Pros: Very gothic sounding, variety of vocals, darkly romantic.
Cons: If you're looking for Wolfheart 2, you won't find it here.
The Bottom Line: I recommend anyone into metal give this album a listen, but those who are into blistering black metal may find they no longer like Moonspell.
supraliminal's Full Review: Irreligious by Moonspell
Irreligious is Moonspell's second full length effort, following their superb debut Wolfheart and their obscure ep Under The Moonspell. Whereas I would describe Wolfheart as blackish metal with gothic tones, I would call this gothic metal with black tones. Moonspell transforms its sound with every album, and although some people hate them for this, I personally am rather impressed with the fact that whatever sound they choose they play it damn well.
Irreligious is the album I think of when I say gothic metal, and I don't mean cheeze ball gothic rock with the jangly barely distorted chords most "gothic" clubs play. If the phrase "gothic METAL" does anything for you, you may as well quit reading this and go buy the cd. The pace of this album ranges from medium to slow, with the exception of the album's first full song "Opium" (which is somewhat upbeat). Unfortunately, Opium is the highlight of the album which can tend to make the rest of the album plod a little bit. Still there to make this an engaging and thouroghly metal listening is plenty guitars to balance the mellower gothic breaks, and of course Langsuyar's screaming. Langsuyar uses more clean vocals than on Wolfheart, but this only serves the gothic music better as well as accentuate the screams when they do occur. There aren't too many speedy double bass drum rolls here, but the drummer is infatuated with his toms on this album and comes up with some pretty interesting almost tribal type patterns.
Overall, I would say anyone not initiated into the extreme metal underground who loves Type O Negative and is looking to discover something new would do well to check this album out. Like I said, anyone who can say "gothic metal" with an evil smile on their lips will likely enjoy this. Wolfheart fans who want Moonspell to be as heavy as that album should probably look into Daemonarch, the Moonspell side project band formed to play heavier music.
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