Dark Moor

Dark Moor's best efforts were positively when Elisa Martin was with them, and even though they're a joke of a power metal band now, that doesn't mean they got that way immediately upon repopulating the band. In Martin's place, Alfred Romero stepped in. Romero does a fantastic job. He doesn't try to replicate Martin, and does his own thing. His voice is still very good, and he has a lot more theatrics in his voice. On this album, he definitely hasn't locked down a style fully yet, and there is a lot of female backing vocals as if to try and not bankrupt the fans of the Elisa Martin sound instantly, but he's a terrific vocalist.

No, Romero has little to do with the downfall of Dark Moor. In fact, I'd go as far as to say he's the only decent thing ABOUT Dark Moor at present. It's songwriting that got the band in the laughable state they're in at time of writing. And on their self titled album here, the songwriting is still as good as you'd have expected from the band's prime two albums. Dark Moor got a little less fantasy sounding on this record and started to get more theatrical instead, but it really works with the way the songs are structured on this record. In fact, I'd go as far as to say this album is barely, if at all, a step down from "The Hall of the Olden Dreams." Of course, it can't live up to what "The Gates of Oblivion" was, but very few power metal albums can.

In fact, there are still some songs on this album that sound like they could have fit right in on either of the older two albums. "Eternity" has all of the elements the last two albums had. The keyboard sound is very similar and sets the table for Garcia the same way. Now, Garcia doesn't maintain his same blazing pace and insanely technical playing the same way, and gives Romero a lot more room to spread his wings on his own. Romero really shows off the height of his vocals on this song, and the orchestration on the track is used to fill gaps created by the melodies. "The Ghost Sword" has some of Garcia's more complicated riff work on the album, and it follows a similar structure to "Eternity," but he's much more involved on "The Ghost Sword." The track has a solid groove and a strong and emotional chorus. Once again, the band's decision to go more theatrical is more obvious with the orchestration, but on this track, it's also only used as atmosphere and to fill natural gaps made by the track's structure, which is how I think orchestration works best in metal. These are two very enjoyable tracks the album has to offer.

"From Hell" is the single from the record, and probably my favorite. The female backing vocals are especially strong on this song, and even the way the vocals float from pretty to intense is reminiscent of how Martin's vocals used to flow. I've always suspected that this song might have been partially written when she was still part of the band, but I have no proof to back that up. Garcia's riffs and solo on this song are some of his best. They have a darker and more brooding mood to them than his usual riff that make this song feel quite different. Romero nails each mood the song is going for so well; keeping pace with the emotion of his voice with the music. The chorus is also fantastic on top of it. "A Life for Revenge" starts the album off right, too. It's a good summary of what the new Dark Moor delivers in general on the album. The orchestration on the track is a lot heavier than on tracks I mentioned previously, and the melodies from the orchestra are almost taking the place of what Garcia's riff might have been instead. Garcia is really just going through the motions on the record, but the orchestrated melodies and Romero's absolutely amazing vocals make up for his lack of a presence. So much of the success of this song is riding on Romero, and he delivers. "A Life for Revenge" easily could have ended up as a dud due to how heavily its reliance on these two elements were, but they both delivered, so instead the track becomes a very worthy addition to the album.

The title track sounds like they found a way to enter Danny Elfman's brain and pull out a track sleeping in there. This song could have EASILY been in a Tim Burton film. It's a VERY heavily orchestrated and theatrical track. It's a track that definitely would make the metal purists out there seethe, and while I definitely wouldn't be thrilled if the band suddenly had taken this direction full time, as a stand-alone track, this one is quite a bit of fun. If you like this kind of song, it's worth its length. It has a lot of transitions that keep it fresh. This is about as good as a super theatrical track can get. It retains the bare minimum of what would be needed to call it a metal song, but it's undeniably fun. "The Bane of Daninsky, The Werewolf" is a very underrated track from this album. Garcia has some REALLY catchy riffs that layer super nicely. The riff comes back for the chorus, and the two together make an incredibly memorable experience. It's a chorus that I find myself humming for hours after listening to it once. The verses also have a FANTASTIC ride cymbal pattern from the drummer that gives the verses a unique feeling for the album, and adds a bit of a tense atmosphere to it. This song definitely deserves more credit from power metal fans.

"Cyrano of Bergerac" is where the album slips the most, in my opinion. For the record, I'd still take this song any day over a vast majority of the band's entire later albums, but it's not a great track. Garcia is really just holding the fort down with uninspired riffs all over the track, and the melodies all over it sound pretty random. They don't really progress very much. The orchestration, again, tries to help the song along, especially on the chorus, but the songwriting just leaves too many loose ends for it to tie together. The song is also quite long, and turns into almost a show tune a little after the halfway point with a female vocalist singing like she's trying to lay down exposition during an opera. The song just doesn't work. "Return for Love" is also a slight step down in terms of quality. It's still a solid song with a fierce groove to it and a fine chorus, but it feels underdeveloped to me. It's got the most basic verse-chorus formula and doesn't bring much else to the table. "Return for Love" could have definitely been a much better song with more care taken to the songwriting.

Dark Moor went on to show with the release of this album, that even when a band gets repopulated, and a beloved singer is replaced, that it doesn't spell the end of the band yet. Romero is still with Dark Moor to this day (at time of writing), and is a great singer in his own right. If you gave up on Dark Moor just because Elisa Martin left, you really should give this record a shot. It's extremely good on its own. The real shame was to come later, because unfortunately, the band could not keep up this pace much longer at all.

Power metal has become boring, particularly the symphonic, hyper-arranged one. The resource of relying on fancy orchestrations is now sadly clichéd. I understand and almost support haters these days, I mean, how not to hate a million bands that have been sounding the fucken same for more than ten years or even more? However, back in 2003 we weren’t fed up with such acts, right? At least I wasn’t.

Now, perhaps for the rest of the world Spain is just another Spanish speaking country, furthermore, “Europe ends at the Pyrenees”, right? Well, for us, Mexicans, things are different, and musically speaking these two countries have always been related, even to the point that for the most ignorant part of gringo society Mexican and Spanish cultures are the same. Metal is not an exception; ANY Mexican metal-head knows for sure a bunch of bands from the peninsula which probably include Barón Rojo, Ángeles del Infierno, Mägo de Öz (which could or couldn’t be considered folk metal, depending on the listener’s prejudices), Tierra Santa, Saratoga and even Machetazo.

If you go over the list above (except Machetazo and MdÖ, of course), you’ll notice a clear tendency from these gachupín acts to play a rawer form of 80’s metal and SOME hints of proto-power-like stuff. Dark Moor are different though, quite different; they’re just too refined! At least in this work, they are. For their first three releases they went for a female singer, Elisa C. Martín, trying to perform regular power metal vocals… FAIL!!! For “Dark Moor”, the album, it’s Alfred Romero who performs male not very manly vocals, and hell, ‘twas an improvement! I think the not-very-manly-vocals thing has to do more with the attempt of not changing the prior sound THAT much, rather than Alfred’s natural tessitura. Whatever the intention was, what is absolutely clear for me is the guy CAN sing, and very proficiently if you ask me.

Alfred’s most theatrical vocals even encompass a couple growling moments in “From Hel” and my fave track, “The Dark Moor”. By the way, it’s precisely because of this majestically written song that I’m positive dark moor as a concept refers to its meaning as a boggy high exposed area, dark for this matter, rather than the ethnic connotation of the word moor. The song itself is an opera rock piece that creates a fantastic landscape where an unknown traveler has a sort of supernatural experience. Too bad DM didn’t go for a whole concept album! Sadly, the rest of the songs don’t seem to be related amongst them thematically.

What is to be found along the album is exactly the same elements that I’ve pointed out in the tracks mentioned before: a power metal base, symphonic arrangements, the work of a semi-virtuoso guitar player, male vocals that stand alone for their flexibility, melodic bass lines, and a songwriting work that qualifies as average to good without excelling except in the main song. But what about the drums, uh? Unfortunately, there’s a huge lack of presence when it comes to the subject of drum playing. This is very typical to melodic metal releases, though. Thumbs down for that.

To sum up, Dark Moor have been a very irregular band, while “Dark Moor” is a pretty strong album. I’d even go as far as saying is their best effort so far. It’s got its little sins, it’s true, but they aren’t really significant. Still if you don’t love the genre, it’s quite enjoyable as was thoroughly well done.

Originally written for www.globaldomination.se

No one ever said changing vocalists was easy, especially when you're one of the most well-known melodic metal bands of not only your home-country but, also, of the whole scene in general; indeed, after Elisa's departure, Dark Moor was in quite a tough spot regarding fan satisfaction (amidst other things), that's for sure, and there's no doubt that the pressure was on ten-fold for their debut album with Mr. Alfred Romero behind the mic. Aye, it's a story we know thesedays, as the band's self-titled record came out a good seven years ago and, with three additional albums under their belt with Alfred on vocals (all of them quite masterful, by the way), it's undoubtedly a transition that worked, however, such success does not (or shouldn't, at any rate) cast a shadow upon the band's "nova era" and, as I see it, Dark Moor's self-titled effort is, by far, their most underrated album.

Outside of the obvious change in vocalists, the band decided to progress their sound into a slightly heavier, moodier, more orchestral (in the film-score sense), less neo-classicalish direction which, for me personally, was okay since, as I see it, no one can take away the brilliance of albums like The Hall Of The Olden Dreams or The Gates Of Oblivion and, frankly, if Dark Moor were STILL releasing albums identical to those two, well, they probably would have inevitably lost their touch by now. Nevertheless, the band shifted gears a bit, opening up a new chapter whilst closing another and, as to be expected, the reactions were mixed, which is where I pleasantly come in with my own two-cents of the whole affair: bloody awesome!

A Life For Revenge, perhaps the album's "safest" track (sounding the most reminiscent of old Dark Moor, whilst still breathing heavily the breaths of fresh air), opens the album as a total victor, showcasing Alfred's dominant vocal capabilities as well as, to be expected, Mr. Garcia's undoubtable compositional abilities. All-in-all, a great opener to swiftly and successfully bring in the winds of change. Other highlights include The Bane Of Daninsky, the album's third number, which features a prominent gothic/horror-esque atmosphere that is a total win in every regard; the juxtaposition of heavy guitars and rhythms with atmospheric keyboards works extremely, extremely well here, and once again is more-than-noteworthy evidence of the band's brilliant arrangement capabilities. From Hell is a very strong, catchy and melodic number with an awesome harp-synth throughout the verses that, to these ears, is quite magical. The Attila saga (being broken-up into five magnificent parts), Philip The Second and Cyrano Of Bergerac are all grandiose and epic, adding profoundly to the album's depth and quality, however, the crowning jewel upon the diadem is ...

The Dark Moor! - what a song, friends! - aye, a song mighty enough to warrant its own paragraph, indeed. As is to be expected from a song named after the band itself, a certain degree of both quality and definition is to be expected and, with this particular track, the band truly have outdone themselves, crafting what is EASILY one of their best songs, right along-side the likes of Nevermore, The Silver Key, Maid Of Orleans, Dies Irae and so on and so forth whilst, in essence, perhaps even eclipsing all of the aforementioned tracks (though such a claim widely depends upon one's individual taste, of course). Beginning with a sort of classical movement that is almost waltz-like and quite gothic in the classic, literary-sort-of sense, the band immediately transports the listener to a darkened fairytale world, utilizing all sorts of orchestrations and choral-arrangements along the way. The heart of the song is, of course, not so much the brilliant orchestrations or the powerful riffs but, rather, the arrangement and composition itself which is, as made quite apparent by now, completely magnificent and moody within all its splendor and bravado! ... yup, a totally genius song that is better heard than read about, certainly.

All-in-all, both Dark Moor and their namesake album are first-rate examples of power metal and, despite the obstacles that the band was up against at the time of the album's release, they undoubtedly conquered without changing but, rather, progressing (there's a BIG difference between the two); the band never sounded so unified up until this point into their career and, with Beyond The Sea, Tarot and, most recently, Autumnal now under their belt with Alfred, Dark Moor are truly stronger than ever. Highly, highly recommended to fans of Dark Moor, power metal and, as to those who have never heard these fellows before but are interested in doing so, a perfect starting point for it's the transition from the old to the new, thus showcasing elements from both eras quite splendidly; brilliant!

Dark Moor's old singer decided to part ways with the group to create her own effort, Dreamaker, with two other members of the band. She has left Dark Moor in ruins. The new singer is good, but his voice is new to Dark Moor's fans, and it feels like the band has had its head cut off.

The style of Dark Moor is still the same genre-wise, that neo-classical metal feel is still there. But the band's efforts are terrible, the songs are all boring, often as much orchestra as they are metal. (Though I would not call this a metal album.) Some examples would be Amore Venio (which is performed only by a choir and a small orchestra arrangement) and The Dark Moor, which feature melodies that would perhaps go well with a corny stage adaption of "Peter And The Wolf". However, they are not what you would expect to hear from a band like Dark Moor.

If the previous three albums were "neo-classical metal", then this is "symphonic rock". There is no harshness to the vocals, they are all spoken softly by new singer Alfred Romero, who often sounds like a preteen boy. The band uses a choir this time to back up every single chorus, and also occasionally an entire song.

The only track worth listening to on this whole overlong record was "A Life For Revenge", which was the first thing I had ever heard by the new singer. It prompted me to keep listening. I shouldn't have. If you are going to buy this album, (that is, you want to hear it) go and get it for free somewhere. No one should have to pay for this disgrace to Dark Moor.