Band:	Macbeth
Album:	Malae Artes
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	March 29, 2005
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Nuda Veritas
02. Lifelong Hope
03. My Desdemona
04. Miss Murderess
05. How Can Heaven Love Me [Sarah Brightman cover]
06. Good Mourning
07. Henceforth
08. Keep The Secret
09. Down-Hearted
10. Dead And Gone

Macbeth was one of those bands that emerged from the explosion of Gothic "Beauty And The Beast" kind of bands, remember them? (Tristania, Sins Of Thy Beloved, Theatre Of Tragedy, Trail Of Tears among others). Although the band never reached the level of popularity of the after mentioned bands, they managed to keep a loyal fanbase, patient people that waited four years to get a new Macbeth album.

So how's does the new Macbeth album stacks up on the rest of their discography? Well, different is the word. Years has gone by and the line up of the band has changed since the early albums, the band develops a sound more oriented to the masses, the grunts and Black/Death influences are almost gone now, and the band delivers a Gothic sound reminiscent of The Gathering, Lacuna Coil and Evanescence, keeping distance from the mentioned bands of course, Macbeth possesses a peculiar sound of their own.

The album goes somewhat like this: after a rather useless intro (like all intros lately), "Lifelong Hope" opens the album, the first thing that caught my attention are the keyboards, giving atmosphere to the music, the second thing that caught my attention was the female vocalist Morena (meaning brunette in Spanish), her voice is sweet yet powerful, great addition to the music. The male vocals instead are a bit too "dramatic" for me, although they fit the music just well.

"My Desdemona" is a catchy song filled with hooks and a sing-along chorus, "Miss Murderess" is somewhat "commercial" ready for radio play. "How Can Heaven Love Me" is a the band's rendition of Sarah Brightman's song, I don't know the original version, but this is quite ok. "Henceforth" is a great song that contains some rough vocals, other songs with some grunted vocals are "Down-Hearted" and "Dead And Gone".

One thing that Macbeth has watched carefully this time is the artwork and packaging, the Cd art is very appealing and the whole sound is the best they offered so far, great job at the studio!

At the end, this is a decent effort, maybe not that original but they managed to do something different this time, Gothic fans will be pleased with this release, it has the right elements although sometimes doesn't sounds too cohesive, specially with the obvious mix of influences. Nevertheless, is a fine little album I have here.