Buckle the swash, there’s a new bunch of mariners sailing the seven seas, or at least the Atlantic, harboured off the coast of Portugal. This is a new band from ex-Moonspell drummer Mike Gaspar and we are promised ‘dark metal’ with all the following cited; “Bathory via Samael, Tiamat, Paradise Lost, Fields of the Nephilim, Cradle of Filth and Dead Can Dance to even Van Halen or Mötley Crüe.” Naturally although no fan of the last couple of mentions, I couldn’t resist this and you should have seen the look on my face when I got absolutely none of the aforementioned references EXCEPT possibly the last couple; ulp. Yes, sometimes it is hard comprehending desperate press sheets trying to appeal to people who won’t actually like the music. It could backfire seriously but, well let’s fire a shot across the bows.

Starting with ‘Pirate’s Curse’ one could lump this in with the disgraceful and definitely in disgrace pirate metal sub-genre. I’m getting a flavour of traditional metal for sure and with the lyrics “raise your hands, face the seas” a smattering of Euro cheese too. Although all attention seems focused on Gaspar, what of the others and where did he assemble his crew from exactly? Not even Metal Archives has the band listed at time of writing and this information is important especially as far as vocalist Rez is concerned. Anybody enjoying, or even not enjoying this would want to know his origins as he has a cracking voice, cleanly crooning his way through things in a fashion suggesting he could have arrived from a classic or hard rock band. Put it this way he adds plenty of dramaticism and soulfulness to the album. ‘Saudade’ is a word that prevails a sense of loss and yearning for someone absent, possibly on a sea voyage for a long period of time. I knew this from other bands such as the excellent and equally missed Ave Inferi. It’s sung in such a heartfelt fashion one can’t help being endeared by it. If it goes over your head though rest assured with an extra version in native tongue and two acoustic versions in both languages tacked onto the end of the album you will be overdosing on by the end of things. Me, I found skipping a better option as we already had near enough an hour’s worth of music prior to them.

After an interlude with siren song and acoustic guitars (guess that’s the Dead Can Dance bit) we get caught in a storm on ‘Gods Of Babylon’ and Gaspar gets the chance to roll out some blasts momentarily before the song settles into another classic metallic number, the melody of which if anything reminding me of Lacuna Coil. Songs are generally lengthy and well developed but there’s always the danger in this sort of thing of a too syrupy ballad sneaking in and that’s essentially what ‘The Reckoning” first suggests before developing with some added bits of power from the guitar work. It’s designed to no doubt go down well with lighter’s held aloft and some motion from headbanging when it goes overboard. No disputing the power from the vocal performance again.

The voyage continues, equally tempestuous and cast adrift, looking for a port to dock in. It’s undeniably metal but far too upbeat for those looking for dark, gothic blackness and at times goes way too far in the opposite direction on tracks like ‘My Redemption’ making me feel especially seasick and wanting to get off. Personally, this would have been much more palatable minus last 2 tracks and extra versions. Unfortunately, it totally overstays its welcome. Marketing aside though, this has good crossover potential and would go down well at a festival, on land or in the sea and those more into the style could easily add an extra mark to this review.

(6.5/10 Pete Woods)

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