Moonspell - Wolfheart (1995)

Throughout their now twenty year old music career, Portuguese metal legends, Moonspell have changed considerably in shape, form and personnel, but at least for me most of their work has been engaging and enjoyable. In their early days as Morbid God playing straight forward black metal (or so I always heard) to the early EP's as Moonspell they played a sort of folky black metal, but by the time they released their debut, 'Wolfheart' in '95 the band had taken their music in a sort of melodic folk-ish black-ish/Gothic metal that can really only be considered their own thing.

Moonspell was also one of those introductory bands of sorts that got me further into the metal underground years ago and as such I've always kept their outputs in mind. 'Wolfheart' however is a colossal release and by far the greatest record they've done. Many consider this to be a black metal record too, but the blackness is rather subtle and only shines through briefly in the vocal area, while the bulk of the record is far more Gothic in style with hints of folk music as well as a good amount of charging energy, catchiness and grandeur rarely seen these days in metal.

Kicking off with a beautiful and haunting intro, 'Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)' is quite possibly the finest song in the Moonspell library. With an incredibly majestic and yet bleak atmosphere all at once throughout and with both harsh shrieking screams and a low baritone Gothic/Dracula-ish vocal style Fernando "Langsuyar" Ribeiro proves himself quite early on. The song also has a superb flow, progressiveness and drive behind most of it and with on and off moments of great energy, especially towards the the middle when after a short acoustic break a totally hair raising lengthy guitar solo rips fourth from my speakers, usually followed by plenty of head banging on my end.

'Love Crimes' is next, although its a bit different in style and although again with a good amount of vigor and spirit behind it, this song is more purely Gothic metal in style, as well its also female backing vocalist, Birgit Zacher's first appearance, although she has many more on the album and future Moonspell releases as well she would go on to work with Tiamat and Sentenced during the 90's. '...Of Dream and Drama (Midnight Ride)' is fairly similar and quite excellent and who could resist that awesome Glenn Danzig-ish scream after the opening spoken part?! Meanwhile, 'Lua D'Inverno' is a short acoustic guitar number paired with a flute, which is the first real sign of anything folky on this record, whereas the following song, 'Trebraruna' is a full on although slightly weird folk metal song sung entirely in Portuguese.

The album hardly relents with, 'Vampiria' or 'An Erotic Alchemy' as they are again quite similar to the second and third songs, but just fantastically wrote and absolutely brilliant from start to finish. 'Alma Mater' closes out album and its a bit more forceful and aggressive at times, but nonetheless catchy as fuck and absolutely played at every single Moonspell gig. You might say its a classic.

There's very little I could say about this album negatively, maybe save for the fact that some of the synthesizers may sound slightly cheap or aged to some ears, but I hardly doubt Century Media handed a little Portuguese band that much money to record this beast. Aside from that we've got eight solid and stunning songs to choose from, superb vocals both from Fernando and Birgit, as well as a very audible bass guitar, dark, creepy and sometimes gorgeous synth, interesting and intriguing lyrics centered around vampirism, lycanthropy and relationships and enough catchy riffs and killer solos to make this the legendary album it truly is.

Re-released a few times over the years, an optimal version saw light in '07 with new artwork, remastered, liner notes by Fernando Ribeiro and Robert Müller (CM big boss), 28 page booklet and a bonus live CD, although I still rock my original pressing. Tempting to pick up this new version though.

Looking back I have no idea how I discovered this band or album, but I can only assume it was through random web browsing and Napster downloading at the end of 90's and the first months of the new millennium. Regardless, 'Wolfheart' has always been one of my favorites and if you've haven't heard it you really owe it to yourself to check it out, because its one of the most unique, exciting and memorable records I know.