W.A.S.P. Album: “Dominator”

Night Eternal firmly follows Moonspell's previous release Memorial, but also involves the dark atmospherics from the band's re-recorded CD Under Satanae. Those who enjoyed Memorial will definitely find Night Eternal of interest because it further expands on that style, with plenty of heavy vocal parts, dark keyboard textures, symphonic elements, and deeply melodic guitar lines.

The black metal aesthetic of their earlier material has partly been applied to some of these tunes, such as the album opener "At Tragic Heights", easily the most standout track on this disc. Starting with the creepy intro where dark, lingering keys engulf Fernando Ribeiro's trademark whispers and spoken lyrics, Moonspell venture into a fiercely heavy scorcher that also boasts a great interplay between guitars, keys, and bass (courtesy of Niclas Etelavuori from Amorphis) and concludes with Ribeiro's evil death growls. Speaking of which, there is plenty of growling and screeching on the album, but we also get to hear him switching to his calm gothic voice on some tunes. His hoarse, abrasive delivery on songs like "Night Eternal", complete with insanely fast drumming and tremelo picking; "Moon Is Mercury", highlighted by a gripping melodic guitar theme; and "Spring of Rage", a blend of jackhammer riffery and gothic keyboard exercise, is perfectly contrasted by his seamless switch to clean singing on the otherwise punishing "Shadow Sun", where he continues to repeat the lyrics "Life is meaningless!" until he is sure the listener has absorbed them.

Of all tracks, only two of them are sung with clean vocals: the clean-toned "First Light", noteworthy for its wonderful guitar layering and Ribeiro's assured vocal melody; and "Scorpion Flower", in which Ribeiro duets with Anneke van Giersbergen formerly of The Gathering. First, Ribeiro enters the piece singing over a simple yet effective guitar-keyboard synthesis and a steady, 4/4 drum beat. Then, van Giersbergen offers her instantly recognisable vibrato, doubling his vocal lines and eventually singing solo. In a way, this tune evokes her brilliant duet with Ulver's Garm on the Souvenirs album, but this one is less minimalistic and more guitar-friendly. On this album, Ricardo Amorim is given bigger space for guitar solos, one of which totally complements this piece.

The result is a blend of Moonspell's recent material injected with some of the more blackish atmospherics pre-Sin/Pecado, and while I've never been a big fan of the band's post-The Butterfly Effect material, I feel this one may be their best from that period yet.

I've been following Moonspell since 1995. Each of their albums has it's own feel to it, but they all have one thing in common: They're "organic." The music feels like it's alive. This one's no different in that respect! I'd have to say that Night Eternal has captivated me more than their others. The richness and complexity is amazing! It's a great blend of raw black metal, to a very surreal, very ambient music that I can't even classify. Get it!

To be completely honest, I am not intimately too familiar with Moonspell. Aside from this record, the only other I have and love is The Antidote. But, in my defense, it is hard to find records from bands like this over here in the states in most modern record stores. And that's pretty much all Colorado really has to offer are name brand record stores, such as Best Buy, Hastings, and Circuit City.

But I found this little jewel for sale at Hastings for $10.99. Yes, the limited edition digipack for $10.99. I almost crapped my pants, and had an even harder time controlling my bowels as the CD played in my car.

This record is MIND BLOWING. It is a vast improvement over The Antidote, which was a great album of it's own. But this does it so much better. Super fast guitars and drums, thundering bass, orchestra out the wazoo, and evil vocals make this disc on hell of an experience. 'At Tragic Heights' starts slower, with Fernando's typical whispered vocals, but bursts into a truly epic track complete with some of Fernando's best screams to date. 'Night Eternal' comes on, and I can say with certainty that this is one of the most powerful songs I have ever heard in my life, just in its delivery. The next standout track is 'Scorpion Flower', a beautiful, haunting track complete with female vocals.

I could go on and on about the rest of the disc, but if you haven't gotten the point of this review into your head by now, let me make it clear just what I've been saying- this is one of the BEST metal records I have ever heard, and you should pick it up, whether you are familiar with Moonspell or not. You won't regret.

Night Eternal is a powerful, beautiful piece of gothic metal as an art form.

This album continues the progress they made in their album The Antidote. They lost some of this progress and skill when they made the bland, stale, but still grand Memorial. They got back on track with the next album, Under Satanae, in which they revisited old songs from their demos.

That trip through the past was just what they needed to turn Moonspell back into a heavy metal super power. Night Eternal seems to be the culmination of what Moonspell has learned through their career. The music is powerful - as the album's first track picks up, you are swept away in the speed and majesty of the music. Fernando balances seamlessly between his dark, flavorful growls and his souring, booming singing voice. We're treated to more guitar solos than any album before it. The guitarist plays as if thrilled to be heard, and I was thrilled to hear him really spread his wings.

The album is almost symphonic at times, with keyboards eagerly supporting the precisely-laid riffs from the guitars, all standing on the firm, solid foundation of the drummer's expert slammings. They even use a chorus once or twice, with stunning results.

Not rare for Moonspell, but a technique more akin to their early days, is their use of female vocals in the song Scorpion Flower. These are not the useless dronings found in Luna, or the almost humorous female additions to the Wolfheart album... No, this woman adds a dimension to the song rarely heard in metal.

Night Eternal is a triumph of metal, easily one of the best metal albums to appear for a few years.

DIGIPAK INFO: There is absolutely no reason not to buy the digipak version, which, at the time of writing, is the same price as the regular version. The expanded album art is beautiful, and it even comes with a neat sticker.

The bonus track, Age Of Mothers, is beautiful. The two remixes of Scorpion Flower aren't exactly necessary, but still worth a listen.

This is definitely one of the best metal albums to come out in recent memory. I hadn't even heard of Moonspell until a couple weeks ago, and now I can't stop listening to this CD. It embodies everything I love about metal: darkness, beauty, brutality, heavyness, melodicness. Normally I can't stand the "death grunt" style vocals, but Fernando Ribeiro gets it right. He has the most perfect growl, blended with deep, wonderful "clean" vocals. This is gorgeous music, metal elevated to an art.