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Rating:
The story hidden within the tracks of this album is dark. Dark as the misty Portuguese night in the village of Antelejo. Like the story of the old farmer who wakes at dawn, crosses the stony expanse only to hang himself on the old beech tree. Authors of this pathetic tragedy are the Portuguese Moonspell (Fernando Ribeiro vocals, Ricardo Amorim guitars, Mike Gaspar drums, Pedro Paixao synthesizers, Sergio Crestana bass) tackling their fifth album: an album inlaid with experimentalism and novelty. A unique work, but one that might leave a bitter taste for those who expected a second album in the style of Sin/Pecado, which saw the Portuguese quintet consecrated to the Olympus of Gothic Metal. This time, there will be no dark, smoky, lustful atmospheres or infernal harmonies overflowing with blood, as they are replaced by the cold tragedy of life in a village like many others, hiding a rural malaise behind its white facades and dirt roads. A story made of ropes, silver bullets, magic pills, and mandrake roots.
The overture of this story is the title track "Darkness and Hope", a dragged and labored journey that smells of dust and tears, supported by the monotone decay of the guitars. With "Firewalking" we enter the suicidal domain of the Lusitanian moors, escorted by sulfurous and obsessive guitar riffs, over which the baritone tone of the vocalist imposes itself, paving the way for the album's main piece. "Nocturna" is the jewel of the album: a cold and cruel lyric offered to Lilith, Queen of the Night, with a compelling and fluctuating melody set between Gothic Rock-flavored chords and twilight harmonies on the synthesizer, in a ruthless and tearful prayer that precedes the night hunt.
The catchiest "Heartshaped Abyss" unfolds smoothly and appealingly over a bed of guitars that echoes the profane melodies typical of Irreligious, followed by a decidedly higher leap with "Devilred", which brings the subtle nuances typical of the new era of Paradise Lost: it's the frantic climb of an organ with Transylvanian memories and scratching guitars up a steep cliff. "Ghostsong" advances mournful and tragic on a dark background of guitars and spectral synths: it's the ghost of the old grandmother appearing in the young grandson's bedroom by candlelight.
The album loses momentum with "Rapaces", a track that offers only a sense of cliché and déjà vu, despite being vainly embellished with female vocals. The level picks up with "Made of Storm", an atrocious erotic embrace seemingly bringing back Gothic Rock atmospheres that will belong to Night Eternal, while also carrying with it the heavy, sunburnt auras of Irreligious. We find traces that will reappear in Memorial in "How We Became Fire?", which combines the advance of guitar riffs with the shadowy elegance of a piano and a solo reminiscent of early Paradise Lost works with Gothic.
The approach towards closure continues with "Than the Serpent in my Hands", also without any substantial variation: another track leaning towards the Moonspell cliché, neither shameful nor praiseworthy. The album concludes with another gem, "Os Senhores da Guerra", an interesting cover of Madredeus: characterized by a brisk yet almost struggling pace, where the drums echo the beat of a lost war, where the refrain echoes a bleak song sung by soldiers to suppress the pain of wounds, as they march across the battlefield.
In conclusion, Darkness and Hope presents itself to the listener as a raw, stony poetry, naked, cold. The poetry of lethal opium under the pillow, of the old rifle aimed at the throat while looking toward the sun, of the pale moon in the sky framed by a noose of death.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Darkness and Hope (04:46)
So this is
the exemplar deathstyle
you told me about;
you want my seed in
is this the treason
I bare the fame from?
my fatal freedom;
the omniswansong
I carry the news of Darkness and hope
So this is
the underworld
you have in your heart;
you hide in your room
I'm so sorry to say
it only makes me laugh
I carry the news of Darkness and hope
So here I have-your act of love
within the poison-of your every word
each night you stay in-each night I will have to run
knowing from darkness and hope
there is no return.
I carry the news of darkness and hope.
02 Firewalking (03:05)
Help me fall from grace
Need you to be incomplete
I am the impostor at your feet
Is it your first time
Or have you been tempted before
Downward into the pulsing life
Laying below
Try firewalking inside of me
when everything falls apart
Try firewalking inside of me
When everything falls apart
Won't you fall from grace
I am at a wingbeat
from my retreat
Is it your first time or have you been tempted before
Downward the pulsing secret
Laying below
Try firewalking inside of me
when everything falls apart
Try firewalking inside of me
when everything else falls apart
03 Nocturna (03:52)
High heels of crystal
stuck in the heart
daylight that heals
the fullmoon scars
Spider strategy
and the wish to be
at one with me
throughout the fright
It is so real
So full of light
(when)Nocturna steals the night
Sister of cain
all our breed slain
the youthful oath
remains the same
le mal de vivre
that never ends
but the hunt (for you) goes on
throughout the night
It is so real
So full of light
(when) Nocturna steals the night
04 Heartshaped Abyss (04:08)
Never resist
The firewalker
He has been sent
To educate you
never look back
at the great Deep
and never dance to
that curse he sings
Never resist
The life long Pessimist
he is the leader
and not the enemy
My heart complete
put to destroy you
my darkness is obsolete
please let me follow you
And when we meet there
Into the Heartshaped abyss
you'll scar me with your kiss
and when we meet there
into the heartshaped abyss
you'll forgive me everything
scared away
get away
Never resist the firewalker
he has been sent to lay a curse on you
never resist,never look back
Liar I am ready to push you
And when we meet there
Into the Heartshaped abyss
you'll scar me with your kiss
and when we meet there
into the heartshaped abyss
you'll forgive me everything
scared away
get away
Let's get away from this world
to a place we are still beautiful
Abismo..., em forma de coração
05 Devilred (03:25)
She wears devilRed
she sweats the poison
-all over her
keeps me quiet
-inside her storm
she has the method
-no other knows
red as the veins,she likes to swim in
floating so gently,through this human misery
She must be a part
Of a Highest Plan
Something I can't understand
she wears devilRed
She's selling a damned soul
To whoever pays the most
Her body-the cure
for all evil and good
red as the veins
she likes to swim in
floating so gently
through this human misery
She must be a part
Of the Highest Plan
Something I can't understand
she wears devilRed
devilred
06 Ghostsong (04:21)
Outside the mythic Rains
let us know we are not insane
Blood debts still to be paid
(Instead) We celebrate the Stranger
Inside the mythic Pains
are played
Blood doubts are asked again
Beware the Answers - you cannot tame
(Might) Take you too far away
Say what you are
Come here to haunt you
Say what you will
I am going to haunt you
And protect you
I am going to hurt you
And if we survive this Dawn
We wish we'd see the Day
Die to come back a Single-Time
That face in the window
Is never the same
Say what you are
Come here to haunt you
Say what you will
I am going to haunt you
And protect you
I am going to hurt you
08 Made of Storm (04:09)
I am the flood
who drags the dirt
and lives on it
survives through it
She is the soil
with whom I flirt
and rots with it
I am the flood
who purifies
I guess she calls Me
the Lord of Lies
when I'm inside her
feels like she is
made of Storm
I am the flood
who likes the dirt
and sleeps with it
and dreams with it
she is the soil
with whom I flirt
she rots within
I am the flood
who purifies
She does not know
she's fucking with
the Lord of Lies
when I'm inside her
feels like she is
made of Storm
10 Than the Serpents in My Arms (05:53)
"Dorme, dorme meu menino!
Dorme - no mar dos sargacos;
Que mais vale o mar a pino
Que as Serpentes nos meus bracos!"
MÁRIO CESÁRINY
And when all Life as you know it - Fails
All ghostlike lips taste just the - same
What better comfort can you find
Than the Serpents in my Arms
Sleep, sleep - now, my Child
In the Sea of crystal Trouble
For better is the violent Sight
than all that you leave behind
In your Eyes - a Dark so subtile
It tells you walk, but never fly
To leave us all behind
And when all Life as you know it - Fails
All ghostlike Lips taste just the - same
What better comfort can you find
Than the Serpents in my Arms
Down, down - terrible Child
To look at It, it is a Sin
For better is to hold that Smile
That´s all you leave behind
In your Eyes - a Mark so subtile
It tells you walk, but never fly
Never fly - to leave us all
To leave us all behind
And when all Life as you know it - fails
All ghostlike Lips taste just the......same
What better comfort can you find
Than the Serpents in my Arms
What better comfort can you find
than
The Serpents
In my Arms
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Other reviews
By dying_sun
Darkness and Hope reminds me of their true nature despite not being a masterpiece.
Ribeiro shows all his vocal talent, alternating growl with a warm and dark voice.
By _Ozzy
This album, sadly, marks the end of my relationship with Moonspell.
Fernando Ribeiro, always the true star, is undeniably the focus of the album and it hurts to hear him sing bland and senseless melodies.
