Customer Reviews

Great Silver Eye

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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Let's face it: we all get bored with a genre of music if there fails to be any impressive releases for a long time. Of course, what is impressive is also subjective. I hadn't felt impressed with the Gothic Metal genre since Lacuna Coil's Comalies. Since then, I have bought and felt disppointed with release after release. Seeking something to satisfy my Goth and Metal yearnings, I finally decided to give Moonspell a chance. Oh my, I wish I had done it sooner! I purchased The Great Silver Eye, because I wanted a good representation of the band's career before I delved in further. Every track on this disc is absolutely amazing! From the near-Black Metal stylings of Wolfshade, Vampira, and Alma Mater (all taken from Wolfheart) to the full-on Goth Metal attack of Luna and Finisterra (from Memorial), every track was a hit with me. That's something that rarely ever happens. I am so excited to hear much, much more!

In 1995 Monspell put Portigul on the map (musically) with their full length debut "Wolfheart"- arguibly the greatest metal of the 90s (NOT a good overall decade for metal). They continued with a string of good followups, especially "Sin/ Pacado" (98) and "Darkness & Hope" (01). While most of their CDs need to be heard in their entirety to be fully appriciated this new best-of should serve as a nice intro to those not fimiliar.
Like all greatest-hits packages this is not complete, however. Missing is their debut 45 "goat on fire" (93), highlights from their debut EP "Under the Moonspell" (94), anything from their Deamonarch side-project (98) and several good Eruo-only rarities (ie "the darkening" from 03). Still, this is a well compiled retro mapping their early years as Black Metal to their current Goth approach. Fans of Type O, 69 Eyes, Tenebre, HIM, Danzig and especially the Damned ought to buy this.

Portuguese gothic/death metal band Moonspell is another one of those bands that emerged on the Century Media label in the 90's (Samael is another) that is absolutely worth paying attention to, but not necessarily so important that you'd want to own all of their studio albums. I've enjoyed every Moonspell album I've heard, but they do get a bit repetitious after a while. That's where a collection like The Great Silver Eye comes in handy.

The Great Silver Eye is a fairly straightforward retrospective of Moonspell's career. It includes a hefty 16 songs, 3 from Wolfheart and Irreligious, and 2 each from Sin/Pecado, The Butterfly Effect, Darkness and Hope, The Antidote and Memorial. No b-sides, no early Satanic stuff, no bonus material; just the best songs from each of the band's studio albums up to that point. I think the songs were chosen wisely (though their cover of Ozzy's "Mr. Crowley" seems like a glaring omission) and presenting them chronologically lets you hear and appreciate how the band evolved over the years.

The Great Silver Eye is an ideal way for newcomers to get to know what Moonspell's sound is all about without committing to multiple studio albums. It's also great for those of us who appreciate Moonspell's unique sound but don't necessarily want to own their whole discography.

PS - I also dig The Great Silver Eye's packaging. The booklet has some nice liner notes, and the plastic slipcase with the see-through cathedral window was very cool.

The best of the best, one cd with everything, Metal, Gothic and Poetry!!!
Words for what, just Excelent!!

For fans of Moonspell, I can only imagine this is a must-have; or it would be, if you didn't already own all the music on this album. As the first album of theirs I've heard, I can tell that these are all excellent songs.

Unfortunately, those who haven't heard much of Moonspell may have been somewhat misled. The singer attempts to sing cleanly in a number of songs, and his voice has a very distracting quality to it. For those who enjoy 80s throwback gothic singing akin to artists like Voltaire (but with less creativity in the tunes being sung) it may not take away from the music. That, however, is a rare taste. Had he limited himself to growling through the album, it would be excellent- the music is good enough to make it a favorite. But the singing takes too much away from it, it changes from atmospheric to cheesy, and I find myself looking for ways to remove the vocal tracks from the album entirely.

All that said, if you can get past the singing and you enjoy atmospheric, gothic metal, you will like this music. I'm tempted to draw a comparison to Cradle of Filth's recent effort, "Thornography", to illustrate the catchiness and style of these songs, but I wish to clearly state once again that, while Dani Filth's singing (in my opinion) adds to Cradle's atmosphere, Fernando Ribeiro's singing takes away from it. If he stuck with the death growl, the album would be ten times better.