Metal Reviews

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I thought this album sucked.

Sucked isn't the word, but I know what you are saying. It is pretty weak compared to Night Eternal.

I thought it was good, not great. And Omega White is definitely the better album.

I am glad to hear that, looking forward to it.

It's no Night Eternal. That is true, but Night Eternal was a masterpiece. I actually really like the first three tracks on Alpha Noir and the title track is a sweet song too. You got the heavy album and the light one. They are both good. We hold Moonspell to a high standard which is good, but as I realized on the new Meshuggah, sometimes you need to let it grow a little. Especially with a double CD release. It's a lot of music and needs time to sink in. I'm a huge Moonspell fan and I am really happy to finally have some new music from them. I would score both of these albums in the mid to upper 80s.

This band has always worked in twos. They do two albums in a similar style, then shift gears a bit.

Wolfheart and Irreligious are gothy with some black metal influence. Sin/Pecado and Butterfly Effect are experimental. Darkness And Hope and The Antidote are goth rock. Memorial and Night Eternal are again gothy with black metal influence, like the first two albums, though much heavier.

That of course is all very vague comparisons, but it seems to be true with these guys. It's hard not to compare albums to other albums, but it's probably best not to. Memorial and Night Eternal, and even the re-recordings album Under Satanae, were so bad-ass, any shift to a slightly different style will seem disappointing, I think.

I've only heard two full tracks and the samples from this double album, though, so I have no full opinion. I've loved everything these guys have done—with the exception of the very bizarre Under The Moonspell EP, which is good but not amazing—so I expect I'll like this new one.

I think your description of them is quite accurate. I am hoping that this one grows more with time, and am looking foward to getting ahold of Omega White. I hold Moonspell in pretty high regard, so saying this is album is a step down still leaves a lot of other bands looking up at them.

Are the albums not being put out together? I thought it was a standard double album. Or did you get a promo or download?

Have you heard Daemonarch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDjso_0UqMQ

It's basically black-metal Moonspell. Fantastic album.

It was a promo, which only came as Alpha Noir. And no, I have not heard it.

I posted this elsewhere:

Man, this album is fantastic! Or should I say "these albums"?

Yet again, it's different. As I've said before, here, they tend to switch things up every third album. This is no different. Alpha Noir is by far their most "traditional heavy metal" album.

Now, that's in quotes because it's still Moonspell and bares no overall similarity to that style. What I hear is them channeling that classic sound, particularly in the riffs. For instance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4pfE5VKrXA

Not a typical riff for these guys. (If you're a fan of No Innocent Victim, you'll recognize the beginning of the song is identical to "Grief.") And there's a lot of those moments. Best served loud, this one. Great stuff.

Omega White is a different beast, as expected. It's a lot mellower and at times experimental. Not in The Butterfly Effect sense, but in instrumentation and styles. For instance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYlMiVNaALU

There are moments that remind me of R.E.M. ("Incantatrix"), other moments that are very Type O Negative-ish ("New Tears Eve"). "Herodisiac" is extremely catchy, upbeat, almost poppy...

Just another great collection of tunes, though mostly a glaring contrast to Alpha Noir. Which it should be, of course. A couple tunes could have fit nicely on Alpha Noir, though.

Either way, both albums are excellent. It's hard to compare them to Memorial and Night Eternal, because those two were so heavy and brilliant; but if you take the new albums on their own merits, they're equally brilliant.

Just heard this album sold only 873 copies in the first week of its release in the US. I'm not too big on this band, but a huge fuck off anyway to anyone who downloaded it.

Agreed. Still need to buy my copy, but thats mainly because I have the promo. Still will own the album. I wonder what the average is for band's like Moonspell in the states these days. Something I need to research.

It's sad, really, because you know millions of people downloaded this fucking thing.

Cut the prices of all the new releases in half and the sales will increase.
It's as simple as that.

In half from what? You can buy a new album/DVD special edition package for $12.00, which is already less than it is worth. At $6.00 I doubt you are even covering the price of printing the album, much less making any discrenable proffit.

Too many people simply don't place value in music and the work that goes into it.

printing and distribution are starting to become a waste of money.

did 873 include digital sales?

Fortunately people's taste could never be that bad.

Pipe dream, my friend. They release CDs over here all the time for $6.99 and $7.99, and it doesn't help.

I just picked up this album today along-side with Omega White (which came in one package, obviously!). I've only heard 4 tracks from Alpha Noir and I must say I have completely changed my thoughts on Moonspell as a band. The Antidote and Darkness and Hope were quite brilliant when it was rotating in my CD player when they first came out. A few months ago I played the former album I mentioned and did not like it at all. NOW, that I played this new album... and I'm absolutely loving it. Quite dark, textured, well-balanced, attention to detail, and Fernado is better than ever. Very well written lyrical content as well. I think my new headphones are making a huge difference to the whole listening experience. It makes me strive to listen to my whole collection again which would be completely absurd!


In short:

This album is tremendous and I haven't even listened to one album yet. It definitely deserves a higher score.