Moonspell
Darkness And Hope

The Butterfly Effect did not appeal to me: okay, yes, the experimentation... let's allow the electronics, but the ideas (although good) were confused; the theory of chaos became the practice of mess. If handled better, it would have been a masterpiece, and they would once again be pioneers in the gothic field.

I was curious to know if after that misstep (also a disaster in terms of sales) our valiant heroes would manage to uphold the honor of gothic (it is neither doom nor black, that's for sure) especially because they themselves had brought a breath of fresh air starting with the MCD "Under the Moonspell" from 1994.

Darkness and Hope, this is the title of an album with such a difficult task. Surely, however, it was worth producing, yes, because although it is not a masterpiece, it reminds me of their true nature.

The cover is splendid even if concise, and the booklet is complete with all the lyrics and images suitable for the different tracks.

With this premise, let's move on to the album. The title track opens the door for us, a typically super-dark gothic track, perhaps unusual as a beginning but extremely pleasant. It is followed by the short Firewalking, also in the Moonspell style and which - like Nocturna and Made of Storm - harkens back to the masterpieces of the past. Heartshaped Abyss is also enjoyable, which, while not transcendental, is easy to listen to and does well. Ghostsong and How We Became Fire are nice easy-listening episodes, but they represent the lowest point of the album.

I would like to dwell a little more on Made of Storm: stunning, it makes me think back to the times of Opium (tear), although... "she doesn't know she's fucking with the lord of lies"!

The rest is interesting (Devilred, also dark, Rapaces very direct and Than the Serpents in My Hand with its gloomy progression but not like the others). The album closes with a cover of Madredeus, "Os senhores da guerra" in a gothic version!!! (Incredible, I couldn't believe it...). Anyway, the original is beautiful and so is this "variation" by Ribeiro, who in this album shows all his vocal talent, alternating growl with a warm and dark voice. Indispensable!

In short, definitely better than the previous Sin/Pecado and the aforementioned The Butterfly Effect, although it's not up to the glories of the past (and at this point, I doubt they will succeed, just listen to the latest The Antidote) but it contains some truly remarkable moments. I would like to give it 7/10, but there are no half points, so I'll round up, for the humility with which they approached this work and because there are two bonus video tracks: Magdalene from Sin/Pecado (nice) and Butterfly FX (my favorite song from TBE; the video is also very good).