Haven't heard anything, the past three years, regarding SECRETS OF THE MOONand Antithesis (a controversial album among my friends, since half of them said it was brilliant and the other ones claimed that it wasn't good). So, it was time for SECRETS OF THE MOON to release their new work under the titlePrivilegivm.
SECRETS OF THE MOON did arise in 1995 in Germany. Till nowadays they've released, among some demos and three splits, three full length albums and a live one. They've also experienced many lineup changes and after Daevas left the band in 1997 no original members exist. Last addition to their lineup is LSK, the female bass player of ANTAEUS, VORKREIST and HELL MILITIA among others, joining the band last year.

By the time I had the digital promo in my hard drive and pressed the 'play' button of my player, I knew I was going to listen to a dark, angry, mystic album. Their Doom/Death and Black - at some points - Metal sounds awkwardly satanic beautiful to my ears. The work done in the riffs is very good, since sG tries - even in the repetitive parts in a song - to play them a bit differently every time. Not that some of the riffs don't sound exactly the same, but the idea of changing them slightly is something interesting and it doesn't make you bored. The speed is becoming more up-tempo at some points but the average rhythm is a the 'mid' one. If you want some references about the sound, well I'd say that SECRETS OF THE MOON reminded me of the mid tempo melodies of FARSOT and NAGELFAR or LUNAR AURORA. Doom and gloom is everywhere in this album. You won't find anything happy here. The combination on this Doom/Death/Black Metal with the misanthropic and satanic lyrics won't leave you any chance for happiness.

I think that doing a review to each song separately would destroy the entire atmosphere of the album. Privilegivm is one of the nice surprises this year. Well played and with a great atmosphere that makes even this sunny day looking dark and cold. I don't think that I have to persuade you to buy any of the four different released versions of the album. The ones that know have already bought it.