Shadow of the Moon

Blackmore's Night | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Steamhammer Us
• ASIN: B00005J9YN
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #137,092 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the genre, love the music. . ., January 20, 2002

By 

Mary Jacco - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow of the Moon (Audio CD)

I first heard Blackmore Night on Tampa's wonderful, listener-supported community radio station several weeks ago and was swept off my feet (well, would have been if I wasn't in my car driving to work) by Candice Night's beautiful, ethereal vocals. I find this music to be reminiscent of Loreena McKennitt and Pentangle, two other favorite artists of mine.

As a listener of Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in the 60's and 70's, I was both surprised and pleased to hear what Ritchie is up to now. I consider it a fantastic career move, love the music, and bought both this CD and "Fires at Midnight" the same day!!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Acoustic Effort by the Man in Black!, June 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadow of the Moon (Audio CD)

Ritchie Blackmore has for years been synonomous with the being the father of the flashy, classical-influenced style of raw and powerful rock guitar playing (Deep Purple, Painbow). On this effort, he let's the acoustic guitar take the front seat to really show the "normal" listener the joys and beauty of the 16th century renaissance music that have influenced him over the years. This further proves that "tone" and "passion" in music do not necessarily come from 200 watt Marshall cabinets and a Fender Strat, but acoustic guitars, violins, flutes, violas, mandolins, and other medieval instruments.

Yes, the classical riffs are still existant throughout the entire disc (the trills, the scales, reminiscent of harpsichord) as well as some electric guitar overlays in the background and foreground by this reigning Master of the Stratocaster (...and an occasional whammy bar riff, or two). But what really makes this CD? The angelic voice of his girlfriend (now, wife?), Candice Night. This young lady provides such a smooth quality to the tracks that you actually wind up listening to her and not her husband! You'll really be taken away from the subtle beauty this album portrays.

The songs for the most part, are first rate, catchy tunes that deserve attention. Most notable are the songs "Shadow of the Moon", Play Minstrel Play" which includes a fantastic flute solo by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), "Ocean Gypsy", "Magical World", and "Spirit of the Sea". Another bonus is to hear Blackmore's beautiful solo guitar playing on such pieces as "Minstral Hall", "Memmingen", and "Possum's Last Dance".

I highly recommend this disc to anyone who needs to relax. It also makes for excellent driving music!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A REAL SURPRISE FOR THE BEST, January 16, 2006

By 

Saul Ontiveros (Chihuahua, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow of the Moon (Audio CD)

I found this C.D. by accident and bought it immediately. I was caught by the spell since the first notes of "Shadow of the Moon". My personal favourites are the title song, "Clock ticks on"(I can hear this ten times in a row),"Be mine tonight" and "Mond Tanz"(another piece I can play ten times in a row)and "Renassaince Fair" , but all of them are wonderful. The only slightly lesser one is their cover to "Greensleeves" ; this truly classical English tune is so beautiful , yet I'm still looking for a good "genuine" performance (the best I've got is by Medieval-Renaissance expert Alfred Deller on Harmonia Mundi). This is light years from "Smoke on the Water" or even "Rainbow Eyes"..... and for the best. I always held Ritchie Blackmore in a very high regard, but I always wanted to hear him play acoustic. Now he's mostly into acoustic, and in my opinion he's doing the best music in his lifetime. Some consider this new project "cheesy" , but don't be fooled by the seemingly naive sound ; the music is actualy MUCH better than ANYTHING he did with Deep Purple or Rainbow (great as those were). "Clock ticks on" is built over a late-medieval theme and the horns, if they're not period instruments, sound very much like they are. Some of us have grown since our teenage years, and look for more relaxed music that is still music, and not just background, and it's great to find your hero of teenage years still leading you towards soundscapes of fantasy.
Since I bought this, I have eagerly sought each one of their following CD's.Like many other reviewers, every time I play this to another friend I get the same comment:"what kind of music is that".... or a plain and simple "woooow, what was that".
Try this..... most likely it will never leave your player.
I just ordered it again to replace the copy that was on my car player, since I had a crash and could not recover any of my CD's (guess what... the rest of the Blackmore's night catalog).