MOONLIGHT — Kalpa Taru (review)

Album · 1996 · Gothic Metal

4/5 · 2022-06-07
siLLy puPPy

Gothic metal is yet another metal subgenre that developed in the United Kingdom with bands like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema all taking the death-doom metal standard into more atmospheric and gloomy mood settings. One of the unforeseen side branches of the goth metal scene is the beauty and beast vocal effect where growly male vocals were accompanied by operatic female singers and then certain bands decided to nix the growly vocal thing altogether and focus on a female fronted style of metal that mixed various styles of metal with the dreamy ambience of 80s goth bands like Dead Can Dance.

MOONLIGHT is one such band that sort of has walked the tightrope between progressive rock and gothic metal. This band was founded as far back as 1991 in Szczecin, Poland and started out as more of a trippy shoegaze type of art rock band but the band quickly discovered the power of adding some heavy metal guitar heft and quickly changed its style to become one of those early female fronted goth metal bands in the vein of The Gathering or Theatre of Tragedy. The band gained popularity in its native Poland and even found a bit of success in neighboring Germany as well as Italy despite composing lyrics exclusively in Polish.

KALPA TARU was the debut album that means “Garden of Plenty” in the Old Babylonian language. While the band of five members equally participated in the composition process, the lyrics on the other hand were primarily crafted by keyboardist Daniel Potasz and vocalist Maja Konarska. This album emerged in 1996 and although a side note in the overall history of 90s gothic metal, MOONLIGHT showcases on this debut what a truly diverse subgenre of metal that the goth subsection could be. While bands like Type O Negative excelled at slow gloomy vampiric moods and motifs, bands like MOONLIGHT adopted a completely different approach not unlike bands like Lacuna Coil only more sombre, more mysterious and more varied in style.

This debut featured 15 tracks and plays for more than 57 minutes making it a bit long however the songs are varied and more diverse than the average goth metal experience which keeps it listenable for its entirety. The star of the show is clearly lead vocalist Maja Konarska who offers a more eclectic than usual set of performances here. One certain tracks she offers tender vulnerable vocal deliveries while on others she can belt out harsh yelling. She implements both clean feminine sensual phrasings as well as rough and tough metal grit. In addition to the expected goth and progressive metal aspects of the album, there are many folk flavors as well ranging from Celtic to Middle Eastern influences which allows Konarska the opportunity to experiment with various singing styles. In fact every track seems different from the next.

Like most gothic metal, MOONLIGHT mixed a style of metal guitar heft with atmospheric keyboard moodiness. While death-doom was more common of a template in 90s goth metal, on KALPA TARU it seems more of an alternative metal mix with many passages eschewing the metal elements altogether. The arrangements are fairly unique as well and i can honestly say that this album really doesn’t sound like any other of the era. While the album strength is that it is varied enough to endure an hour’s worth of attention, on the other hand the downside is that it doesn’t feel very cohesive either but of course a debut album consists of years of gathering enough material for a full release.

Unless you speak Polish you won’t comprehend a word of this but for my ears the Polish language makes it sound even more cryptic and mysterious. Perhaps there’s not as much metal in this as i would like as the emphasis on the more ethereal and atmospheric aspects are much more common and at times the album sounds more like an ethnic folk infused Dead Can Dance than a metal band but just when you think they’ve dropped the metal altogether the tempo picks up, a raging guitar riff enters the scene and the bass and drums follow suit. The album is actually well paced and the compositions are intricately delicate and even quirky in the off-kilter deviations from convention. Still though the melodies are easily accessible and offer an instant connection.

MOONLIGHT has released over ten album since 1996 and changed its sound many times. The band was forced to break up in 2007 due to legal conflicts with their music label Metal Mind Productions but reformed in 2015 and finally released another album in 2018. This band will not appear on many best gothic metal bands lists but it’s certainly not one to be overlooked as its unique approach makes them stand out in this unique nook of progressively infused gothic rock / metal. And i cannot emphasis enough what a treat it is to soak in Maja Konarska’s vocalizations. She has the perfect voice for this kind of music that fluctuates from tender and delicate to aggressive and best of all she doesn’t deliver the kind of vocals you would expect at any given moment. For example during some of the aggressive metal parts she actually sounds more like Catherine Ribeiro with Alpes giving a trippy psychedelic seance kind of performance. This was a surprise that i liked this as much as i did. Keeper.