I had not heard Phelios before, so I judged it based on label, packaging, and title. Malignant is a fine purveyor of dark ambient, power electronics and noise. So with a title like Astral Unity and artwork of space nebulae, I figured it would be in the dark ambient camp and I was looking forward to hearing it. On putting it into my player, it began with heavy atmosphere and then kicked in the martial drums. This is not astral unity through peace, but rather unity through total annihilation as the drums of war pound away. This is great, ominous compositions that would be perfectly at home as the soundtrack to a medieval battle scene. The closest comparison I can come up with is In Slaughter Natives. At times the percussion is almost tribal, but always ominous. This is dark without resorting to cheesy samples and the like. There is nothing here but well crafted music that varies enough to tell the whole desolate story of life, death, and the places in between. If you like it dark, this is certainly worth checking out. This disc weighs in at around 51 minutes.