Melodic? Or just Metal?
Artiste: Mooncry
Nationality: German
Album: A mirror's diary
Year: 2013
Label: SAOL
Genre: Melodic Metal
Tracks:
Burning curtains
Puppet crow
Defamed pride
Scylla
Reflection of lies
A thousand lives
Pictures of thee
The beast within me
A mirror's diary
Angel of darkness
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: More like death met --- oh wait. Power? Not so sure I'd call this melodic metal, which is often just a harder form of AOR...
Best track(s): Defamed pride, Scylla, Reflections of lies, Pictures of thee, The beast within me, A mirror's diary, Angel of darkness
Worst track(s): None
Comments: According to the lineup there is only one vocalist, in which case Sali Hasan has a very versatile range, as we start off with death growls and roars, then fall into a more intelligible and listenable style. I wonder is it more than one guy singing? Whatever, it's heavy as hell with elements of gothic and progressive thrown in, but definitely more in the line of speed or power metal than melodic I feel. Some great keyboard work, with the gothic influence most keenly displayed in the choir-like vocals opening
Puppet crow, and a really nice orchestral style keyboard passage in the middle of
Defamed pride, then the first real evidence of Mooncry being any sort of melodic metal band comes with
Scylla, which I must say is one of my favourite tracks so far.
Reflections of lies keeps the quality high, with Hasan's ability tested as he sort of mutter-growls the low-key vocal, and it becomes a sort of slow cruncher with some crushing guitar. More orchestral/gothic material in
Pictures of thee with lovely acoustic guitar then on
The beast within me and a very decent closer. Overall a pretty decent album with nothing bad about it, but again does it stand out? Still working that out.
Overall impression: Pretty good metal, though again not what I'd categorise as “melodic”.
Hum Factor: 2
Intention: Probably happy with just hearing this really.