Tarot

As a massive fan of the "Persona" video game series, there's something intrinsic about the concept of tarot cards that I find interesting. Dark Moor took a pretty ambitious approach in making a concept album about a tarot deck, although they're not the only ones to have done this. Fortunately, while "Tarot" doesn't quite live up to some of their best work previously, it's still a pretty enjoyable experience, and a definite step up from the firmly average "Beyond the Sea" that came before this. Now, just to preface this album, this is really the first album where orchestration started to take a very big role in Dark Moor's albums. Of course, they always had orchestration, and they've had songs where it played a bigger role than others, but "Tarot" is the first of their albums where it becomes VERY noticeable. If you dislike orchestration in metal, this might be the point where Dark Moor sinks for you. I think "Tarot" makes it work, for the most part, though.

"The Chariot" starts the album with a straightforward enough, but still enjoyable enough song. The chorus is what holds "The Chariot" up for sure. It's a pretty addicting chorus and it returns often enough to make sure that is what gets mashed into your head. The mix of Romero's singing and a female vocalist harmonizing with him a lot during this song lifts the melodies up quite a bit. The occasional harsh vocals and orchestration also lend a bit more variety to the track. "The Chariot" is a fine, catchy track to set the tone of the album. Quite similarly, later on, "Lovers" follows the same kind of path. It's a very beautiful track, and another one where the chorus is really what you're waiting to hear. Another mixture of Romero and a female vocalist harmonizing make the song seem like a distant forlorn love between two parties that long to be together. "Lovers" is a simple, but catchy and atmospheric track. It's a song that isn't going to turn heads, but is still pretty good for what it is.

"The Hanged Man" is by far the best this album offers, though. Bar none, and hands down. It also is in the top three for Romero-fronted Dark Moor songs in my opinion. It starts explosively, both with a cool keyboard opening, and some FANTASTIC playing by Garcia. The mood of the song is dark and mysterious, and Romero is a bit more intense than other songs on the album, but still powerful and melodic. The orchestration adds a bit of a more frantic feel, and the chorus has such a strong build to it behind Garcia's playing. The song is always going to new places, and changes tone a few times without bringing down the overall intensity. It's a FANTASTIC song. "Death" is another really phenomenal track across the record. When I first saw they did a song called "Death," I worried it was going to be a generic and edgy experience, but there's a lot to love on the song. It's a darker song, but uses more orchestration than I'd have expected for a track with that name. It also relies on chanting, which is just solid enough to not be too cheesy. Romero's strength in holding his notes and the waltzing orchestra behind them make the song a great experience. The guitars are what keeps the darker mood of the song the entire time, but Romero is able to sing across everything with just the right emotion for each moment. It's a different kind of song than you might expect with the title, and is absolutely more reliant on orchestration to build the song than a metal purist might be okay with. It's a very good song, although not nearly on the same level as "The Hanged Man."

Where "Tarot" falls flat on its face is when it tries to get overly ambitious. "The Moon" is abysmal. Truly a horrible song. It is a double digit length track filled with odes to famous classical pieces, but it goes absolutely NOWHERE. I have no idea what they were thinking, and if you can honestly sit through "The Moon" without a burning desire to skip ahead, you've got the patience of a saint. The song absolutely sounds like it was nothing but a jam. It sounds like a jam session where they were expressing their love for these famous classical tracks and just rambling around them before they moved on. The vocals sound thrown together, and the ONLY thing interesting on the song in its entire runtime is when Romero hits increasingly higher notes each time he says the chorus a few minutes in. That is IT, though. This song wouldn't even be decent if it was just a few minutes. Instead, it is an absolutely unacceptable slog of a song. It tries to make changes here and there, but every single new part overstays its welcome, and they don't really even flow together that nicely. I wouldn't recommend this bloated mess of a track to anyone.

"Devil in the Tower" is unfortunately not much better. The song goes hard for a theatrical 'show-tune' feel. It's very reminiscent of the self titled track from the self titled album. But where the self-titled track had a purpose, and a specific theme and feeling it was trying to hit, this one seems to just be pretentious for the sake of it. The self-titled track was still a well executed song. "Devil in the Tower" feels like a concept first, and a song second. It spends far too much time rambling. The section a bit over the halfway point where Romero is just literally rambling phrases with no instruments of any kind behind him is cringe worthy. It is one step above "The Moon," but it's still awful. "The Emperor" is also an insanely generic track. It seems like a masterpiece compared to the other two tracks I just called out, but it's also a low point on the album. "The Emperor" is like if "The Chariot" had a horrible muddling chorus. It's a track that isn't fun and isn't satisfying. The chorus is almost stumbling on itself to get all of the words out. It's not as bad, as pretentious, or as much of a time waster as the two failed epics on the album, but it's a very lackluster track.

The other thing that I feel is very important to note about "Tarot" is that it's really the last album in Dark Moor's discography (at least as of time of writing) that is 'metal' enough to still be firmly called a metal album. Not that I think they stopped being a metal band after this album, but there is no doubt even for someone like me that isn't a purist, they started stretching things. Orchestration became integral moving forward for Dark Moor. Many cite "Tarot" as the last decent Dark Moor album, while some even say they were already too far gone at this point. This album was an ambitious enough idea that they pulled off pretty well for the most part. The lows on "Tarot" are really low, but it's a great album to cherry pick from. I still think they had one last really good effort in them, but the wheels were certainly starting to look shaky.

As the title suggests, Tarot was my starting point when I finally got around to listening to Dark Moor. As a result, I didn’t have any comparison to the “classic” era lineup or even the earlier efforts with the new vocalist to factor in. I don’t remember the specifics of how I came across the first track I heard (my guess would be Pandora matching based on similar bands) or even which track it was, but after hearing it I knew this was a release worth looking into further.

The mix and production on this album are fantastic. Enrik Garcia’s guitars are clean, clear, and crisp while still having punch and power behind them and the leads stand out about as perfectly as possible. Hendrik "HJ" de Jong (from Nemesea) is listed as a guest musician for the clean guitar and I don’t hear any difference between his and Enrik’s performance. Bass (Dani Fernandez) and Drums (Roberto Cappa and/or Andy C, as the liner notes are not clear) keep things moving but overall don’t stand out much, which is more or less what one would expect from a power metal band. That said, Dani contributes a fairly distinctive groove on “Wheel of Fortune” and to a lessor extent on “The Emperor,” “Death,” and “The Hanged Man.” Keys (no specific credit given) are blended well and used mainly as an additional layer, but there are a few points where they are the primary driver for a song, most notably alongside the additional orchestration on the short instrumental opening track “The Magician,” the longest track “The Moon,” and the interlude portion of “Devil In The Tower.”

The vocal performance on this album is what really stamps it as a solid release. Alfred Romero hits his full range with consistent power throughout, with my favorite vocal part being his a capella, layered vocals in the interlude portion of “Devil In The Tower.” Manda Ophius (also from Nemesea) is just about perfect in her role as a backing/co-vocalist on most of the songs. There are also limited harsh vocals (presumably by Enrik, given his credit on a previous album) to further spice things up on “The Chariot,” “The Emperor,” and “Devil In The Tower.” On top of those great performances are also added very well done choir vocals credited to Sincopa 8.

In case you hadn’t caught on (or aren’t overly familiar) the songs are all named after tarot cards that form a conceptual theme for each song as well as the overall release. Even without being into tarot/divination myself, I didn't find that to have any impact on the overall enjoyment of the tracks. The theme is also represented in the cover art, which may be one of my favorites of all time.

There are no skip tracks for me. I could see “The Moon” being one for some people due to its overall length (11:31), but for me there’s enough going in each distinct part (think Iron Maiden’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” as a comparison) that it holds my interest throughout. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite track, I’d go with “Devil In The Tower,” but “Death” and “Lovers” are right up there with the latter having the best interplay between Alfred's and Manda’s vocals. “Death” is the fastest track and probably the heaviest while “The Chariot” or “Lovers” are the lightest tracks with the latter being the ballad (or as close as it gets) of the release.

In closing, I’d say if you like any of the tracks off this release (with the possible exceptions of “The Magician” or “The Moon” given the notes mentioned above) you’re going to enjoy most, if not all, of them because of the consistency throughout. Even those two exceptions/outliers and the bonus track “The Fool” still feel like they belong when listening to the release as a whole. I can’t quite bring myself to give it the perfect 100% because of some minor things (more distinctive opportunities from drums and bass and more opportunities for Manda or the harsh vocals), but I've thought about it.

Naming your album "Tarot" when all your songs are named after tarot cards is slightly unoriginal, but then again, the band itself has become so after a while. The band really shined with earlier releases like "The Hall Of The Olden Dreams" or more recently, "Beyond The Sea". This album is not quite up to that level.

Dark Moor finished off their last album in style, with a heavier sound. This convinced me that Dark Moor was still a "real" metal band even though they have a new, soft-spoken singer. But now this theory is thrown into doubt. "Tarot" is not a metal album.

You see it from the very start of the first song, just another one of those classical style interludes the band has a thing for. Even the next song, "The Chariot", fails to strike me as metal music, and it is easily the heaviest piece on the record, including a growl during the chorus and a fast shred guitar solo. The problem is, Dark Moor has reverted back to the style of their self titled effort of five years ago. They use huge choirs, and a full orchestra (who they don't credit in the booklet, either), and maybe two guitar tracks at the most. They have also gotten a girl to sing with them, and her voice does not sound good at all with Alfredo's.

The next five songs are not metal either, just symphonic rock bullcrap with some palm muted heavy metal guitar bits here and there. We then reach the song "Lovers", which is the best track on the album. It doesn't sound like a band trying to be metal, it just sounds like a band trying to be good. And for this one track, they actually are. It features clean guitars during the verses, much less choir usage, and a beautiful, soul touching chorus.

The last two songs on the record are both overlong, with annoying choruses that all not catchy at all, though "Hanged Man" has some good parts in the lyrics. "The Moon", on the other hand is an overlong song that could put me to sleep. So far this album has achieved a 0 percent on the "metal-ness" scale... and since that was the last song, Dark Moor have failed.

Now this I didn't expect. Dark Moor hit a high with The Gates Of Oblivion, their last album with Elisa at the helm, and ever since then they have been in a slump, seemingly searching for the spark that once made them a great band. Well after two mediocre 'transitional' albums, it sounds like Dark Moor have gotten back in the groove again.

Dark Moor have not changed any of their signature sound here, there are still the major neoclassical stylings and the speedy double-bass Power Metal shredding. But on Tarot Dark Moor have written a fistful of songs that are actually fiendishly catchy, and the neoclassical bombast actually seems to have a point, rather than just wankering directionlessly. On the last few albums all the symphonic parts seemed kind of tacked on, and to not really have anything to do with the dramatic build or tension of the song itself. Not this time, this time the orchestrations actually go somewhere, and the band sounds massive and back at full speed. "The Magician" is a dull standard intro track that I wish they had skipped – I sure do – but after that they go five straight tracks in a row just killing everything in sight. Tight arrangements, powerful vocals, and some surprising heaviness make "The Chariot", "The Star", "Wheel Of Fortune", "The Emperor" and "Devil In The Tower" into pure Power Metal gold. The album just can't keep up this kind of momentum, and "Death" is a less interesting tune, though still strong. "Lovers" is almost a ballad, and strong melodies make up for lame lyrics. "The Hanged Man" gets some more heaviness going, and the album closes with the 11-minute epic "The Moon", which references everything from Beethoven to Chopin in an effort to be cooler than "Dies Irae (Amadeus)", but can't quite pull it off. "The Moon" is a bit too long, and is not as cool as it wants to be. But it can't spoil the awesome tour-de-force of the first half of the album.

Nobody is more surprised than me to see this long-suffering band release such a strong album, but Tarot blows right past my low expectations and sees Dark Moor gaining back a big chunk of their lost ground. I was sure this band was done, but I was wrong, an excellent Power Metal disc to start the new year.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

I have been a power metal fan for awhile and for some reason never got around to listening to Dark Moor. Well I finally I decided to check them out, so I figured I would start with their newest release Tarot. I am aware of the fact that there is a new signer and their style has changed with that. Being totally ignorant to any Dark Moor prior to my listening of this album. I can honestly say with an "un-biased" opinion this is one awsome CD.

There is everything a power metal fan wants with this offering. Outstanding musicianship and song writing, the new signer definitely gets the job done. To go along with his great singing there are female backing and also group chorus singing, This album is not a "kick you in your ass" power metal album. Its more for fans that enjoy more mid-paced, but still heavy, vocal melody orientated music, i.e Kamelot and Angra.

The first song "The Chariot" opens with one of the catchiest choruses I ever heard and the memorability does not end with that song it goes through the whole album. To showcase the singing, in "Devil In the Tower" the singer uses nice polyphonic vocal melodies, some what like a row but two totally different melodies. Which makes for a very nice effect. This guy obviously knows how match pitch and harmonize with other notes that are being sung.

The guitar is not total in your face shred, he uses well thought solos that make sense with songs they go with. Not neo-classical virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen shred which all sounds the same after a certain point. Though there is obvious neo-classical elements in each solo, and within the actual songs themselves, Which may incorporate string, piano and vocal interludes.

And the song "The Moon" is an homage to Beethoven using several famous themes. Such as the main theme from his 5th symphony and the main from Moonlight Sonata. That are incorporated around a metal song, new Beethoven themes come in and out to make for new sections or bridges withing the song. Very cool and very original.

This album is totally addictive, some of the choruses you can't stop thinking about. I had to stop listening to whatever I was listening too and listen to Dark Moor to satiate the addiction. The only reason this gets a 95 is for the sole fact that one of the songs doesn't meet the caliber of all the other songs on this album.

If you like the aforementioned bands then you will without a doubt love this CD. Its the best release of 2007, till this point.

Kick ass tracks: The Chariot, The Emperor, and Devil In the Tower

Dark Moor used to be a band that put out simply brilliant neo-classical symphonic power metal. Then, for whatever reason they separated from vocalist Elisa and apparently the former song writers. This seems to have been the band's undoing.

All albums following the loss of Elisa and other obviously key members, have been essentially worthless. This album is no exception.

Falling away from their former majestic power metal prestige, and into goth rock tinged "metal", the band seems to embrace their failure on Tarot and delve further into the cesspool of mediocrity.

It seems like the band is trying to mimic the O so queer, yet bafflingly exalted kings of this emo goth quasi-metal genre, Kamelot. Dear Odin, do I ever hate Kamelot. Of all the bands to try to imitate, why Kamelot? Anyway ...

~ Recipe for Tarot -

1 pound generic European power metal

20 oz. of Kamelot worship

3 cups luke warm mediocrity

2 tablespoons potential

A pinch of former glory to taste

Mash the European power metal and Kamelot worship well together. Separate into ten blobs onto a cooking sheet. Baste with luke warm mediocrity. Sprinkle former glory lightly on top. Bake at 200 degrees, until blobs are half-baked. ~

There are moments where the band seems to remember how to play and write, but in most cases it just fades back into worthless goth tinged power metal crap.

The drumming is in essence the same as always, despite a change in drummer. Quite rhythmic, tight, and relatively fast at times. No complains here. Above average drumming. The guitar playing is fairly run-of-the-mill rythmically, the keyboard parts are certainly not up to par, and the vocals are also subpar. But really, the problem isn't in the guitar, the bass, the drums, the keyboard and not completely the vocals (I'll get to the vocals). It's not in the playing at all. It's the song writing.

The band has the audacity to use Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as most of what is the epic "The Moon" - pretentious, stupid, and a testament to what I'm saying concerning the song writing. Okay, in all honesty, I never complained about Rhapsody using Dvorak's New World Symphony as most of the The Wizard's Last Rhymes ... but for starters, that is an epic orchestral piece, and Moonlight Sonata is ... a piano piece. It's a much bigger gap to fill when all you have is a piano piece to rip off. There's also is a difference in that Rhapsody did it well.

The songs are just weak. Weak, weak, weak. Most of the songs are chorus oriented, which I don't mind sometimes in power metal, like Nocturnal Rites. But Nocturnal Rites has ridiculously catchy choruses. These choruses are ... vocal training for the singers. They're just there. They're so not memorable, and passable it's almost special in some crooked kind of way.
There's female vocals doing duets on a lot of parts, they sound cheesy, sappy, and just plain uninspired. Same goes for the vocalist of the band. He's just ... there. He sings. He's just a vocalist. He isn't exceptionally talented, not unique, and least of all, not very ballsy. Though, on a broad scale almost no bands hire a guy who can't sing, so this guy is damn near as bad as they come. If I could rate his performance alone, it'd get a 9 out of 100.

Despite this album being full of mediocrity and boring filler, there are a couple moments of awesomeness. The song Death for instance does bear a bit of said former glory. If not for the vocals it'd be like symphonic speed metal. Pretty catchy, relentless, and a bridge worthy of previous albums with an awesome solo full of rhythmic arpeggios and great keyboard work. If all the album were this good, it'd be a success.

Let me try to do this without it being too lopsided ...

Pros: The song Death, the bridge to "Devil in the Tower", most of the keyboard work, some catchy guitar leads and occasional awesome solos.

Cons: Uninspired, all vocals, sounds too much like Kamelot - and that's a double count against it, conspicuously plagiarizing a legendary composer, and what’s worse - they can’t even manage to not make it boring, the song The Chariot ... definitely The Chariot ... bleh.

I can sternly say, this is just barely mediocre overall, but passively bad if I want to be a little more harsh. Not actively bad like most grindcore bands, but passively bad. Instrument wise, it’s actually quite good, on any other level, emotionally, intellectually, artistically - all but empty. I'm still barely giving this a passing grade, but that doesn't necessarily mean it succeeds.

Ulitmately, the bad points far outnumber the good. This is really the kind of stuff that prevents a lot of people from getting into power metal, and gives it a bad reputation among real metalheads. I’m sure some unknowing power metal fanboy will review this and rave about it for lack of hearing anything better, but take it from someone who has over 300 power metal albums - go for their first three albums, and avoid this.