Album Title: Far From God
Tracklist:
Cross Your Heart
Far From God
Biblical
The Great Wolf In The Sky
Your Promise Of Light
For The Love Of Mortals
Our Freedom To Fall
Reconquista
Label: Napalm Records
Version Reviewed: Jewel Case CD
Run Time:
Rating: 6/10
Band Members:
Fernando Ribeiro - Vocals
Pedro Paixao -Keyboards
Ricardo Amarim - Guitars
Aired Pereira - Bass
Hugo Ribeiro - Drums
Additional Album Credits:
Lyrics By Fernando Ribeiro
All Music By Pedro Paixao And Ricardo Amarim
Produced, Mixed And Mastered By Jaime Gomez Arellano
Pre-Produced By Jaime Gomez Arellano And Moonspell
Strings On The Great Wolf In The Sky By Alicia Nurho
Album Cover Art Painted By Eliran Kantor
Album Design By Joao Diogo
Band Pictures By Chantix Photography
Executive Producer: Fernando Ribeiro
My love for the Portuguese band Moonspell goes all the way back to the release of their debut full length album “Wolfheart”. That album to this day still sits in the top 10 of my favorite albums of all-time
list. It was dark, gothic and was firmly rooted in Black Metal to boot. I also loved their first 7” and the “Under The Moonspell” EP as well. Their sophomore album “Irreligious” saw the band tone down a bit, but it had a lot of great tracks on it despite being far weaker than “Wolfheart” was. After that I kind of stopped caring about them and I only ever really liked one of their later albums… I forget which one, but it was heavier and more Black Metal than anything they had put out in a while. This is my first review in 9 months due to me being… unavailable. It’s great to be back to reviewing again and I decided to buy Moonspell’s newest album “Far From God” without listening to it first. I do that from time to time, even if it’s a band I stopped following for a while. Does this album capture the greatness of their early albums? Read on to find out…
In a word, No. No it doesn’t. It isn’t a bad album, but it’s just way too Goth Rock and mellow for me. It’s very rooted in 1980’s Goth rock and rarely gets heavy at all. The musicianship is phenomenal and some of it I found catchy, but I want to hear that Vampiric Black Metal again! I love the sound of a good bass presence music, and this has it in spades, and they keyboards are great as well, but it’s just way too laid back and mellow for my tastes. Fernando’s vocals back in the day sounded like if Bela Lugosi sang Black Metal and in my opinion the vocals Fernando did on “Wolfheart” are far better than anything Peter Steele did with Type O Negative. On “Far From God”, that style surfaces here and there and is mostly in a clean style. The lyrics are well written and focus on death, vampirism, love and all things melancholy. The production is top notch, though it is a bit too polished sounding to me.
The cover art is nice and shows two people… uhh… maybe two men… I can’t tell and don’t care but I can’t tell if the one in the house is a man or woman. Either way they are kissing through an open window and it’s done in an old style with dark and shadowy nuances. Inside the 24-page booklet you will find all of the lyrics, band photos, band and album information and more.
I hope Moonspell sees fit to throw older fans of the band a Black Metal album again soon. “Far From Good” is simply an okay album but there’s nothing on it that excites me and gets my blood moving. And isn’t that the whole purpose of vampire themed music.
As always, I ask my readers to please support the bands, labels and artists by buying the physical copies of their albums or by going to their Bandcamp pages and supporting them there.
No comments:
Post a Comment