Dark Moor - Dark Moor (2003)

White Skull had a female singer, she left and they replaced her with a man. Dark Moor then followed suit, only they replaced three members, including vocalist Elisa Martin, who made way for Alfred Romero, who does sound a bit like her, but is certainly better.
Referring to novels like "The Count Of Monte Cristo" ("A Life For Revenge"), as well as having a few songs based on Attila the Hun, this is a sometimes exceptional album which, at its best, flies, highlights including "Eternally", the somewhat progressive "Cyrano Of Bergerac" and the concluding "The Dark Moor", but there are weak moments too, like the ordinary "The Bane Of Daninsky (The Werewolf)". There are some pleasing orchestral moments and, of course, bits of choirs that can only be a plus. But I can't quite rate this as highly as their previous work, and last with Martin, Albert Maroto and Jorge Saez, THE GATES OF OBLIVION. There's a lack of gracefully beautiful melodies that the band was adept at producing up to this stage, like "The Strange Paths Of Destiny" (I love that song), which means this is very good, but not super, duper good.

***1/2