Band:	Lord Vampyr
Album:	Horror Masterpiece
Style:	Black metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	2010

01. Horror Masterpiece
02. Morte e Orgasmo
03. Who is Knocking At My Door?
04. I Love My Dead Girlfriend
05. I Remember
06. Tragedy
07. Blood Fanatics
08. You Are My Hell
09. Juliette (Back From The Grave)
10. Alice in Monsterland
11. Metzengerstein
12. Take On Me [A-HA cover]

After the fiasco of Shadowsreign I never bothered checking out Lord Vampyr's works, but somehow fate brought me to his latest work under the monicer of his self-titled musical project. The title of their third album is Horror Masterpiece and I have to admit that when my eyes fell upon it I thought "masterpiece, huh?" and kind of laughed, but the album proved to be a pleasant disagreement to my arch thoughts.

Lord Vampyr actually present a pretty solid gothic metal work, everything seems to be well-thought and in extension well-executed. A balance of heavy guitars and melody alongside beautiful keyboard passages or more electro-oriented synthesizers is omnipresent through the whole duration of the album. The band succeeds in keeping the aesthetic of gothic rock/metal, yet also bringing in the vibe of EBM/dark-electro, blending together two sub-cultures that are being adored by the same audience quite often. Lord Vampyr sings melodically or in a husky voice that never leaves the boundaries of melody, it's some kind of clean interpretation as well, a bit more hoarse though, alongside a few female vocals at times.

The good thing is that the band seems inspired and the duration of the songs is not so lengthy, most of them don't even surpass the 4th minute and that's something very positive since they unfold their ideas without tending to tire the listener, making Horror Masterpiece quite a pleasing to the ear listen. As for some sound references, the opener reminded me somehow of Tragic Black, a modern death rock act from the US that blends the 80s death rock scene with electronic sounds and a modern production, whereas the "Metzengerstein" main keyboard melody brought forth memories of Portugal's finest dark electro act, ESC, more preferably "Concrete".

A sound harmony, that may be a trap quite often (meaning that the album may leave a not so memorable sense), is quite vivid and that's why sometimes you've finished listening to Horror Masterpiece without even recognising when did this happen, but there are some stand-out compositions like the title-track, "I Love My Dead Girlfriend", "I Remember", "Tragedy", "Alice In Monsterland" and "Metzengerstein". I just wish they never had covered A-HA's "Take On Me" though.

All in all, Lord Vampyr's Horror Masterpiece is not a masterpiece, but it consists of a solid and pleasant aura that will keep you good company, fans of the figure behind the band or gothic metal that's not afraid to forge an alliance with more modern sounds will probably enjoy this.