Review Summary: Symphonic power metal, more focused on the “power metal” bit.
Moonlight Haze are a symphonic power metal band. Animus is exactly what you can expect from the genre: a choir, and orchestral elements combined with heavy guitars, and energetic power metal. Animus sounds a lot like Visions of Atlantis’ latest album, Pirates. You will find catchy choruses, beautiful singing, and tunes that groove. The lead singer has an airy, light voice that melds well with melodies, resting gently on the ears (aside from the occasionally shrill high note). The only drawback is the metal can overpower her pop singer voice, thus lyrics are quite difficult to decipher.
The production of Animus is questionable, favouring the main band, while pushing the symphony presence excessively into the background, for the most part. That, by itself, is simply a stylistic choice, but due to the poppy songwriting attempting to match the singer’s tones, it comes across as a little run-of-the-mill. But once again, that is how I choose to see it. This album fits a certain niche. Those that like their bombastic, poppy metal (example: The Dark Element) will find an incredibly enjoyable album in Animus. I personally found the singing surprisingly pleasant to listen to, and this is certainly not an album to miss if you’re a fan of the genre.
