LUSITANIAN METAL

Don't get me wrong, I really like the studio albums of Moonspell and I have even seen them in concert and I have liked their performance very much. That's why I got so shocked when I listened to this album.

This album lacks of everything that a good live album needs. There is no connection and contact between the crowd and the band, they mostly do not even announce their songs or stop in between them.

You do not hear the crowd at all most of the time, you only hear a tiny and undistinguishable shrieking coming from far away when the bands decides some very rare times to take a little break between their songs.

The sound of the recordings is not dynamical at all, it really bores you to death. The studio versions of the songs are much more fresh, diversified and straight. There are really worlds between the studio albums and this live album.

One of their best songs, the legendary "Alma mater" is cut into pieces on the album, the whole magic and hypnotically bridge and the repeating of the first verse has been cut to shorten this song a lot.

When I bought this album I thought that it would help me to remember their concert and to get an impression of their discography which I didn't know very well at that time. Both thoughts were completely wrong and this horrible album was the reason why it took some time before I approached the band's music again and discovered many beautiful and intense albums. This live album really gives you a wrong and negative impression of the band. I don't understand at all why this lousy crap has even been published, even a lousy demo or a bootleg recording would have sounded better.

I can really not recommend to buy this album. If you are a newbie and you are looking for a first album to know this band better, you should seriously start with their diversified and interesting debut album and classic masterpiece "Wolfheart".

I give one point out of five points for the choice of the set list and the booklet.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on October 8th of the year 2010.