Romantisme Noir, Arts Sombres, Doom et Black Metal - MOONSPELL

Comme je le disais tout à l'heure, "Night Eternal" creuse un peu plus dans la direction que le groupe s'est donné avec "Memorial". On flirte avec le Black Metal à certaines moments, à d'autres avec le Death, une seule constante, ce côté gothique indéfectible qui fait partie de leur son, de leur patte, de leur identité. Cet album est du pur Moonspell et pourtant il est différent des autres.

J'en veux pour preuve "First Light" et surtout "Dreamless (Lucifer & Lilith)" qui montrent combien Moonspell a évolué au fil des ans. Ces chansons sont lourdes mais très accessibles grâce à des mélodies très évidentes. C'est probablement ce qu'ils ont fait de plus accessible, je pense.

Un gros travail a été fait sur le chant. Fernando continu ce qu'il avait commencé sur l'album précédent, un chant puissant, mi-hurlé mi-mélodique du plus bel effet. Le chant n'a jamais été un problème chez Moonspell, mais j'ai toujours pensé qu'il pouvait être amélioré. Eh bien depuis "Memorial", c'est chose faite.

Les soli sont vraiment excellents et sont un autre point fort de l'album, ils renforcent l'atmosphère et donnent une envolée un peu lyrique. Parce qu'il faut bien dire que l'album est bien bien sombre, compact et très homogène. Mais pourtant, les neuf chansons en 44 minutes passent très vite, sans aucun problème.

Avec cet album, le groupe confirme le virage ammorcé avec "Memorial" et affirme sa maturité et son style. Ce virage est loin de me déplaire et je pense que cet album sera sans doute parmi les meilleurs de 2008.

Voici une interview de Fernando qui nous explique les thèmes abordés dans l'album :

The Biblical Apocalypse, Lucifer and Lillith, darkness and love - it's all there on NIGHT ETERNAL.

1. At Tragic Heights

Kicks off with a big quote from St. John's Apocalypse and sets the terminal feeling upon which the album lays. But this time around, it's not an alpha/male angel who falls but a woman, who, like in the classic myth, dares to know and hopes for the truth. Musically, it's fast and emotional, with a somewhat more complex structure into it, but the intention is to kill from first note on!


2. Night Eternal

...it's the morning you will never see. Actually, morning is as used on night on this song. It is a lyric of abandonment and alarm for the "tear and the wear of the earth" by her favorite sons: us. It's brutal and melodic at once and the middle part is already one of my favorite headbanging moments with the double bass drum setting the pace.

In this song, you can find the chant of a suffering woman, an avalanche of guitars and a block of strong words. All meaningful and true.


3. Shadow Sun

One of my faves for the time being. It brings a hypnotic vibe in the verses with the "darktrip" approach to the vocals. It's a distinctive style for us and I believe our most progressive moment for ages.

The lyrics can either be about the end of the world or the end of a relationship, about someone watching one or the other through the rain. I love the chorus because it is unleashing and I love this song because it's claustrophobic and dark! Like from the inside of a shadow.


4. Scorpion Flower

It's the summer hit for Goths

No, really, it's one of our best moments and a duet I will never forget with the beautiful and charismatic Anneke Van Giersbergen! It turned out to be a great video as well, where everybody looks great but me…

This song incarnates fury and beauty, the sting of the scorpion and the freshness of a flower. Stupidly romantic, just the way I like it! Check the scorpion and the frog fable, cool to understand these lyrics.

5. Moon In Mercury

Aaarrragghhh! After the balsam comes the wound! I have to be honest here, I didn't know where this song would go but after the studio work it grew on me a lot, it's very old school, made of different parts, but it sticks together like a demon's grip! Lyrically, it deals with revelation through the gleam of a blade, or of an astrological map. Moon in mercury, moon in the house of the dead planet.


6. Hers Is The Twilight

If there is a Gothic Metal song on this album, it is this one! Metal riifing and Fields Of The Nephilim's verses. I love the way it builds (I love my band, that's so corny) and the way it ends. The twilight of the earth, or the twilight of a woman? That's the question to be asked about this one really.


7. Dreamless

Lucifer and Lilith, the first couple, the first lie, the first betrayal, the first tragic love. It's a song that tends to the side of beauty on this album. One should not be afraid of beauty, and one should embrace it, that's what I insisted on for this whole record. Moonspell is not an extreme band, but an emotional one, dreamless with all its keys, acoustics, vocal dubs. Candy for Liltih.


8. Spring Of Rage

Fury and beauty. I love, when the song gets loose for that B part. Widowed in the whiteness pure. It was a song that I always loved, even in its demo form. It was here that I decided to use clean vocals again, sorry about that. I love that explosion with the chorus and the guitar beginning. Ah, and it's a love song with pagan poetry for your soul errr...


9. First Light

MY FAVOURITE SONG! I love the lyrics which describe a quite hypnotic circle in which a prodigal son, a bride to be, and a leader of people intervene. I am as proud of this one text as I was, when I wrote ‘Mephisto’ back in 1996. The rest is what Moonspell does the best, in my poor opinion: doom, big, full moon madness vibe, crescendos, staccatos, classical music kind of vibe.

A great way of finishing an album that is called NIGHT ETERNAL – with a song called ‘First Light’... And I do not mean to be ambiguous, just a bit maybe...

Difficile de choisir une chanson pour illustrer cet article, du coup j'ai pris la première, celle qui donne le ton du reste de l'album, elle s'intitule "At Tragic Heights".

- romantisme noir, arts sombres, doom et black metal -