2econd Skin

2econd Skin (spell at your own risk) is a perfect 1998 or thereabouts release. It speaks to and represents the neither here nor thereness of that year, itself in a very opaque pre-Millennial period. Not an album, not a single, not a bonus disc, and only kind of an E.P., 2econd Skin consists of 2 discs in a nice digipak, one disc featuring the single 2econd Skin, a special edit of said, a remix of an earlier Moonspell song, and a Depeche Mode cover version. The second disc is an official/unofficial live album. All this could have fitted onto one cd as a bonus disc for album proper Sin / Pecado, but for some reason it got its own late 1997 release, but really it blossomed as a 1998 vibe. The Depeche Mode cover of Sacred is actually pretty good. Without changing anything much from the original, Moonspell have heavied it up a bit, and Ribeiro's louche vocals fit the gloomy, dirty, transgressive feeling that you normally get from Depeche Mode. 2econd Skin itself is a great single, and represents Sin / Pecado perfectly. If you want a slower, electronica infused Moonspell, with nods to BDSM culture, and the sexual, heated, quasi-corrupt intensity you can only get from nightclub experiences flirting with depravity, and perhaps slightly illegal hedonism, 2econd Skin will sate that desire. It's not what you usually expect from black metal, but then again Moonspell do things their own way, and 2econd Skin is no exception.

This version of Erotik Alkemy on 2econd Skin is a little different from the original, but again, it's been made nightclub-ready, and is hypnotic and soaked in red wine, Red Bull, latex, and cigarette smoke. The genius of this era of Moonspell is the mix of analogue sex and coffee, and sweat, and electronica, artificiality, computers, the darkness of the late 90s Internet. The second cd (they made a lot of versions of something which isn't really anything concrete) is a live album from the Irreligious tour of 1997, and is neither overproduced, nor too raw, and when you listen loud is a really involving half hour, with just the correct amount of ebbs and flows, and the right number of sing-along moments and air-drumming pieces. I really like the overdubbed bass lines, done due to music rights legal drama, and Mike Gaspar's drumming is on-point, and groovily mid-paced. The guitar solos are all emotional and evocative, and truly you need a Portuguese black metal band to give you a black metal summer E.P., and, believe me, despite all the dance beats and electronic bleeps, and crimson and purple energies, this is still black metal. Southern European black metal, but it just has... a feeling, the black metal feeling of danger, and sex, and some kind of inner dirt, a self-inflicted Goth corruption.

Alma Mater is here. Opium is here, Mephisto, Midnight Ride... all the necessary hits for a live rave. Also if you're lucky enough to find a fresh copy of the double cd, you'll get very cool cover art. These things matter- the image to the music, the themes to the feelings, all tied together, and I guess that's what you'd want from an E.P. full of Iberian weirdness. So 2econd Skin isn't absolutely essential, but if you can be bothered to buy a copy, you'll find it jumping off your shelf quite a bit. It's sexual, a bit wrong, catchy, a little deep and mysterious, and if you don't own any Moonspell, it'll give you a great insight into their mid-period output, and speaks to the late 90s perfectly, so is an historical novelty too.

Released in 1997 to launch the first single from the new album Sin/Pecado, Moonspell’s 2econd Skin is more than your standard, mid-1990s single release. It contains two fairly similar versions of the titular song as well as nine other, previously unreleased, tracks. The songs are organized across two discs. On the first disc, we have the two versions of 2econd Skin, an alternate version of “Erotic Alchemy” from the band’s debut LP Wolfheart, and a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Sacred”. The second disc contains live tracks from the 1997 “Perverse almost Religious” tour. These tracks are taken from the band’s first two full-lengths, Irreligious and Wolfheart.

For me the real value of this release lies in this second live disc, while I do not care much about the first. “2econd Skin” is a great song, mixing in a surprising way death vocals, dance-like rhythms, and gothic atmosphere. Needless to say, it created quite a stir when it was released because the new track sounded VERY different from anything Moonspell had recorded on their two, highly-successful previous records. And indeed Sin/Pecado is a very different album, which pushed Moonspell’s sound into exciting new directions, albeit not everyone appreciated the change. While I love the song, I have to confess that I’d rather listen to it in the context of the whole album Sin/Pecado than as part of this EP. Moreover, the two versions included on the EP only differ in their duration (one is shorter by about 1 minute and was edited for the video clip that accompanied the song), so there’s not much to note in that respect, either. The other two songs included in the first disc are quite weak. “Erotik Alkemy” is a lesser version of the original from Wolfheart. Moonspell tried to give the track a modern sound, more in line with the material from Sin/Pecado, but the experiment did not work very well and the song comes across as an awkwardly produced demo release. The Depeche Mode’s cover is also fairly unremarkable. The song per se is quite good, moody and catchy, but Moonspell’s version feels somewhat deflated and without passion. It honestly does not do much other than give ammunition to Moonspell’s detractors that with this song had one more reason to label Sin/Pecado as “Depeche Metal”.

The second disc is far more interesting. It is a unique testimony of the band’s live activity in their early days. The tracks included here were recorded in 1997 as the band was touring to support Irreligious. The selection of tracks includes many classic songs from that album (“Opium”, “Awake”, “Herr Spiegelmann”, “Ruin & Misery”, “Mephisto”) as well as two tracks from Wolfheart (“… Of Dream and Drama” and the iconic “Alma Mater”). The tracklist speaks for itself: the songs included here are among the best Moonspell had written at that stage of their career. The band’s performance is pretty good too, as the songs are played with the right verve and energy. The sound is also OK, perhaps not as good as what you’d expect from a proper live album release, but still decent. Purists may dislike the fact that the performance of the band’s original bassist Ares was re-recorded by Sergio Crestana, who joined the band for Sin/Pecado. However, this was unavoidable since at the time Moonspell and Ares were litigating over music rights and Moonspell were forbidden to use any material that included their former bandmate.

Overall, this is a pretty decent release. Although I very rarely play the first disc, the second disc is a recurrent visitor of my CD player. Those tracks are gold and being able to relive the experience of seeing Moonspell playing them live is great. If you are a fan of the band, this disc alone is pretty much worth the price of the EP.

EP "2econd skin" (the small letter is not accidental - the band writes the title that way) is the only fully official release promoting the third album of the Portuguese band Moonspell (the single "Sin/Pecado" probably reached only the radio stations and magazines). It heralded a time of change: a move away from their metal roots to a more rock-oriented sound, laced with plenty of electronics and sprinkled with catchy, melodic solos. If you were howling at the moon while listening to "Alma Mater", you might be in for quite a shock - maybe that's why the EP consists of two discs. The first one contains tracks from the new album's recording session, while the second disc is a live version of older songs recorded during the "Irreligious" tour. Was it a way to confirm that there is no mistake and we are still dealing with the same band? Or maybe it was decided to ease the pain caused by listening to the first part, which is, to put it mildly, weak?

The release itself looks exceptionally solid: a nice, fold-out digipak with a CD of the single on one side and a short concert album on the other. The whole thing is well thought out, because after opening it we first see the tracklists of both discs, and we gain access to them only after unfolding the "packaging" again. A nice detail is that next to the discs you can find the band's photos corresponding to the discs' content, i.e. next to the studio tracks - the band from a photo session, while next to the tracks in the live version - photos from the tour. Nice touch. It's a pity that the artwork on the front of the EP is so... bland: we get a blurry picture of a model melting into a honeycomb, where with such a well-thought-out digipak design, you'd want something you could hang your eyes on. After all it was possible on the "Opium" single.

The first disc is a standard single: we have two versions of the title track, a Depeche Mode cover and a modernized "An Erotic Alchemy". Unfortunately, "2econd skin" is not one of my favorite tracks from "Sin/Pecado", so I was skeptical about the whole thing at the very beginning. It's not a bad track: the mix is OK, Mike does a great job, Amorim's rock solo hits the spot, but overall the track is not able to make my heart beat faster. The "video edit", which is almost a minute shorter than the original, differs only minimally (the cut of the beginning is the most noticeable) - so for me it's nothing interesting and unfortunately, it's only get worse. "Erotik Alkemy (Per-version") is a brutal rape on one of the "Wolfheart" classics: this mixing goth-rock with industrial, slower version is light years away from the perfect original. Good playing of Sergio and Ricardo doesn't help - only a madman would prefer this abomination from the EP. "Sacred" is simply boring, and on top of that Fernando sings very unclean at the beginning (not to mention that his English leaves a lot to be desired). So if the first disc was released separately, it would be a terrible harbinger of the (good after all) full album.

Fortunately, we have disc 2 to wipe away the tears - and it's all goodies, which raises the overall rating. There is room for seven tracks recorded during the "Perverse Almost Religious" tour, and although they do not come from a single show, you can turn a blind eye to this element, because the band is in a very high form on each of them. The choice of tracks is also interesting. Of course, the powerful "Opium" (preceded by the intro known from the album), hypnotizing "Mephisto" or faster and more energetic in relation to the album "Alma Mater" are part of most Moonspells' setlists. But the rest of the tracklist is not so obvious. "Awake" and "Ruin & Misery" in the live version are much stronger than what we can hear on "Irreligious". The rarely played "Herr Spiegelmann" is brilliant, with a great part of (almost ecclesiastical) keyboards: wonderful, dreamy atmosphere, great Ribeiro - one wishes this song would be presented much more often. "Midnight Ride", on the other hand, is a real dynamite: after a slow introduction, the rock'n'roll ride begins, finished with fantastic solos by Pedro (keyboards) and Ricardo (guitar). The whole second CD lasts less than 33 minutes and it's hard to believe that a band playing with such power released their first live album only 11 years later.

Evaluating "2econd skin" is quite a problem for a reviewer. On one hand we have a nice release with a great live album, on the other: the main course is disappointing - it's the dessert that turns out to be more tasty. If I had listened to this EP before the release of "Sin/Pecado", I would probably be worried about the quality of the longplay - and that's not what the band had in mind. The first CD is bad and the second one should be the reason why you should be interested in this mini-album at all. But is it worth spending your hard earned money just for those 33 minutes of music? I don't have to give an answer to the fans. If you're not a collector, don't bother with this EP and reach for the re-editions of "Irreligious" or "Wolfheart" - they are great albums in their own right, enriched with bonus live albums with setlists similar to that of "2econd skin".

Originally written for www.metalside.pl

I didn't think Moonspell could ever release a bad album, I even gave Sin/Picado in the 80 percent range, because I enjoyed it. 2econd Skin however is just utter crap.

On the first disk we have two fucking versions of 2econd Skin. The first time the song is good with it's intricult gothic melodies, and industrial undertones. The second time is just stupid. The only differance I could hear, is that they cut the second version short.

Then we have a cover of Depeche Mode song. We all know what this means! A gothic song by a goth pop band gets remade by a gothic metal band who decides to go goth rock for an album or two. In short, it sounds heavier than the original version, and that's not saying much.

The real crime however comes during the second disk. Moonspell promise a live performance, which they do give us. It's unfortunate that this live performance sucked. Listening to a song like "Of Dream and Drama" on this CD is just sad. Remember how on Wolfheart it was this goth song with elements of folk and black metal? This time they turned it into an electronic goth metal song. Unfortunately they did this with all of the songs from this set. Granted I still need to check out Irreligious, but I'm pretty sure it didn't have a bunch of keyboards wanking off together, like this live album so likes to suggest.

It's one thing for a band to change their sound. It's another to take songs from the past and reinvent them into a shit.

I advise this EP only to collectionists.