Divine Darkness

Crimson Moonlight have been dormant for the past decade, releasing an EP in 2007 and their last full-length album in 2004. I honestly had no expectations of their releasing another album so I was quite interested to see what they would have in store for this new one. Crimson Moonlight have played a very consistent style of black/death metal since their debut full-length The Covenant Progress, borrowing from the early Swedish black metal pioneers like 1349 and Dark Funeral, albeit with additional death influences which drive their sound slightly deeper and denser. This album is no different from their previous efforts in this regard, but it does appear that they have tried to ramp up the intensity a bit for a darker and fuller sound.

There are three salient elements to Crimson Moonlight's delivery here that form the constituent elements of their sound. First of all, the riffs that dominate this album are erratic, choppy, and atonal with an antagonistic and menacing vibe. Secondly, their leads are quite unlike the riffs in that they tend to be more melodic and fluid, often being comprised of open arpeggios or descending tremolo scales. This contrast between the two creates an interesting sound, though how effective it is in accomplishing their artistic vision, I will leave to the listener. Third, the percussion is, to put it mildly, out of control. I like a good set of blast beats as much as the next guy, but the triggers on the kick drum don't really get any serious breaks here and I think it negatively affects the final result.

The reason I say this is that I feel like a lot of the more thundering and bombastic riffs would have been better served to have a more punctuated percussion line to help drive home the riffs more effectively. As it stands now, you have some of the very best riffs on the album buried under a mile-thick layer of kick drum and snare blasts. But not to get too picky here, as the riffs on “Kingdom of the Wolf” and “The Suffering” are still quite good; it's just a shame that the percussion forces the riffs far enough into the back seat that they can't drive the songs properly.

The vocals vary back and forth from raspy shrieks to more standard and sonorous death growls and are pretty standard fare for this type of music. Same with the rest of the instrumentation: it's the same typical set-up with distorted guitars and bass. But there are a couple of outliers that I think add to the album, like the use of a low and heavy bell that is completely out of pitch with the rest of the song on “Divine Darkness”, the closing of “The Suffering” with a grainy piano coda, and the use of clean, distant vocals on “Dusk”. Whilst the album has plenty of merit on its own, these things do add to its charm.

Crimson Moonlight haven't really broken any new ground here, but if you liked their earlier albums, you're probably going to like this one. And if you like the classic Swedish black metal sound, you're likely to enjoy this album as well. So even though I don't think it's as strong as their debut, it's still a compelling album and does bring some things to the table that their previous efforts lacked.

Originally written for The Metal Observer.