Long running Goth metal masters MOONSPELL have an ambitious new release which is the double album Alpha Noir/Omega White out on Napalm Records. Drummer Miguel (Mike) Gaspar caught Metal Army up to speed on why it took so long to make the new record, how the band approaches recording, their love of Peter Steele (RIP) and TYPE O NEGATIVE, other influences- metal or not and the state of the metal scene in the bands’ native home of Portugal.
MAA: Please tell us about the writing and recording of Alpha Noir/Omega White?
MG: Many thanks for the interview let’s do it brother ! This album was very different from all albums in the past due to the time, four years apart from the Night Eternal. We never took so long to put out an album. The success of the previous album also kept us on the road quite a bit. So we did not want to rush things and just let things flow naturally. In the begging process we had no idea we would release a double album. In reality this was more of a concept that would enrich our composing skills dividing them in half. We would write heavy songs on some days an others would go more into the Gothic style more melodic elements. Benny Ritcher came from Germany three times during the four years to help us out with all arrangements. Never had worked with him and found a new understanding. He really felt like a member of the band with a lot of enthusiasm to work until late hours just to get the songs right. It was strange to work with someone younger than us never happened before. He was like a little brother full of talent and skills that impressed us and contributed a lot to this magnum album.
MAA: What is the concept behind each part of Alpha Noir/Omega White?
MG: Alpha is more like a battle until the end in an arena full of blood, passion and determination. In the arena there is no time to play around our you’ll be killed. You fight for your honor and family paying respect to all those that have fallen before you. This was inspirational for a heavy dark album we wanted no compromises, just the best metal that we could accomplish. With Omega it’s a different story it is the time for the warrior to recover his mind and body. To bathe cleaning the wounds and the soul. To eat and drink celebrating the victories. A time to think and remember one’s family and loved ones, to salute all good things and pleasures so that one day we shall fight again.
MAA: Was the wealth of material the reason of the four year break between albums?
MG: Many reasons took us to have this decision. For one the Night Eternal tours were crazy we travelled all over the word making new fans everywhere and also welcoming back the old. We just had to do all the shows it is for us the main reason bands should exist! You have to do the best shows possible, it is the ultimate experience like no other. There was also the question of which label we would end up on but that became something that we did not want to worry about and just did the albums freely until the end before signing to anyone. We were confident and just wanted to release our best work to date. The acoustic project we did in Portugal called SOMBRA also took a bit of our time. We were 13 people on stage with Cellos, female vocalists and percussionists. It ended up even giving us a push for the Omega White album. One other reason that come to mind is just the fact that we make twenty years of MOONSPELL this year and it would be our ninth full length album. There was no reason to rush things the music could not be compromised so we said the hell with it just take our time.
MAA: It’s been said that the Omega White album was in part inspired by TYPE O NEGATIVE. What about them is particularly inspiring for the band?
MG: Everything we were huge fans from the begging of our career. They were the few bands that incorporated different styles in their music. Going from Hardcore, to Gothic sounds. The deep vocals would make your knees tremble and the lyrics were so intense and dark. They were everything from the street attitude with violence to romantic and sensual atmospheres to emotions that would comfort you on those terrible days that you, yourself wanted to slash your wrists. The identification with this band was brutal in the early years and to our luck did one of their biggest tours in Europe in `96. We became good friends and especially Pete was always on our side, helping us out in everything we needed. He left a deep mark in us. The tribute to him and TYPE O will always feel weak compared to the reality of what a divine band they where and the many that followed them. They will never be forgotten in hearts and in our music. Salute Pete, he was a true gentleman, we miss him a lot and having a song dedicated to him and the past just helps us cope with this tragedy. Hope he´s smiling somewhere and we will jam one day!
MAA: The band worked once again with Tue Madson producing and mixing. What does he bring to the process that appeals to the band more than another producer or producing yourselves?
MG: The pure calmness of his persona is so important to band that is from south Europe and can get a bit edgy and confusing at time. We have no real tradition of metal in Portugal so we had to learn for our selves and many times the hard way. Tue understands us very well and always gives 200% to make sure we are comfortable and satisfied with the results. He has no big ego and really just wants to get the bands idea and sound to the fans. He himself is a huge Heavy Metal fan and played guitar in his own projects. Also, a little bit older making him more like a big brother. Family is the key word when we feel that kind of environment I think we do our best stuff at least at this time in life. We have enough chaos and excitement all year round on the road. Can´t wait to see what we do next together. He just is a wizard with the sound and mixes all our elements without it getting confusing, he can make everything just sound spot on!
MAA: Who are some of the heavier bands inspiring you these days?
MG: For me personally I’m just a huge fan of the 80s. As a kid VAN HALEN and MOTLEY CRUE were bands I loved but as a teenager I got into bands like MORBID ANGEL, BATHORY, KING DIAMOND, SLAYER, METALLICA, DARKTHRONE, EMPEROR, ROOT, CANDLEMASS, but also Gothic stuff like SISTERS OF MERCY, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and of course, TYPE O NEGATIVE. So really from Hard Rock to Death and black metal to avant-garde, the name before Goth. I just absorbed so many dark styles of music it just showed with our era in the 1990s were bands like us mixed the styles. TIAMAT, SAMAEL, MOONSPELL, AMORPHIS, PARADISE LOST, LACUNA COIL, THE GATHERING we were all fans and at the same time influencing each other. The use of keyboards and female vocals or just poetic song writing was all a bit new for us and that what excited us the most. It was new and part of our generation. DEAD CAN DANCE was also a band that had so much world music involved it just touched us in a special way, incorporating something so distant in a new form of metal. So I still listen to all this these days, it´s our core inspiration and I think always will be! I have a hard time listening to new stuff, I think this is normal. I will always give a listen to new material from friends or even fans, but it never really sticks like the bands you heard when you were young!
MAA: At twenty years-old, is their a moment in time that stands out to you as the biggest highlight for the band so far?
MG: I would have to say the release of Irreligious in 96. It was our first taste of mainstream success . That album opened many doors in our career and to think that only three years before we released our first demo called Anno Satanae! It was all to quick to even understand and still takes us a bit to recall the reason for so much attention from a band that played very underground black metal from the south of europe. The odds of us being on tour with major bands our album in the German charts, winning new comer of the year in Finland the massive record sails, promotion fans going crazy at shows for us was just unbelievable! It really feels like your living a dream. It all took a lot of work, sweat, pain tears and blood to get there but when we were on the Dynamo main stage back in 97 , before there were Wacken’s, Hellfest etc. playing for 80.000 people, we new that we came a long way and it was all worth it! We even did shows with KISS during there reunion tour with the make up in the 90′s. Their production was insane and we got along really well, they gave us all the conditions to do a good show! But KISS fans are tough so are SLAYER’s’ to that matter, but for some reason we always win them over!
MG: Many thanks, hope to see you soon on the road! Keep it Metal!
(Thanks to Mike Gaspar, MOONSPELL and Napalm Records)
The Netherlands’ own gothic metal outfit Autumn have made a series of smart moves over the course of their fairly lengthy existence (having formed as Stonehenge back in ’95), smoothly ushering in a mellower and more melodic rock sound to replace the harder edged yet conceptually lacking sound of old.
As a result, Cold Comfort sounds more like The Gathering than it does Lacuna Coil or Evanescence, and all the better for this fifth release displays a more confident and focused Autumn than we’ve heard thus far in their career. Although the guitar production is a bit muffled by the blown-out, bass-heavy sound, frontwoman Marjan Welman’s clear ‘n comforting voice more than makes up for this misstep by creating stirring choruses and driving verses for these nine songs.
While still possessing the Euro-goth/metal guitar work popularized by bands like Within Temptation crossed with a slight influence of Finnish love rock like H.I.M. or Negative, Cold Comfort simultaneously presents a spacy ‘n hazy psychedelic atmosphere at times, reminiscent of the aforementioned Gathering’s mid period work with former singer Anneke van Giersbergen, after their breakout releases Mandylion and Nighttime Birds.
As such, Cold Comfort is easily the most memorable and best arranged release of Autumn’s career, and a positive step forward for a band who was in clear in danger of being overshadowed by their more popular contemporaries. With Cold Comfort, however, Autumn prove that they, too, pose a challenge for the game.
Unexpect-Fables of the Sleepless Empire (Self-Released)
Well, no one can ever accuse Canada’s Unexpect of following anyone’s rules when it comes to their dizzying ‘n defiant avant garde approach to metal.
Case in point: the fact that Unexpect are choosing to self-release this record speaks volumes as to the septet’s refusal to pigeonhole or label their confounding yet enjoyable noise to any one set of tenets. Then again, with the challenge of any label to properly market Unexpect being undeniably daunting, perhaps that it’s for the best that Fables of the Sleepless Empire arrives via the band alone, for this third full length is so full of ideas, it’s practically bursting at the seams.
This isn’t always a good thing, of course, and Fables occasionally sounds dangerously close to angular self-indulgence; a collection of everywhere songs which never remain in one place stylistically for too long. The album possesses a joyous heart, however, and revels in ridiculously complex prog signatures and criss-cross melodic patterning. Elements of Broadway, classical and cinematic soundtracks also rear their respective heads within the band’s undeniably heavy attack.
Besides this, nearly every sort of metal-extreme and traditional-is well represented, as well, from screeching, blackened death to melodic Maidenisms and subtle, Gathering-esque moments. Does it work all the time? No, but the end result is damn well more enjoyable and intriguing than your latest metalcore commodity of the week, or the newest band to discover sweep picking and PI formula breakdowns.
As such, Unexpect should most definitely be supported here in their unknown, unsupported musical venture. All album purchase inquiries and other such attention should be sent to the band’s website HERE.
These days, mixing up female vocals with atmospheric heavy metal is a no brainer, no biggie-it happens all the time.
Well, back in the mid nineties, a handful of Century Media acts decided to change the game by releasing a number of landmark, genre-defining albums. We’ve already spoken about the contributions of Finland’s Sentenced and Sweden’s Tiamat to the metal landscape, and now Pt. III of our series brings us up to speed with The Gathering: a bands which truly shook things up in the year 1995.
While not much has been heard from The Gathering since the departure of their beloved vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen-the band releasing 2009′s The West Pole with Octavia Sperati’s Silje Wergeland to relative disinterest-it cannot be understated how much their Mandylion LP changed things back in ’95.
The album almost single-handedly ushered in an era of female-fronted metal, and laid the groundwork for countless bands to come with its decidedly different combination of heavy, doom-influenced metal with Anneke’s crystalline, inimitably beautiful voice. Although The Gathering were no strangers to underground metal and vocalist shifts-having released two efforts of strange, complex death/doom with female vocalist Martine van Loon and male singers Bart Smits and Niels Duffhues-their early 90s efforts Always and Almost a Dance couldn’t quite break the band through to fans, particularly the poorly-produced Mike Patton-isms on Duffhues on the disastrous Almost a Dance.
It was Mandylion which truly brought The Gathering to the forefront of metal’s commercial consciousness, particularly those of the growing community of female fans, who saw Giersbergen as a role model. Soon enough, the female-fronted metal model became something de rigueur for new band to adopt, something which The Gathering-ever the trendsetters and trailblazers-would soon leave behind on such outer space outings as Souvenirs and 1998′s masterfully Floyd-ian How to Measure A Planet?
For those old enough to remember, however, it was Mandylion and its 1997 follow-up Nighttime Birds which truly rolled the dice and came up sixes all the way. Both records still sound great today, and blow many of the band’s more frivolous ‘n frilly contemporaries to the dust.
In the category of ‘BEST FUCKING NEWS EVER’, AGALLOCH has finally announced plans to return to the east coast for a headlining tour. The trek actually begins at SXSW and sees the band travel across the south, up the east coast and into Canada and has certainly become my most anticipated show of the year. AGALLOCH will also be bringing along Profound Lore label mates WORM OUROBOROS (who you NEED to check out) on their first tour of the east coast since 2004 when they travelled with NOVEMBERS DOOM and THE GATHERING.
I will be seeing AGALLOCH at the NYC date (tickets are scarce, so buy now) which is also exciting because I live a half-block from the venue and I will also be canceling whatever plans I have going on at SXSW when they take the stage in Austin. Lucky for me, I get to see them twice!
Dates for the tour are below so be sure to get your tickets fast, this is a once in a decade chance to see AGALLOCH!
March 17 – Austin, TX @ Barbarella Patio
March 18 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
March 19 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
March 20 – Raleigh, NC @ King’s Barcade
March 21 – Baltimore, MD @ The Sonar
March 22 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
March 23 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
March 24 – Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus
March 25 – London, ON @ The Music Hall
March 26 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
March 27 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s Rock Club
Gothic metal chanteuse SARAH JEZEBEL DEVA returns with truly solo effort this time called A Sign of the Sublime. If you are a fan of European goth or black metal then you likely have at least one album in your collection with her voice on it. Internationally known for her lengthy stint as a backup vocalist in CRADLE OF FILTH (whose sound with her has been imitated ad infinitum by now) as well as fronting her own band ANGTORIA and working with other well known bands (THERION, MORTIIS, GRAVEWORM, MENDEED) she is finally getting to spread her wings as a solo artist. In the crowded field of her esteemed peers which includes Anneke Van Giersbergen (THE GATHERING, AQUA DE ANNEKE), Tarja Turunen (NIGHTWISH), Liv Kristine (LEAVES EYES), Shannon Den Adel (WITHIN TEMPTATION) and many others Sara is attempting to use this release to cement her status among the entire metal elite.
On a first listen A Sign of the Sublime is an attempt to break out of the boundaries of mere goth-metal inspired themes and style and features wide array of Sara’s varied influences. After an eerie instrumental opening track “Genesis”, the album really kicks off with the sweeping tittle track. Like much of the album the song is filled with song familiar elements of her past work. An underscore of metallic guitar and nice double bass drumming lay the basis for Sara’s soaring melody lines. The albums’ next track “She Stands Like Stone” offers more of the same with its heroic sounding riffs and harmonized vocal lines. With the third track “The Devils Opera” we start to see a departure from her normative style. In an ambitious cross between classical chamber music and the bombast of a Broadway musicals, this track is glimpse into what she is capable of. The writing and production of the track is excellent and the musical effort is sincere not forced. She has assembled a fine backing band in guitarist Ken Newman, bassists Dave Pybus (ANANTHEMEA, CRADLE OF FILTH, ANGTORIA) drummer Max Blunos (TRIGGER THE BLODSHED) and Martin Powell (MY DYING BRIDE, CRADLE OF FILTH, ANTHEMEA) and Chris Rehn (ANGTORIA) on keyboards/ arrangements and they allow her to showcase her many styles. “The Road To Nowhere” comes off like a metal version of a song MADONNA would record and the results are good. This song would make for a great release as a single. “Your Woeful Chair” is the albums hardest song, its edge not blunted by the sweet vocal lines. Rounding out with the haunting “A Newborn Failure” and the PATTI SMITH-esque “Daddy’s Not Coming Home Tonight” the album ends very strong. The bonus track is a surprising cover of MEREDITH BROOKS’ 90′s hit song “Bitch” and it fairly faithful to the original.
