Moonlight Waltz

This may come as a surprise, but I have never heard Theatres Des Vampires with Lord Vampyr mainly due to the fact I've been so used to hearing Sonya Scarlet being the current voice of Theatres Des Vampires. From what I've heard, after Lord Vampyr, the band has gone softer and more gothic, but still attained they're vampiric themes and imagery. My introduction to Theatres Des Vampires was of course the track ‘Carmilla' and it sounded terrific, and decided to listen to ‘Moonlight Waltz' to see how I feel about how the entire album.

I will start out by saying the first four tracks of ‘Moonlight Waltz' are incredibly catchy, incorporating symphonic moments while still attaining that vampiric gothic sounding ethos. In a way they sound sad than depressing, but the guitar chords, and the keyboards are catchy enough to headbang to. I will also say that the lyrics for the first four tracks are good and does have good unison with Sonya Scarlet's vocal approach. It still has its vampire moments especially with tracks like ‘Carmilla' but have become less noticeable compare to their last few albums. The only track I didn't really enjoy in the first half was ‘Sangue', mainly because the keyboards were less atmospheric, and more electronic.

While it had a lot of good moments in the first half, 'Moonlight Waltz has tracks in its second half that I didn't think were that good. Although I enjoyed 'Black Mondonna' and its lyrical content, but as I listened to the rest of the second half I felt like I got lost too soon because the lyrics became more simple and not so memorable like in tracks 'Le Grand Guignol', 'Obsession'. Some of the tracks in 'Moonlight Waltz' also sounded more electronic than it was atmospheric, something that was missing in the beginning of 'Moonlight Waltz'. Like the tracks 'Obsession', it just didn't feel like a gothic track to me, more like a combination of electronic and symphonic music while 'Illusion' has some good piano work. I felt that some of the tracks were not too memorable and lean more softer, and somewhat electronic territory. If I had to guess which track was the best in the second half of the album, I'd say it is 'Illusion'.

For the final verdict of the album, I feel that 'Moonlight Waltz' had some good moments within the album, but at the same time I felt that some of the tracks didn't really click with me. I do enjoy the symphonic elements included in the album, as well as some of the tracks that has more of a atmospheric sound like in the first half of the album. Sonya Scarlet's performance on the album was actually good, I do have a spot spot for Scarlet's melancholic sounding vocals. I even go as far as to describing Sonya Scarlet as a female version of Aaron Stainthrope (Vocalist of My Dying Bride). 'Moonlight Waltz' felt like a mix bag to me, but isn't a total shamble, I can assure to people. I just felt that the tracks on the album could have been much better executed or do something more different then what sounded off to me. Still, I would say listen to the first half of the album and tracks like 'Black Mondonna' and 'Illusion' off the second half of the album and see how it sounds.

Favorite Tracks: 'Fly Away', 'Moonlight Waltz', 'Carmilla', 'Figlio Della Luna', 'Illusion'