Darkwell
Moloch

It has been quiet from Austrian gothic rock/metal “pioneers” Darkwell for more than a decade now. But along with an ancient god they have once again awakened, and maybe it is thanks to this Moloch character that they have reunited with their original vocalist and found their inspiration once again. The album seems rather inspired by Fritz Lang’s silent movie epic Metropolis which can been seen from looking at the artwork as well as the video for the third track Yoshiwara and from the concept of the tracks as well. I think that part makes this a fairly exciting album.

The concepts may be exciting but we all know that female fronted gothic metal is a rather well populated genre these days and much like most other genres of music you need to make something either unique or amazing to really stand out – preferably both. These guys offer gothic metal with a strong production and a good vocalist, as well as strong atmospheres. It sounds fairly good in my opinion. There is however the matter of an album that could have been more varied, I also think some of the choruses can be a bit repetitive in their catchiness. The playing time is also a tad on the long side nearing fifty minutes and if you get the digipak you get even more as it has two bonus tracks.

The album is good; I don’t really think you can dislike it – especially if you like gothic metal. The tracks are solid and the ending is very strong even, but in the end you soon come to realise that they probably will not stand out from the ever-expanding crowds of the gothic metal genre. They are possibly taking too much care to keep within the confines of this genre, something that probably makes it less exciting than it could have been. There is more potential in this band then they are delivering on Moloch, you can especially hear this in the vocal performance that feels much too restrained. I think there is room for much more exciting vocals, of course there is room for the band to go down several more exciting paths than they do on Moloch.

The ending track is my favourite of the album, so it ends very well but the path there is a little bit too similar to anything else that we hear in this genre. I would say that I like the album but that I also think they could have done more and if I was a fan I am not sure I would have seen this as a fantastic return after more than a decade of silence. It is a good return, it promises a bit more than it delivers and I still think they should have tried to move just a little bit outside the box. I wonder if this album will really leave the cold realm of Metropolis.

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