When it comes to gothic metal, one of the bands who built this sound and continue until now without losing quality, is undoubtedly the most known band from Portugal, Moonspell. They started in 1989 as Morbid God by playing black metal, but three years after their name changed and their style begun to evolve until the iconic debut album “Wolfheart”.
From there on, they managed to create their own music identity. Although they never fully gave up on the black metal elements, they added a lot of folk also. Moonspell was one of the first bands who used their country’s traditional music, before becoming a trend. A special blend of different influences that gave them huge recognition, respect and of course many great albums.
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Some of them are “Wolfheart”, “Irreligious”, “The Antidote”, “Memorial” and “Night Eternal”. Their status gave them the opportunity to try different things quite often, such as the double album “Alpha Noire/Omega White” or the last year’s “1755”, an album that is centered around the great earthquake that nearly destroyed all of Lisbon and its surroundings with lyrics being written in their native language.
As for their live appearances, they almost never disappoint with their performance. After all, their members are many years together and know exactly what to do while on stage. Miguel Gaspar on drums, Pedro Paixao on guitars/keyboards and Fernando Ribeiro on vocals are together from the beginning, three years later guitarist Ricardo Amorim joined and the…newest member in bassist Aires Pereira who came on board on 2004. Of course, in any live show the charismatic frontman Fernando Ribeiro has the center of the attention, while the love of the Greek audience towards them is well known.
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Not that it doesn’t work the other way around, as they have expressed many times their special bond with Greek fans. They also had long-time friendships with Greek musicians. For example, Ribeiro has sung in songs of Rotting Christ and Chaostar and Spiros Antoniou of Septicflesh has done the artwork on four of their releases.
In Chania Rock Festival, Moonspell will be there to give another night to remember. They will have the dark of the night as their ally, because their music is made for that atmosphere. And as they have on their setlist amazing hymns like “Alma Mater”, “Full Moon Madness”, “Opium”, “Night Eternal”, “Scorpion Flower”, “Ruin & Misery”, “Memento Mori”, “Everything Invaded” and “From Lowering Skies” (among dozens more) on thing is for certain: they will be one of the festival’s highlights.
George Terzakis
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