As much as I love Power Metal, sometimes the goth inside me needs to come out to play. When that happens I am glad there are bands like MacBeth, a great Goth Metal band from Italy.
MacBeth was formed in 1995 by a drummer named Fabrizio. They released a demo, Nocturnal Embrace, in 1997 and, after signing with Audioglobe s.r.l./Dragonheart Records, released their debut album Romantic Tragedy's Crescendo. The band went through some lineup changes before releasing a Rock opera named Vanitas (2001). Their latest album, Malae Artes, comes to us from Dragonheart Records/SPV.
MacBeth has a great industrial-tinge to their Goth Metal. Max and Luca have a great guitar sound, thunderous and crunchy, building up like a storm brewing until they explode with fully worthy solos. The lead-work creeps into you and makes you want to move, to weep or dance, maybe both. But as good as the guitars are, the keyboards are the best part about MacBeth. Their beautiful, moody music has a strong classical influence, some passages calling to mind Baroque music. The drum and bass playing don't particularly grab my attention for the most part but they don't harm the music either. Every so often some more mainstream influence shows itself, causing me to do a double take. I don't feel it fits in with the rest of the music, like in Keep the Secret.
They have two lead singers. Andreas sounds rather like a more aggressive Robert Smith (The Cure), throw in a killer growl and you get something very much to my musical liking. Sometimes I think he lets the treble in his voice get a little out of control but for the most part he keeps it at the perfect level. The female singer, Morena, has a voice that makes me think a little of Amy Lee of Evanescence. She has a sweet, oppressed sounding voice. Morena's accent makes her difficult to understand at times.
Henceforth is my favorite song on Malae Artes. It starts out sounding like a creepy music box and then hits you hard! The rhythm guitar bounces like a demon on a trampoline and Andreas uses both his clean and growly voice on it. It is extremely emotional and has a wonderful chorus. Andreas is in the forefront for the majority of the song but Morena is always there, behind him. The riff runs, skips and jumps with manic misery and the keyboardist does a particularly fine job. My Desdomona is dynamic and catchy and features great lead-work. The first track, Nuda Veritas, is more of an intro than anything else. It introduces you to their talented keyboardist and industrial tendencies with a cool vocal effect that makes it sound like Andreas is trying to get through to you but something is interfering with the transmission, it makes me think of sci-fi movies. The track following it is one of my favorites, Lifelong Hope has excellent keyboard work and the riff is angry, deep and cool. Neither singer monopolizes the spotlight on this song, instead they trade off lines. This works quite well.
Macbeth's Malae Artes both expands on the somewhat tired genre of Goth Metal and rocks hard at the same time. I highly recommend them to fans of goth metal looking for something a little different.