Band:	Dark Moor
Album:	Shadowland
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	1999
A review by:	Malcolm

Disc I
01. Shadowland
02. Walhalla
03. Dragon Into The Fire
04. Calling On The Wind
05. Magic Land
06. Flying
07. Time Is The Avenger
08. Born In The Dark
09. The King's Sword
10. The Call [bonus]

Disc II [Reissue bonus disc]
01. God Save The King - Intro
02. Walhalla
03. Flying
04. For You
05. Infinite Dreams
06. Dreams Of Madness
07. Time Is The Avenger
08. The King's Sword

This was my first contact with Spain's best Metal band (In my eyes).
I can't really remember when it was, but it's was some years back in time, before the time Metal should be a very important part of my life, as it is today.
It's the debut of Dark Moor, the band that's famous because of the ex- singer Elisa C. Martin, but now with a young male-singer named Alfred Romero, more of that can you read of in my review of their latest release, "Dark Moor".

But now, back to the debut, an album that's kind of hard to get into really, 'cause they don't have much experience and they are not that skilled, that they later would be. And the production isn't that great either.
But already here you can hear, what should be the trademark of Dark Moor, Elisa's voice.
Even is the production sucks and Elisa doesn't sing too good, it's a voice that's meant to be the leading part of the band, it's unique. And that she's from Spain is as easy to hear as that Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) is from Finland.

The music and lyric part it's not that good, typical debut material, but even if it's not the best in the world, its not the worse either, and if you give the album some chances it will grow.
Elisa's voice is somehow a bit magical, as you will hear in the song, "Calling on the Wind", which is the best track on the album. The intro part of that song is magic, pure magic.

And I think if Dark Moor had done a new recording of this album today, with Elisa of course, it wouldn't have been as magical as it was here. I mean, Elisa have develop and is more skilled as a singer now, and the band have developed too. And the production would be damn much better too, but somehow, this bad production, the band that's not that skilled and Elisa back here, makes a damn good team, if I can call it team, but it fits.
And this debut is something special, the band didn't have any pressure on them here, to produce something that would sell in the whole world, no here was it only them self that could decide what do use and how it should sound, and that's great.
Bands that writes and record because they have too doesn't do it only for the love of music and in some cases they trying to experiment with things they normally wouldn't have done, just to sell more and make more money.

Dark Moor gave us, in the year of 1999, their debut, and excellent album, even if it takes time to really get into it. And I recommend this to all Dark Moor fans out there that haven't heard it, but I warning you too, the production sucks, the band isn't that skilled and Elisa sounds a bit amateurish, but that's the whole thing, the reason it sound so good.


Killing Songs: "Calling on the Wind", "Flying", "Walhalla" and the rest, it's a solid album; all songs are good, when you have given them a chance.