The Portuguese are certainly a unique case in the field of dark music. They have tried several different things in the ten albums they had released before this one, and all of them with success. About the same thing happens with their new record.
In “Extinct” they may not have reinvented the wheel but I must point out Ribeiro’s tendency to focus on pure vocals while musically the traditional sounds of their country (very similar to Greek ones) are heard more than in older releases of theirs. The sound of this album is closer to the original gothic adjusted to more decent compositions. Here the speeds are lower than we were used to something that might puzzle some loyal fans of Moonspell. However all of the above give the album a homogeneity and a positive sign and I think it’s useless to make comparisons with older works of the band. The final result leaves you with a positive but at the same time a little strange feeling. I’m not sure if “Extinct” can be considered as one of Moonspell’s best records. Their audience was waiting anxiously for its release that’s for sure. It certainly is a work which offers a lot of new data and that it has been worked for exactly this outcome whether some people may like it or not.
