MEMORIAL

Coming after The Antidote, Memorial isn't much of a new thing, the band remaining constant in their extreme gothic metal style (reminiscent of black metal) (with absolutely nothing to do with PROGRESSIVE ROCK). But this doesn't mean that Memorial is a poor record: in fact, it's one of the most intense, harsh and all the other characteristics reviewers invoke when writing about death-black metal albums Moonspell had released by then. The music is focused on a apocalyptic atmosphere that is not goth by excellence but related: it's the kind of soundscape epic films feature. I wouldn't really put emphasis on the atmosphere because generally this is the background for some out-of-this-world guitar playing. However, the guitars are pretty lame. If it hadn't been for the good production, I wouldn't have been impressed (we all know that no matter how good the compositions are, if the instruments sound bad, then the record receives many minuses). Taking this into consideration, I have to admit that it's the keys that bring the charm and originality to Moonspell's discography because, as I said earlier, Moonspell had never suffered form apocalypticism like this before.

Focusing on the not so successful aspects of the matter, one might bring up the lack of diversity. Although the album has 16 tracks, it's just one one-hour long song. The interludes were supposed to solve this issue but they actually don't simply because interludes don't count as much as full-length tracks (or how you call them, whatever). If I were to choose the most out of line song, I would go for Luna: it reminds me of the 80's post punk.

Now lets mention the highlights: Finisterra (it's the end of the world!!!), Upon the Blood of Men (really deep-inside, to quote a friend, adding girl in front of friend) - one of the few tracks with a guitar solo and a great one by the way - , Proliferation (a very straight-forward instrumental interlude, the best one on Memorial) and Luna (I don't know what the Portuguese for moon is but in Romanian the equivalent is lună so I guess they wanted to relate the song to vampirism, nevermind)

In the end ... it reminds me of these lyrics:La miezul nopţii/ îţi trimit hoţii/ să-ţi ia chiloţii/ din vârful porţii