UNDER THE MOONSPELL

Under the Moonspell is an EP that Portugese experimental metal act Moonspell released between their demo Anno Satanae (1993) and their debut album Wolfheart (1995). The EP has five tracks but the first and the last track are an intro and an outro. The playing time is 21:26 minutes.

The music is a giant leap forward compared to the music on the rather shaky demo tape. Gothic black/ death metal with both clean goth rock vocals and death/ black metal growls/ screams. Some middle eastern influences are also heard and a few female vocals also grace the songs. The most important part for me personally is that the music has power and the band is untamed at this early point in their career. There are just so many great ideas in these songs. Not always successfully completed but the ideas are there.

The musicianship is pretty good, but we´re not dealing with the best musicians ever and you shouldn´t expect airtight musicianship on Under the Moonspell. Here it´s the mood in the songs that are in focus.

The production is allright but not really good. you can hear everything that´s going on though.

Under the Moonspell is a good surprise for me and a prime example of how innovative and original Moonspell were in those days. A 3 star rating is deserved.

If the cover of UNDER THE MOONSPELL looks familiar its because the album "Under Satanae" has a very close variation of the cover from this debut EP. That is no coincidence since that much more recognized release contains remakes of many of the tracks on this EP. Despite the fact that many of these tracks have been rereleased and improved upon that doesn't negate the fact that these first editions are fairly well constructed tracks themselves. MOONSPELL proved from the getgo that they were a talented and unique entity in the metal world by creatively fusing folk, black and gothic elements together to suit their own purposes. The result is a very successful hybrid that delivers melody, aggression and vampire inspired themes.

MOONSPELL is probably one of the most famous metal acts to emerge from Portugal and on this debut album they lay it all down without hesitation. We hear all the elements that make great metal music churned out in a carefully crafted format. This music really floats my boat as it takes all the elements of the aforementioned metal subgenres and blends them together into a satisfying cohesive whole. Despite the unintelligible lyrics we get the lyrical themes of dark folklore and macabre poetry in both English and Portuguese. In a country where I would expect influences from such homegrown music as Fado and the like, MOONSPELL surprises by integrating a more Celtic folk sound with their blackened Gothic metal in a way that is obvious as to why they have become a major force in the metal world. 3.5 rounded down