Moon Of Sorrow
Tears (CD) 1992 Semaphore
It's hard to find any info about this band except for the fact that they made three full-length albums between 1992 and 1995, after which they disbanded. One of the few things known about them is that one of the members, Patrick Harreman, occasionally performed live vocals for The Gathering. Moon Of Sorrow incorporates an impressive array of different musical influences into their version of atmospheric doom. This includes black metal, heavy metal, progressive metal, acoustic sections and hints of gothic. A shorter description would probably be avant-garde atmospheric doom. Expect plenty of melancholic and calm sections, much like an atmospheric version of My Dying Bride. Most of the tracks are quite depressive. But also expect almost grooving songs which are a mixture of progressive metal and heavy metal. The melodies are often simple, but still original and interesting when set in the context of the music. Oddly enough Moon Of Sorrow never got a fanbase worth mentioning. The music would appeal to fans of everything from Black Sabbath to The 3rd And The Mortal; Winterkou to Lacrimas Profundere. The wide range of musical diversity makes this something all fans of melodic doom should hear.	1. Social Centre Of The Mind 2. Earthmoon 3. I Believe In You 4. - 5. World Without Colour 6. Kingdom 7. Melted Souls 8. March Of Dreams 9. Dance (With A Ghost) 10. Waiting For The Day 11. Stone Cold 12. Parallel Between The Wisdom Of Humanity 13. Cracked-Up Snow-White 14. Tears Approx. 68 minutes
Reviewed by: Arnstein H. Pettersen
Crystal Emotions (CD) 1993 Ignition
It seems that this album leaves behind what I consider to be the general interest area for most doom metal fans. It is still their avant-garde doom metal style that dominates the music. Still the soft music would perhaps be more interesting for romantic fans of adult rock. On the other hand I think that those who aren't picky and enjoy romantic doom metal in general, would also enjoy the beautiful guitar play. Their first album 'Tears' had a lot of different influences ranging from progressive to black/death metal to traditional doom. In 'Crystal Emotions' the progressive and atmospheric elements still remain alongside some heavy metal ones. The other elements have been taken over by AOR (adult oriented rock). But the band still has a harder edge than other AOR influenced bands like Toto. Sometimes the music reminds me of an operetta. It has a sad story to tell and the main focus always seems to be on the clean male vocalist. Another thing that reminds me of this is the dramatic vocals that he uses. There is also a clean female vocalist which appears on a few tracks. It's not often that you find duets in doom metal, but in the case of this album, it actually happened. So what is my verdict on this CD? Honestly I'm not sure. I'm not really a fan of AOR, but in this case it turns out quite well, I think. Both the doom metal in the music and the well played guitars play a large role in my positive view of this CD. The vocals are nice and the lyrics are ok, but without the music being as good as it is, it wouldn't really have worked. Since this music is as special as it is, I urge all who are interested in trying this band to hear them before buying anything. It's a select taste.	1. Atmosphere (Intro) 2. Fade Away 3. Don't 4. The Rights Of Humanity 5. Like A Bullet 6. Reptile 7. Crystal Emotions 8. Candy Trees 9. Psychedelic Moves 10. Don't Take It Away Approx. 65 minutes
Reviewed by: Arnstein H. Pettersen
A New Dawn (CD) 1995 Ignition
This is the final release by Moon Of Sorrow before they split up. It is also the hardest to find, yet it's probably their best work. Ironically, the album is titeled 'A New Dawn' while it is also the final chapter in the story about this very unique doom metal band. On this CD the band continues in the same line that the two other albums have already drawn. The multitude of musical influences ranging from gothic and black to AOR. And of course the music is no less atmospheric than it has been before. Nor do they confine themselves to playing only doom metal. There are whole tracks that are too high tempo for doom metal. Another rather interesting thing is that there is no single grunt on this album. There are only clean vocals (both female and male) which indeed do remind me more of AOR than the classical doom metal styles. In fact the track 'Wild As The Wind' is actually a duet. When did you ever hear that on a doom track? In fact, this particular track is quite warm and dreamy a lot of the time. Actually, the whole album has a tendency to bring on these warm moments from time to time. Optimistic doom metal. Who would have imagined that? What I think makes this album better than the others is the fact that it is a bit more epic. The music creates a very relaxed feeling of floating around in the skies. Not in the druggy laid-back style that stoner has. Instead it is rather dreamy. And as it is quite optimistic, perhaps this is the perfect album for a happy romantic doomster? I don't think that a lot of doomsters will find it easy to like this. It's a very light style of music, but those who don't dread that very word "light" might very well take a liking to this.	1. Back To Paradise 2. Experimental Pigs 3. Wild As The Wind 4. Beyond Violets 5. Shadowland 6. Searching 7. Trust Approx. 50 minutes
Reviewed by: Arnstein H. Pettersen