It was not so far ago, when Moonspell put out their debut album. The year was 1995 and the album is called 'Wolfheart', and it is a minor classic in the dark/gothic metal field. 'Darkness & Hope' is already the fifth long player from these Portuguese weavers of darkness. It can't be argued, that every Moonspell record took the band into more and more commercial market, if that can be written when talking about the metal music.

'Darkness and Hope' is gothic music, rock for a big part and metal for an infinitesimal part. It has been a sad evolution, in my opinion, for the band who gleamed so brightly after that another minor classic, 'Irreligious', back in 1996. After that, the band have even tried some electronics in their sound. On 'Darkness and Hope', Moonspell have dropped the majority of electronics and given the music more breathing space. As for slight metal portion heard here, I think the band felt that they NEEDED to put some of it into the songs here, just to "stick to the roots". So, the metal part feels almost artificial, but not thoroughly when remembering who Moonspell were. Sometimes, the band are able to inject atmosphere into their music, but some moments here sound soulless, especially 'Heartshaped Abyss' where I can't hear anything to cling to. Gothic should mean it was filled with horror atmosphere, but it is not. It is about as scary as Teletubbies! The soullessness isn't caused by the commercialism, because I don't believe this is very commercial music at all. It is not bombastic, it is not stadium-sized, it is not pop music but partly, mind you. The guitar work pictures the album well: Some fucking Oasis style "wild" guitar strumming. No, it really is like that!

Those times, when I happen to like of what I hear are quite rare and far between I'm afraid. The title song is slow-ish and succeeds in raising some atmosphere with its quiet/loud variation. 'Firewalking' is good just because it is the heaviest, most "metal" (double kick drum and some growled vocals, too) song here and it also reminds of Moonspell of the yore (esp. 'Irreligious' era). 'Nocturna', the video track, is more poppy yet a good one with some real drive. 'Devilred' lets the metal flow again, but its chorus is very The Sisters Of Mercy-esque (how about newer Tiamat, eh?!). 'Ghostsong' has some great guitar parts (the opening guitar work appearing also later, and "solo"), but the slow parts aren't nothing special, while the chorus is so fucking annoying that I'm ripping my hair off!!! Pop and PUSSY if anything is. "Mediterranean" vibes of 'Os senhores da guerra' make the song a goodie, and it's a fucking Madredeus cover! In all, 'Darkness and Hope' sounds like a mixture of previous two Moonspell albums, good 'Sin/Pecado' and shitty 'The Butterfly Effect' (1998 and 1999 respectively).

The album does sound quite organic, but it is still too polished. Hiili Hiilesmaa at Finnvox Studios caught this on "tape". Good job, but too "good". Fernando Ribeiro might not be a very good singer, but he's no Peter Steele copycat, unlike so many goth metal vocalists. His Mediterranean accent needs a lot of patience, believe me! The lyrics are mostly about one thing; these guys want some pussy. No, they need to get it ASAP so they won't write something supposedly erotic like "when I'm inside her feels like she is made of storm... she does not know she's fucking with the lord of lies" in the future. Some horror lyrics appear on 'Rapaces', which is based on the movie 'Lifeforce'. Not much of the movie's atmosphere in them... The band's performance is, I guess, flawless. When they can inject energy into their playing, they are fantastic. For some reason they manage to do it only seldomly. Soulless is the adjective. Whereas the rhythm section works very well, the guitars and the vocals do not. The graphics inside the booklet are great, by the way, but tat doesn't help a lot.

The bonus stuff in the box version are a poster (great picture of the band about to bury Fernando in the desert), a small sticker, and two video clips on the CD. 'Magdalene (special video remix)' includes some boring concert footage while 'Butterfly FX' is much more eye-friendly. The highlight is the cover of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Mr. Crowley', done with style IMHO. It happens to be the most energetic song on 'Darkness and Hope'. And the heaviest one... Yes, this album is that bloody un-metal.

Moonspell are individual, and do their gothic thing better than shitty teen-girl chasers The 69 Eyes or "totally evil" Marilyn Manson. I just don't understand why not change the name of the band already. 'Darkness and Hope' could have been so much more, but there's serious lack of energy and, of course, metal. I wish in my secret dreams that Moonspell would notice and understand that it is "ok to be metal" (like Flotsam And Jetsam once said, after messing around with something else than metal music). Oh well, hell, hear my prayers!

Rating: 5- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/20/2003 13:22