No worries, your stuff is pretty great!
 
Yeah, I highly encourage using sends to bus effects for things like verb and delay. Your system looks pretty monstrous, so I don't think it'll help you that much in regards to CPU overhead, but it can definitely help your soundstage sound tighter. I usually make three "verb" buses, a very big one, a tight room, and a vocal plate. I put the word "verb" in quotes because for some, the vox plate in particular, I usually use a delay instead of a verb. Plus it makes it easier to dial a mix in, since there's just one effect to set and the rest is just adjusting your send levels. 
 
I hear you about the "new" stuff. I just finished mixing our record and I have to a crap ton of housecleaning before I can start working on new material. 

I can't find anything too heinously wrong with your effort, it's good certainly as a tension piece. Viewed in that regard, it hits the mark. I did find myself wanting it to develop or move around a little more than it did, but there I'm wearing the Composer Hat when I shouldn't. The Mixing Hat liked it just peachy!
 
cheers,
[<font][<font]-Tom

I'm with Tom, While it sounds really cool, it doesn't go anywhere. I guess if it opens your album and links or explodes  into track number 2 then this would be perfect.
 
Gus

Thanks Tom and Gus. Yea definitely it's meant to be more of a tension filled piece to start off the album before tracks 2-6 really are all upbeat before going into some mid-tempo and slower stuff mixed with more upbeat again as the album progresses. But yea, I really wanted to start the album with something slow and menacing and filled with tension that leads up to the title track "An Unseen Sky" as track 2.
 
And Wicked, again, thanks for the comments. I will definitely look into that when I start working on the new stuff :-)

It is a bit static, but I liked it.  Particularly the tone of the lower synth part on the left that repeats.   The strings add some nice ambiance.   The drums are a little out front as mentioned above, on these cheap headphones it was mostly the crash on the right. 
 
Oh... and that probably was the darkest video I've ever seen.   Well, except for the text.  
 

The text was a necessary EVIL. Sorry. I had to.

Thanks for commenting :-)