Moonspell fans rejoice for they have completed another great work here!
These Portuguese Goth Metal masters do not dissapoint on this, their 7th album to date. This album finds a more tribal nature to it. Dancing tom tom patterns struck precisely by drummer Mike Gaspar on more than one tune here. While the drums pound you hear string elements and bits of noise quietly tucked in the background that broaden the whole sound spectrum in a very sneaky but nice way. You have got some serious time and thought spent on this album.
The full release, of which I am not familiar, will include video material and the complete novel of "The Antidote" by acclaimed Portuguese writer Jose Luis Peixoto who wrote a collection of short stories based on
Moonspell's lyrics.
So they have melded music, lyric, and literature in a way no band has even thought of doing before. Quite an accomplishment in my opinion!
If you wanted an album to get into, to immerse in, to know, then pick up the full version with videos and novel in it. This is more than entertainment for entertainment's sake. This would be art folks, a musical work of art!
To break these songs down into a track by track detail would be idiotic and defeat the purpose of the album as a whole. While it is not a concept album per se, it is very connected from song to song by a vibe and mood that makes them all feel as one. It really achieves a movie feel from beginning to end.
Yet i will have to bring out some stand out, dare i say obvious, radio freindly tunes. The opening song
"In And Above Men" is a sure fire 'hit', followed by
"Lowering Skies" as another single for the would be masses to hear apart from the whole.
Ok i will give a brief description of the sounds you can expect to hear. Slightly distorted rock guitar sounds, grunge guitar sounds, death metal guitar sounds, clean but alternative rock guitar sounds. Keyboard layers, strings, and slightly industrial noises here and there. The vocals are clean and growling all through out. Even some whisper singing on there.
Drums are nice and fat sounding but more along the lines of the way a jazz drum kit makes full ringing tones instead of muted flat tom pops like most metal records have. Then we have the bass guitar tones provided by none other than Niclas Etelavuori of
Amorphis fame. Nice round tones with a slight break up of distortion on his bass. Very full and very colorful.
Two websites for you to check out:
www.moonspell.com and
www.joseluispeixoto.net and as always, for some good fun and more metal than you could ever buy in your lifetime, the monsters at
www.centurymedia.com and the various sites they have all over the world for your language preference.
Cheers to
Moonspell for another addition to the expanding and conquering world of metallic music!
Written by
David Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Show all reviews by DavidRatingsDavid: 9/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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