Band: Moonspell

Title: Night Eternal

Label: SPV / Steamhammer

Distribution: CNR Records

Release date: 19/05/2008

Review: CD

The Portuguese band Moonspell does certainly not need any introduction, I guess. I was a fan in their more blackish-oriented early years (also the time when they were still called Morbid God, and I was also impressed by the band’s extreme and blackish side-project Daemonarch), yet after the more Goth/Black-album Wolfheart I did lose my interest. Irreligious and the next albums, well, I couldn’t really agree with this new direction(s). However, the re-release of all older material last year, under the name Under Satanae, did caress my ears again and I did hope this was a new step in this band’s history. And indeed, Night Eternal is another evolution in Moonspell’s existence. For this album, the band did work again with Waldemar Sorychta (pre-production), while Tue Madsen was responsible for the mixing duties and the actual recording in his well-known Antfarm Studio. The assistance of Tue Madsen did make me a little anxious (even though he took care, in a superb way, of the mix of the re-recordings of Under Satanae) because he has his typical sound that goes perfectly well with a certain (clean and safe) style, yet I wasn’t sure about this release. But I was wrong, because the whole (sound, mix, production) is just superb: not too clean yet rough enough to lift the whole up to a higher dimension. And the compositions, well, are the best in years. The Gothic and Mediterranean influences still are part of the music, yet the evolution also implements a certain ‘back-to-the-roots’-spirit. Don’t expect a second Under The Moonspell or Wolfheart, nor are there any comparisons to Daemonarch or Morbid God, but the whole sounds more brutal again in comparison to the later Moonspell-releases (even though the last albums were more intense, like Memorial). Opener At Tragic Heights, for example, immediately sets the tone: melody and aggression go perfectly well together again, and Fernando Ribeiro’s vocals are grunting so deeply that I cannot but think about those early years. Besides, the keyboard parts are just superb, and so are the rhythm section (firm and powerful) and riffing (overwhelming without getting too exaggerated). A track as Scorpion Flower has a more melodic-atmospheric Dark Metal-approach, containing melodic male and female voices and this hymn might have a more semi-emotional ballad-alike approach. The same goes for Dreamless (Lucifer And Lilith), yet without the female voices. Yet most of the tracks indeed are strong and overwhelming with a powerful sound and a darkening atmosphere. Night Eternal is their strongest album in more than ten years, I believe!

88/100

Ivan Tibos.