The story starts, “It was a cold dark night, and Portugal’s reigning dark kings Moonspell descended on New York City like a dark cloud.” Prepare to have your blood curdled. Moonspell’s Night Eternal Over America tour brought together an impressively diverse pairing of bands to compliment the grim October gray skies outside. There was definitely the vibe in the air of a bad moon (spell?) rising. All jokes aside, every band delivered the goods and tore apart BB King’s intimate stage.

I hadn’t been to the venue in some time, having not graced the interior of the place since an epic King Diamond show with Nile and The Black Dahlia Murder some years back. That was such a great performance from King that it made me almost reluctant to see another show there. I get weird about things like that sometimes (i.e., Not that we’re talking indie rock today but I loved Pavement’s Slanted And Enchanged tape so much when it came out that I didn’t get any of their other releases for years fearing disappointment). Well, folks…you can’t live in fear. Rather, you CAN live with fear, as this fearsome line-up professes. You just have to master it. I am happy to say that I was more or less totally satisfied with much of the show (Divine Heresy’s newest vocalist being the only let down).

Revocation from Boston were an interesting opening act for this show, much grimier than the rest of the bands and way more thrashing. Their song “ReaniManiac” humorously was introduced as a combination between horror classic Re-Animator and the Animaniacs. “Dismantle The Dictator” also stood out. This trio are seriously insane musicians. David Davidson’s guitar heroics transposed into the context of underground brutality are a must see. The dude can seriously, seriously play guitar. Their recent Relapse Records debut Existence Is Futile should not fall on, but rather make deaf ears. This band has all of the technical skill of a Dillinger Escape Plan, but the weirdness factor is stapled onto the face of more traditional metal forms.

Perhaps the most ominous performance of the night (Moonspell’s grim rendition of “Full Moon Madness” notwithstanding) was the New York debut of Germany’s Secrets Of The Moon. The band has been around for a long time and is finally getting some bigger winds under their black wings stateside. The band was stirring and dark and had me on my travel-weary feet right away. They came out and began their forlorn ritual with backs to the crowd before delving deep into forgotten reaches of forsaken glory. This band is bound for greatness.

Secrets Of The Moon’s vocalist S. Golden can growl with the best of the black metal pack, but also has a cool melodic texture to his voice. I’m not talking about some nu-metal whining, but rather a full-bodied roar that brings to mind battle songs and is somewhat reminiscent of a heavier Candlemass. The highlight of the set was the ferocious “Lucifer Speaks”, introduced by S.G. as “This is “Lucifer Speaks”! And Fuck Off!”

Fans of black and even more traditional, epic metal should really check Secrets Of The Moon out yet if they haven’t. Their new release Privilegivm (which features amazing cover art of forbidden fruit) is a solid place to start.

Regrettably, Switzerland’s Samael canceled their appearance. I am not sure why, as I didn’t keep up on it, but it is a shame because their most recent release above is one of their most potent offerings, a truly heavy experience.

I am a huge Fear Factory fan going back to when they recorded Demanufacture in my hometown of Woodstock, New York. (Author’s Note: Check the Crusher archives and you can read a great talk I had with Burton for his Ascension of The Watchers project or my recent talk with Ray Herrera on Arkaea). As much as I am dismayed by the continuing drama between the classic line-up of that band, I have always admired Dino Cazares’ innovation as a guitarist. So for now, we’ll stay clear of the pending litigation between camps over the right to use the Fear Factory name and just talk about Dino’s group Divine Heresy.

Replacing Samael on the bill, Divine Heresy drew an impressive amount of fans. The disgustingly sick musicianship on display between Dino, drummer Tim Yeung (of Vital Remains fame) and bassist Joe Payne (of Nile fame) was staggering. While Dino’s riffs in Divine Heresy are less memorable than some of the most anthemic Fear Factory moments (like “Replica” or the end of “Piss Christ”), it’s not a problem. The sheer speed and neck snapping brutality levels of Divine Heresy make it more about the whiplash effect anyway. This is a different animal. That leads us to our problem.

All of the current Fear Factory alumni are touring with bands who have vocalists that are not as adept as Burton C. Bell. No disrespect meant to Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera’s new band Arkaea, who released a very solid Terry Date produced record Years In The Darkness, but even Threat Signal’s Jon Howard (who fronts Arkaea) doesn’t quite resonate as powerfully as Burton. That said, Howard is a powerful front man in his own right and absolutely demolishes the guy Divine Heresy currently have fronting the band, Travis Neal.

I’m sorry to the Divine Heresy camp, but a singer shouldn’t be the weak link in any band. Tommy Vext was the singer for this band. Tommy has such a great, booming voice, even when he was in Vext playing in the New York City underground alongside bands like Candiria and others. Tommy would have had the crowd way more riled up and would not have been straining to hit notes or been off key as much as Neal. He commands the stage. Granted, Travis seems like a nice guy and genuinely tried to reach out to the crowd, even admitting it was his first time in New York. Generally though, it came off as clichéd when he tried to tell the crowd to “explode”, with Cazares stage banter about burritos being far more engaging. Tommy Vext is an underrated dude, and it is another bummer for fans of Dino’s bands that he is missing from the ranks of this one. Bad call, dudes. Shit, I would have been a better choice than the current dude!

If I am coming off as too harsh on Travis, it’s only because the rest of the band are so fucking phenomenal at what they do. Tim Yeung could eat too much Chinese food, crap it out on stage and tap on it with chopsticks and it would still be worth the price of admission. That guy is one of the fucking sickest drummers and best showman in the world. Who else gets worked into such a frenzy that they beat themselves in the face and head between fills and stick spins!!! Horns!!! Criticism aside “Monolithic Doomsday Device” and the standout title track of the new release Bringer Of Plagues showed Travis Neal at his best. The guy has heart and will hopefully grow stronger as time goes by. Until then, I’d much rather watch Arkaea.

Moonspell played a lengthy set to the delight of fans, thanking the crowd at many points during the show. The set was heaviest on material from the Irreligious and Night Eternal albums, with surprisingly little stuff drawn from The Antidote. That said, it was a magnificent range of stuff, including many bleak and agonized moments from the band’s catalogue.

The macabre mood settled into the crowd’s souls, like some scene out of a Dario Argento film. Front man/vocal poet Fernando Ribeiro (Langsuyar) commanded the crowd, eliciting many moments of devoted chant-a-longs as he presided over the mournful tidings. During the oft screamed for “Mephisto” from Irreligious, Ribeiro asked for “just the true believers” in the crowd to throw the horns. He wasn’t talking about true fans of Dio.

Regardless of if you support the band’s dark spiritual stance, you can’t ignore their art. Ricardo Amorim is one of the greatest metal guitarists out there when it comes to moody, deeply disconcerting and yet blackly stirring riffs. The highlight of the set was “Nocturna” from Darkness And Hope. The song glowed with otherworldly menace as Fernando embraced his gothic croon and Ricardo’s interplay with the keyboard work of Pedro Paixao hypnotized the crowd. I wish they had played “Of Dream and Drama (Midnight Ride)”, one of my favorite songs from Wolfheart, but they did grace us with several songs from that classic release, including “Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)”.

Other standout moments of the Moonspell set included the brutal thrust of “Night Eternal” and fan favorite “Finisterra” along with the poison hallucinations induced by the guitar melody in “Scorpion Flower”. While “Opium” remains a classic song for the band that intoxicates, it was good but subverted by other material like “Alma Mater” and the encore of “Awake” and “Full Moon Madness”, the latter of which included the best trippy, evil video visuals of the night. Wolves and moonlight and swirling energy flooded the eyes as one gazed upon the on stage devastation. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, unless you think it is bad to listen to “evil” bands like this anyway (and particularly on the Sabbath).