Musical Style: Progressive Metal/Ambient	Produced By:
Record Label: Independent	Country Of Origin: USA & Canada
Year Released: 2026	Artist Website: Midnight Worship
Tracks: 3	Rating: 90%
Running Time: 50:30

Midnight Worship is on an ambitious mission to target the pinnacles of progressive metal and worship rock aesthetics.  The project of brothers Terry (lead vocals, guitars & keyboards) and Trevor (drums & percussion) Friesen realizes a goal of ‘mixing meditative metal with God’s Word for humanity’ but does so within a framework of worship songs that draw upon portions of the Bible that focus on God’s nighttime creation:

I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night (Psalm 63:6)

I reflect at night on who you are, O Lord… I rise at midnight to thank you… (Psalm 119:55, 62)

Musically, Midnight Worship is not that far removed from the brother’s renowned Sombre Holiday project (of which it has recorded six albums) with its reinforcing of equal parts Gothic and doom metal but separates with added emphasis on acoustic guitar and keyboards interwoven with ethereal ambient music.  The groups February of 2026 third album Remember The Dawn stays true to such themes from focusing on ‘progressive metal as devotion: heavy yet patient, sorrowful yet confident, grounded entirely in Scripture’ (quoting the groups press material).  Moreover, ‘It is an album for late nights, long prayers, and anyone waiting for the morning’ (also, the groups press material).

It is worth noting how each subsequent Midnight Worship album becomes increasingly more progressive, referencing how Remember The Dawn includes just 3 songs but 50 minutes of music while predecessors Midnight Worship (2019) and The Darkness (2022) were of similar span but featured 12 and 5 songs, respectively.

There is so much depth, distinctness and intricacy to Midnight Worship I find it a challenge to detail with any creditable accuracy its music.  Each of the three ‘movements’ - the word ‘song’ is not adequate to describe the Remember The Dawn material - is a ‘story’ unto itself with manifold musical forms, time signatures and instrumental excursions seamlessly woven together with labyrinthine efficiency.  Hence, I am going to put forth the best effort possible to recount the elaborate nuances embodied therein and in the process, hope I do the band justice…

I identify with opener “The Day The Stars Were Born” as loosely breaking down between three six-minute parts akin to a Neal Morse epic.  First begins its initial two minutes instrumentally as pouring rain and violin give way to acoustic guitar with the subsequent four taking a more forthright heading to doom-like chugging and blistering guitar leads.  Second sees opening violin and acoustic sentiments give way to back and forth time signatures between slogging rhythm guitar and feedback driven ethereal moments ahead of closing Spanish guitar, while third begins warmly to introspective keyboards and harmonizing prior to a praise based crescendo of somber melody and richly woven guitar.  Lyric snippet:

The Lord merely spoke
And all the stars were born

It is the Lord who created the stars
The Pleiades and Orion
He turns darkness into morning
And day into night

He counts the stars and calls them all by name
How great is our Lord

“A Distant Desert” highlights so many twists and turns its seventeen and half minutes as to go into specific detail.  Nonetheless, it breaks down between moments lighter and heavier.  Former reflects the Midnight Worship Gothic side, as acoustic guitar and atmospheric keyboards speak of the ambient, and bluesy lead guitar builds upon the moody framework.  This is where said ‘sorrowful yet confident’ realizing comes into play.  Latter exemplifies that metal based to see Terry put on a clinic guitar wise in which he yields blistering leads along with a catchy but assailing riff that brings to mind the brothers heavier metal based Freezing Terror project (yielding two additional albums).  This is where that ‘progressive metal as devotion’ manifests.  Lyric snippet:

O Lord, I cry out to You
I’ll keep on pleading
Darkness is my closest friend

I’m exhausted from crying for help
My groans come from an anguished heart
You know what I long for, Lord
You hear my every sigh

I wish I was a dove so I could fly away
To a distant desert

Album closes to its fifteen-minute title track, which similar to “The Day The Stars Were Born” breaks down into multiple parts.  First, two minutes of acoustic guitar blended with sound of a campfire as Terry highlights his somber, lower register vocal abilities, gives way to second, instrumentally covering the next three to chilling keyboards and metal burnished guitar over Trevor’s powerful drum rolls and fills.  Third settles down to Spanish guitar for a lone verse repeated twice prior to diving into an instrumental run impelled by driving guitars and brazen soloing that extends to minute nine, while fourth closes things as the campfire and acoustic guitar bookend around classic rock infused guitar and moody emotion to brings things to their magnanimous close.  Lyric snippet:

Darkness as black as night
Covers all the earth
But the glory of the Lord
Rises over you

Your sun will never set
Your moon will not go down
For the Lord will be your light
Everlasting

Midnight Worship does a choice job capturing the best aspects of meditative progressive metal and the worshipful on third album Remember The Dawn.  Upshot is a work melancholy and atmospheric but bone crushing heavy all the same, emanating equal parts Gothic and doom like while awash in somber melody.  Each of the three ‘movements’ exudes of manifold time and tempo changes - to ethereal and ambient and that metal derivative and back again -  in giving prominence to creative detail and intricate inspiration.  All I can do as a reviewer is hope to capture with a relevant degree of creditability the Midnight Worship musical and lyrical ambitions.  Fans of progressive music in all its forms not to mention that Gothic and doom like will take great pleasure in Remember The Dawn.

Review by Andrew Rockwell

Track Listing: “The Day The Stars Were Born” (17:42), “A Distant Desert” (17:26), “Remember The Dawn” (15:21)

Musicians
Terry Friesen - Lead Vocals, Guitars & Keyboards
Trevor Friesen - Drums & Percussion

Additional Musicians
Isaac Friesen - Violin