As We Eternally Sleep On It

Fernando Ribeiro - Vocals
Pedro Paixao - Synths & Samplers, Guitars
Mike Gaspar - Drums
Ricardo Amorim - Guitar

Guest:
Niclas Etelävuori (Amorphis) - Bass

The Antidote against all poisons and venoms,  poisoned itself by sadness and anger,  can pass from purely metallic touches to rocking or  only melodic ones and this also within the space of a single track. It sounds even Blackish in some passages.
Ribeiro is able to propose not only growlings ( being they concentrated above all on "In and above Men" , "Everything invaded", and a touch in "Lunar Still" and "The southern Deathstyle") but also  lots of "clear" bass round velvety vocals too, and many moments in which these 2 aspects alternate . 
In The Antidote we can find acoustic , psycho and impending environments united with a wide spectrum of influences from Dark Tranquillity, passing through My Dying Bride, Sentenced, Paradise Lost, Rapture and Before the Dawn. 
Very good tuned Capricorn at her Feet which mixes Gothic aesthetics with Doom strength, crunchy guitars, melodic solo and good bass notes.
Sonar like in The Antidote, a song of a terrible deep sadness which gives the shivers, in my opinion a masterpiece.
Another plus song is Everything Invaded, an amazing mix between rock and growling, with instrumental finesse. 
Some tracks are also powerful drum- driven like "Crystal gazing " and the spectacular The Southern Deathstyle. 
A walk on the dark Side is very catchy with rock-ish intro, but has it influences also from Darkseed or am i wrong?

Like slightly mentioned before, Moonspell become hammering and a bit experimental in The Southern Deathstyle that is very agreeable with exotic and very modern phrases, a bit doomy and Death too, overwhelming double bass drums.

Minus point - not particularly beautiful imo is "As we eternally sleep on it" , in spite of the beautiful title, beautiful intro and  lyrics, and hypernatural outro. Indeed this track  leaves me disappointed after that beautiful sinister atmospheric vampiric/almost blackish intro,  i find it useless and boring:  no substance in this song and even not too much smoke (paraphrasing a bit he italian saying -all show no go: much smoke and not much roast) . In As we eternally sleep on it  Moonspell copy themselves and hundreds of many others without taking off of one single millimetre. It should be rich and catchy but is only grey.  Muuuuuuuuuch better is the atmospheric drop in "A walk in the Darkside", and obviously in the  "Lunar Still". Patience one full point blown  away stupidly.

Anyway, all in all, Moonspell are able to showcase melodic facettes and, at the same time, raw and very and solide sides. It matches perfectly the new trands, without forgetting the roots. 
Another important plus point imo is a good emphasis given  to  the rhythmic section, with solide sound,not too much distorted only for the foolish taste to do it. Good the acoustic insertions and the balanced  drums.

The Antidote: highly enjoyable without loosing nothing in maturity. Thumbs up to Portugal , thumbs up to the pre-production of Waldemar Sorychta, thumbs up to the cover art work, and why not? to Niclas bass player from Amorphis too.  ....And the electronic "butterfly effect"? Listen to me, forget it and get an ANTIDOTE!

rating 09/10

dalia di giacomo    

Review  by Salvo "Lovedeath" Russo____