Good news, Moonspell fans: if you liked the band’s last few albums—2012’s Alpha Noir and its predecessor, 2008’s Night Eternal—their new set, Extinct, will probably be right up your alley. Now 11 albums and more than two decades into their career, the band’s settled comfortably into a sonic blend of gothic metal and melodeath. (Not to mention a penchant for album covers with gruesome images across grey backgrounds.) Does that sound always work? No. Does the album have its moments? Yes, and they’re often quite good—certainly enough to make Extinct an album worth your time, even in spite of its flaws.
While Extinct does share quite a bit with its immediate predecessors, you’ll notice almost immediately that it feels more streamlined. The occasional harsh excursions are still present, but fewer and farther between; no, this album’s interests lie elsewhere. That becomes clear right from the introductory guitar line of “Breathe (Until We Are No More)”—an underwhelming opener that wants so badly to be more dramatic and hooky than it actually turns out to be. From the melodic, legato guitar work to the symphonic flourishes over-top, “Breathe” makes clear immediately that Extinct is going to be an album driven by its melodic tendencies.
Fortunately, they channel those tendencies into more finished-sounding products as the album goes on. Immediately following “Breathe,” we get Extinct‘s title track, which juxtaposes a riffy, aggressive verse against a ridiculously catchy chorus that simply soars. It’s here that vocalist Fernando Ribeiro begins to show his range as a frontman; from here on out, he covers everything from beastly roars to melodic belting, to low-rumbling, Andrew Eldritch-like bellows. While “Medusalem” and “The Last of Us” are the best reflections of his versatility, the more straightforward, pace-changing ballad “Domina” ends up being the most satisfying of the bunch. With a stunner of a chorus, a terrific solo section, and a driving guitar melody that wouldn’t feel out of place on a late-period Iron Maiden album, it emerges as one of the (if not the) true highlights of the album.
On the second half of the album, though, things start to go off the rails a bit. Aside from “A Dying Breed,” nothing really manages to achieve the same level of success as that earlier, four-song run. Perhaps most disappointing is the penultimate track, “The Future is Dark,” where the band opens with a ridiculously compelling, pulsating, bass-driven section that it…then inexplicably fails to do anything with. (Except, you know, adding headache-inducing lyrics like “Where do we go / where do we go from here / and where do we go?”) The songs simply don’t develop as well on the back end, and as a result, an album that might have ended triumphantly is left to sputter across the finish line.
In the end, though, Extinct‘s occasional hits do enough to merit at least one listen through. There’s hardly anything revolutionary to these songs, but every once in a while, Moonspell serves up a good bit of fun—and/or an epic, singalong-worthy chorus. And frankly, that’s never something to overlook.
Keep it heavy,
-Dan
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