The band started out as folk-tinged black metal. In 1992, still under the name Morbid God, they released the promo track "Serpent Angel". In 1993, vocalist Fernando Ribeiro, drummer Mike Gaspar and bassist João Pedro released the demo Anno Satanæ under the name Moonspell, which caught the attention of French label Adipocere. It was for Adipocere that Moonspell released in 1994 a mini-album titled Under the Moonspell. The record was a considered a landmark in Portuguese metal and sold more than 5000 copies, becoming Adipocere's best-selling record at the time. Shortly after the release, they played with Cradle of Filth in a concert in Lisbon.
Breakthrough (1995-1997)
After the release of mini-album Under the Moonspell, Moonspell signed with Century Media for six CDs. Wolfheart was recorded in Germany with producer Waldemar Sorychta and was released in 1995 and was followed by a European tour. Although the album had little or no recognition at the beginning, it was later recognized as a "milestone" by heavy-metal reviews site Metal-Observer.com. During the tour, guitarist Mantus quit the band and was replaced by Ricardo Amorim.
Irreligious came out in 1996 and was recorded again with producer Waldemar Sorychta. While previous album was considered black metal, this one fell into the genre of gothic metal. The song Opium became the first Moonspell single. It quoted one of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms, Álvaro de Campos, on his poem "Opiário" and its music video, featured the character of poet writing in a bar with the band playing. Along with the release of the album in a convent, the Convento do Beato, there were factors that helped the band selling 10.000 copies of the album in their homeland.
After conflicts with the band involving lawsuits, bass player Ares left the band and was replaced by Sérgio Crestana.
Experimenting (1998-2000)
Sin/Pecado (Pecado means 'sin' in Portuguese) was released in 1998. It had a bigger experimental nature than its predecessors. The song 2econd Skin was released as a single. At the time they released the one and only Daemonarch album, Hermeticum. Daemonarch was a side project composed by all Moonspell members but drummer Mike Gaspar. The album was seen as a return to their black metal roots and its lyrics were all written by singer Fernando Ribeiro between the age of 14 and 16.
Sin/Pecado was followed in 1999 by The Butterfly Effect, recorded in London and produced by Andy Reilly. This album is considered to be very experimental in nature as well. Featuring "down-tuned guitar riffs, eerie synthesizer passages", the album was mainly composed by guitarist/keyboard player Pedro Paixão and was not very well received by metal critics.
"Darkness and Hope" and "The Antidote" (2001-2005)
Darkness and Hope was released in 2001 and was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, producer of Sentenced or HIM. The album reached 79th on German charts and special editions included covers of Madredeus, Ozzy Osbourne's Mr. Crowley and Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart. Nocturna was released as a single and music video.
In 2003, the band released The Antidote, with Niclas Etelävuori from Amorphis playing as a session musician on the bass guitar. The album was released with a book with the same title written by Portuguese writer José Luís Peixoto. Both the CD and book share the same concept and story and each song in the CD is sister to a chapter in the book that enhances the story in the lyrics. "Everything Invaded" was released as a single and music video. The band toured extensively around the world, playing at Rock in Rio Lisbon in 2004, a concert that brought them to more mainstream attention in Portugal. From this album on, the tours feature Aires Pereira on the bass.
In early 2004 the band recorded a cover of the jazz standard "I'll see you in my dreams" for the soundtrack of a Portuguese horror movie of the same name. There is an official music video of this song featuring footage from the film itself.
"Memorial", "Under Satanae" and "Night Eternal" (2006-present)
Memorial was released in 2006. Recorded with the producer of their first three albums Waldemar Sorychta, who also recorded the bass guitar parts, it was the first to be released under their new label SPV Steamhammer. The album topped the Portuguese album chart on its first week and also broke into the German Top 100 at number 68. Memorial achieved gold status in Portugal after selling 10,000 copies, making Moonspell the first Portuguese heavy metal band to achieve that.
Although the album is heavier than the previous, it was very well received and its release was featured in various Portuguese news broadcasts. A new release of the album was released in December 2006 and featured a DVD with live performances and the music videos made for the album. Music videos for "Finisterra" and "Luna" were released.
On November 2, 2006, Moonspell won an MTV Europe Music Award in the category of Best Portuguese Act.
The Great Silver Eye, a best-of album, was released on June 26, 2007.
Recently, Moonspell released Under Satanæ, a re-recording of early songs.
The last album has been called "Night Eternal". It was released on May 16, 2008. Moonspell is slated to tour Danzig's 2008 incarnation of his Blackest of the Black tour.
After a lot of legal troubles, Moonspell released their first Dvd "Lusitanian Metal" on December 8, 2008 in 3 different versions. The most complete one is composed of 2 Dvds, a Cd and a small booklet with photographs and introduction to the footage written by some of the members of the band. The first Dvd contains a show they played in 2004 in Katowice, also recorded on the Cd, a collection of all their videos until "Everything Invaded" and an interwiew shot in a Graveyard. The second dvd presents some live footage took from different tours from 1992 to 2005.
Current members
Fernando Ribeiro - vocals (1989-present )
Mike Gaspar - drums (1992-present )
Ricardo Amorim - lead guitar (1995-present )
Pedro Paixão - keyboards / rhythm guitar (1994-present )
Aires Pereira - bass (2004-present )
Previous members
Baalberith - drums (1989-1992)
João Pedro (Ares / Tetragrammaton) - bass (1989-1997)
Luís Lamelas (Malah / Fenrir) - guitar (1992-1993)
J.M. (Tanngrisnir) - guitar (1993-1995)
Mantus/Duarte - guitar (1990-1995)
Sérgio Crestana - bass (1997-2003)
Discography:
1992 - Serpent Angel (demo)
1993 - Anno Satanae (demo)
1994 - Under the Moonspell
1995 - Wolfheart
1996 - Irreligious
1997 - 2econd Skin (disc 1) (Single w/ bonus live CD)
1997 - 2econd Skin (disc 2) (Single w/ bonus live CD)
1998 - Sin Pecado
1999 - The Butterfly Effect
2001 - Darkness and Hope
2003 - The Antidote
2006 - Memorial
2007 - The Great Silver Eye (Best Of)
2007 - Under Satanae (The first three releases re-recorded)
2008 - Night Eternal
2012 - Alpha Noir / Omega White
2015 - [algum artist=Moonspell]Extinct
Dvds
2008 - Lusitanian Metal
www.moonspell.com
Wolfshade
Moonspell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The perfume of a twilight, her strongest scent
Half Wolf, Half female - what a strange wedding
Mother Nature has offered us to see...
Her mask lays lost in a fatal dawn
Closed were the eyes of the Sun, He sleeps
And in the name of Her Father,
She will kill. My child kills.
For your life is but a celebration of his death.
Without his thorns in her heart. She wears a shadow as face
A werewolf masquerade. In her eyes the wolfshade
She brought the Night and by the night was brought
We are but children of the powers she had set free
Strange are the ways of the wolfhearted...
The lyrics of "Wolfshade" by Moonspell describe the coming of the night embodied in a female creature with wolf features. Her eyes carry the sadness of the wolf, and the fragrance she releases is the strongest in the twilight. She is a combination of a wolf and a female, a unique union that is both eerie and intriguing. The creature is said to be the offering of Mother Nature, a chance for humanity to witness her wonders. However, with the arrival of the night, the Sun is rendered powerless, and it is in the name of the father that she will kill, indicating that hers is a supernatural being.
The child of this creature is said to be a celebration of his father's death, and their lives but a commemoration of his passing. The mother, wearing a shadow as a face, is described as a werewolf, and her eyes are the wolfshade. The night brought her, and by the night, humanity has been brought to powerlessness. The lyrics indicate the strange ways of these wolf-hearted creatures, indicating that they might be complex beings that cannot be understood easily. Overall, the lyrics of "Wolfshade" paint a poetic and vivid description of a creature that is both enchanting and frightening.
Line by Line Meaning
She brought the Night hidden in her sad Wolf eyes
The woman had an ominous aura, as if she embodied the darkness that creeps in during nightfall, and her eyes were filled with sadness, like those of a wolf.
The perfume of a twilight, her strongest scent
The woman exuded the fragrance of a time between day and night, which was one of her most distinguished features.
Half Wolf, Half female - what a strange wedding
It was peculiar that the woman was half human and half wolf, as it was a seemingly impossible fusion.
Mother Nature has offered us to see...
The woman's existence served as an example of Mother Nature's diversity and creativity.
Her mask lays lost in a fatal dawn
The facade she had been hiding behind vanished as soon as daybreak arrived, revealing her true form.
Closed were the eyes of the Sun, He sleeps
The sun had retired for the day, its eyes were shut, and it was obviously resting.
And in the name of Her Father, She will kill. My child kills.
In honor of her father, she will slay, and her offspring will continue to do so.
Your nightly birth. A requiem God can't forget.
The woman's nocturnal origins were commemorated through a somber song that even God could not erase from memory.
For your life is but a celebration of his death.
The woman's existence was only possible because something had to die, as she symbolized the circle of life and death.
Without his thorns in her heart. She wears a shadow as face
If the woman didn't carry the wounds of her past, she would have been indistinguishable from the darkness that surrounded her.
A werewolf masquerade. In her eyes the wolfshade
Her appearance was misleading, as she appeared to be a human wearing a mask, when in fact she was a wolf in a masquerade.
She brought the Night and by the night was brought
The woman was a harbinger of the night, and in a way, the night brought her into existence.
We are but children of the powers she had set free
Humans were nothing but the offspring of the woman's innate powers, which she would release every time she emerged.
Strange are the ways of the wolfhearted...
The woman's wolf-like tendencies were difficult to comprehend and classified as bizarre.
Lyrics © DistroKid, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Amandio Cabral
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Johny Blasphemy
She brought the Night hidden in her sad Wolf eyes
The perfume of a twilight, her strongest scent
Half Wolf, Half female - what a strange wedding
Mother Nature that offered us to see...
Her mask lays lost in a fatal dawn
Closed were the eyes of the Sun. He sleeps.
And in the name of Her Father.
She will kill. My child kills.
Your nightly birth. A requiem God cant forget.
For your life is but a celebration of his death.
Without his thorns in her heart. She wears a shadow as face.
A werewolf masquerade. In her eyes the wolfshade.
She brought the Night and by the night was brought
We are but children of the powers she had set free
Strange are the ways of the wolfhearted...
Francisco Javier Zavala Álvarez
El mejor album en la historia de moonspell para mi 😎☠️👺
Florian Jae
Definitely🤘🏻👌🏻
Zlevix Ragnarokkk
Un viaje este disco
Jackelcuervo Hernandez
La verdad
Diego Norrea🏳️🌈⃠
Concordo
Orlando D
La voz de Ribeiro te transporta!!!...
Marcos Glauber
essa música é uma obra de arte
Kronos camron
The nostalgia, the lyrics and imagery. best moonspell album.
Johb Smith
+1
Karapos77
This song is a masterpiece.The solo is an explosion of emotions.