Dichotomy is a powerful theme. If executed well you can emphasize the individual strengths of two dis-separate pieces of work. If done poorly, you end up with a disjointed mess that undermines both parts of a whole.
Moonspell has always been an interesting case. Early on, it seemed as though they couldn't decide if they wanted wanted to be death metal or goth rock. Their albums always flip flopped back and forth between angry aggressive and super heavy to gloomy melodramatic and gothy. Even at their gothiest (that's a word now by the way) they still always pushed their metal roots, and vise versa. The net result has been a band that managed to perform across a broad spectrum who, I'm sure, have alienated a lot of close minded music fans.
I just picked up the newest album, Alpha Noir. The special edition digipack is actually double album with the companion cd Omega White. I am going to focus on the digipack of both albums because I feel this is the way the album is meant to be presented. Right off the bat you can see the Dichotomy theme; Alpha and Omega, Black and White. The cd packaging further emphasizes the theme. Decent album artwork and layout seems to be a dying art in the world of music which makes beautiful offerings like this so much better. In the tradition of double comic books and vinyl, the booklet and sleeve are back to back with Omega White upside down on the back of the Alpha Noir pages. It's clever and well executed, making for a stream lined booklet that isn't lacking in content.
Onto the music. Ill start with the first disc and the namesake of the album, Alpha Noir. This is an awesomely heavy collection of songs. Its loud and aggressive and wonderful. Here is a sample, the first single off the album. It is rather indicative of this half as a whole, if you like the track you will probably like the rest of them. There really isn't any filler, no songs that make you think the album would be better off without them. All told, if I had just bought the "normal" version of the album with just this cd I would have been satisfied.
Man oh man am I glad I got the digipack.
Omega White forgoes the screaming and growling in favor of melodic crooning. I hear a lot of Sisters of Mercy in the single for this side, not that there is anything wrong with that. Just try to tell me you couldn't see this being played at a goth club, I dare you. Again, the tracks are all very well put together and they all work to make for a solid album. This side is everything Alpha Noir isn't. While Alpha Noir is heavy, aggressive and brutal, Omega White is dark, brooding and melodramatic. Unlike a lot of goth albums, I don't want to go kill myself after listening to it.
On their own, these two would be solid stand alone albums. Worth listening to and worth getting from I tunes or the like, but together they are phenomenal. It is an album that I would suggest picking up a physical copy of, if for nothing else than for the dressing. It is one of those rare albums that begs to be listen to from start to finish, over and over again. I can confidently say that this is one of my favorites of metal season 2012
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