four tracks, as well as on the album as a whole, the four UK lads manage to keep things fresh and exciting throughout by adding enough variety between the songs as well as within them, while still retaining a consistent mood throughout. At the end of the day, “Odyssey II – The Founder of Dreams” should appeal to a wide audience as it seamlessly blends a lot of different genres and influences. With addictively gorgeous melodies, vast atmospheres and some proggy riffing, Voices from the Fuselage have created one of my favorite albums of 2018, even topping Ashe’s old band, the mighty TesseracT in my end of the year list, and I urge every prog fan and melody addict to check it out! So I am really looking forward to seeing them live at one point in 2019. And so should you!

Tracklist:

1. Via
2. The Monolith
3. Life on Titan
4. Nine Levels
5. Vault of Heaven
6. Vestibule of Hell
7. Grave Digging
8. Domus
9. Destitute
10. Machina