Dark Moor
Project X
Scarlet Records
2015
Spanish quartet Dark Moor have been going on since, believe it or not, 1993, despite their debut only getting released some five years after their formation and demo phase. It then comes as hardly a surprise that they are reaching their 10th release with the predictably titled “Project X”. I remember reviewing an album of theirs, maybe “Hall of the Olden Dreams” ages ago and despite not finding it bad, I didn’t fall in love with it either, as it was quite “early” and the band’s skills weren’t fully matured. I then quite “didn’t care” about them during their female vocals period. Anyway, by this point, the band has an almost totally different line-up with only Enrik Garcia their guitarist (who’s coming up with some really nice melodies) remaining constant, in all the releases… but it must be stressed that the band has matured significantly and the current line-up has been together for a number of years thus they sound pretty tight.
They mix progressive metal, hard rock, power metal, classic heavy metal and their singer Alfred Romero, despite having a trace of accent, is probably one of the better examples of Spanish vocalists, who can sing convincingly in English. They have worked hard on the album with hardly any song really dipping below a certain level and some of their more melodic and ambitious ie “Beyond the Stars”, “I Want to Believe”, “Bon Voyage!” and “Gabriel” really standing out. The only qualm I have, is probably due to the production. While it’s not bad by any means, it just feels too centered and concrete with only some vocals and effects panning around to cover the whole spectrum. A bit more “spread” would have made them sound even better, me thinks, but hey we’re talking about a minor complain here…
If you like power metal, this band without having made a huge name, they are definitely worthy of your attention.
They mix progressive metal, hard rock, power metal, classic heavy metal and their singer Alfred Romero, despite having a trace of accent, is probably one of the better examples of Spanish vocalists, who can sing convincingly in English. They have worked hard on the album with hardly any song really dipping below a certain level and some of their more melodic and ambitious ie “Beyond the Stars”, “I Want to Believe”, “Bon Voyage!” and “Gabriel” really standing out. The only qualm I have, is probably due to the production. While it’s not bad by any means, it just feels too centered and concrete with only some vocals and effects panning around to cover the whole spectrum. A bit more “spread” would have made them sound even better, me thinks, but hey we’re talking about a minor complain here…
If you like power metal, this band without having made a huge name, they are definitely worthy of your attention.