There are just a few days left until the release of the eleventh studio album of the Portuguese gothic metal werewolves also known as MOONSPELL. In contrast to their previous release ('Alpha Noir/Omega White'), this one is carrying a title way stronger in its simplicity: 'Extinct'.

Will that be a verdict of their life as a band or a promise that they will blow us apart? The news is bad as it is good: it’s both. “You will like it, you won’t like it” as the band wisely put it when they finished recording last October. This may not be a groundbreaking record but it grows on you with each listening – especially if a dark Lucitanian romance is your thing.

When it comes to form, 'Extinct' is excellent, as is to be expected. It’s not a conceptual album, but it does have a leitmotif: We realized we’re not immortal. Well, the majestic Portuguese singer is about to become 41 in August. Not saying this means old, especially when he can finally boast having a kid. However, neither fatherhood, nor all those years, 23 of which spent with the band, seem to go light on him.

The weight is translated into music – and yes, it could have been heavier, but whoever has been listening to MOONSPELL to experience the brutality of raw, primal emotion – probably stopped a long time ago. It is also translated into lyrics that could pass as okay for that genre – and work well as musical greetings for your eyeliner abusing girlfriend.

To put it simply: Every single gothic cliché can sound good if sung by Fernando Ribeiro. Every. Single. One. And with melodic vocals the man is practically surpassing his own high standards with songs as 'Funeral Bloom', 'La Baphomette' and, to a certain degree, 'The Future Is Dark'.

Speaking of gothic clichés, the mutilated female torso artwork can be found in promo materials in several forms, distinctive mainly for the amount of symbolic trinkets piled up on it. Bones, scorpions, flowers and whatnot. At least we now know what would be the result when one tries “to deliver a rose from the mouth of a dragon” (see 'Funeral Bloom').

Another explanation for those wretched remains could be the conceptual references to topics like environment, sustainability and the general quo vadis, domine/man/Earth? At least we have older work of multiple talented Septicflesh bass player Seth Siro Anton for consolation– say 'Night Eternal'.

To the ear, 'Extinct' delivers a well balanced mix of rage and tenderness, often within a single song. All of this is well seasoned with symphonic additions and oriental influences.

The introduction 'Breathe (Until We Are No More)' contains a compressed version of nearly all that is to be developed later in the album: whispers to growls, powerful drums to violin arabesques, life to extinction. This continues energetically with the title track 'Extinct', which combines the representative growls of Ribeiro with a pop-scented refrain.

'Medusalem' sounds like something written on a vacation in Morocco. 'Domina' and 'Malignia' are new additions in the long list of MOONSPELL names for whip-wielding mistresses – 'Malignia' being the evil, but far sexier sister. Promo hook 'The Last of Us' in fact turns out as one of the weaker and banal pieces. To make amends, we have the catchy, melodic and nicely diverse 'Funeral Bloom'.

'A Dying Breed' sounds like 'Extinct'’s younger brother, who still keeps a HIM poster over his bed. The emotional charge of 'The Future is Dark' is extinguished by vapid monotony.

The pearl in 'Extinct' is called 'La Baphomette'. Aside from being an elegant finish to the album and an ominous introduction to the Road to Extinction tour, in its tad more than two minutes length this song manages to remind us why we like MOONSPELL.

By itself it gains the album at least a star up in the rating. Reaching it is like going to the theater and after an hour of snotball making cause you know all of the scenes and have nothing better to do – bang! Mephistopheles himself rises up from the shadows to deliver the final accord. The red drapery falls, thank you for bearing with us.