Moonlyght hails from Quebec, Canada and was formed in 1995 by Roby (vocals, guitar). Shortly after that, a long time friend of his named Vince joined and later Luc and Christian were added to the line-up. As with most bands, line-up changes were inevitable but nowadays a steady line-up is a fact. Metal Disk released Progressive Darkness in 2002 but the contract with this label fell through and the band is now signed to Escapi New Media, who will release their next album later this year. They’ve also decided to re-release their debut album world wide in an attempt to gain some recognizition.

Progressive Darkness brings us a weird mix of popular gothic metal, melodic and folk metal which is sometimes very convincing, but at times overdone. They try to bring many influences into one track and because of that the music is sometimes fragmentary, as pieces of music are just glued together in order to create a song. When they get it right, for example on “Ride On Ice Storms” this results in original songs with a spotlight for singer/guitar player Roby who utilizes a black scream/grunt and a clean voice which is close to being off key but very entertaining.

Female singer Jessica Bell is listed as an additional musician but I hope Moonlyght offer her a permanent position in the band, because she sings really well and adds a positive element to the sound.

The production is good, which is surprising because it’s reasonably difficult music to record with all those different instruments and vocal patterns. There are of course a few glitches, such as the drum sound, which isn’t entirely to my liking, but generally producer Phillipe Poissant, who also mixed and mastered the whole thing, did a good job. I’m looking forward to the follow-up of Progressive Darkness and I hope they’ll strengthen their strong points and eliminate the weak. One weak point is clearly visible: the cover designer deserves to be shot for ruining the cover painting with horrendous lettering. I know it’s not the most important thing but I just wanted to get it of my chest.