MOONSPELL, Embrace By Dark
03.12.2009, 'Blue Box' club, Sofia - Bulgaria
words by Ivaylo Alexandrov,В photo: Georgi GeorgievВ 

There have been many good concerts this year. No, no, I’m not complaining, just noting. Nice, special, awaited and surprising at the same time. The one from the last night was all of these.

Most of Evil surprised us that we finally got to see the band we have been waiting for such a long time and they gave us so good concert that it has been a while now since I got home and my ears refuse to leave Blue Box.

After so many years and so many bands that have played here, it was about time to welcome Mooonspell at last – one of the leaders of the dark sound with one foot in the gothic long before the miserable exhalations of the alleged gothic heroes; dug their nails in the darkness, pouring it generously in their albums – not revolutionaries but unearthly inspiring band, enchanted with its sonar obscurantism fifteen years ago the hearts and the minds of the young metalheads. And now they were here, affecting more than ever with total devotion.

Without beating around the bush, Embrace By Dark hit in time before the still filling hall, they reminded us their nice melodic death metal which we haven’t heard live from years, they dubbed us in a piece of their new works and left us after a dense performance during which we were 20 again, we gathered in small venues to headbang with our local heroes of the time. The songs from “Sculpture Of The Godforsaken Aeons” for which the term “time” does not mean a thing brought us a strong load and a cozy dose nostalgia for the ages of the audiocassettes, re-recordings and the promises: “Man, these guys are great, I’ll bring you their album tomorrow.”

Surprisingly, Moonspell did not bring merchandise. Or it has just ran out somewhere on the road. At the expense of that they did bring their reading of the metal. Heavy, deep and dark, the Portuguese opened the show with the obscure “At Tragic Heights”. Not a beginning but a flood. And there followed waves of strong metal tunes from their last albums. It is idiotic to explain who and what are Moonspell. If their name does not ring any bell to you, just pass to the next article or switch over to the channel with the soap-operas! 

It seams that the band stakes on the heavier songs and Fernando Ribeiro obviously enjoyed the crowd before him, stretching the horns and screaming his lyrics. Black garments, under the red lights who washed the stage and the whole wall behind Miguel Gaspar turned into a screen for the concept frames, parts of videos added for the absolute visual complement to the songs of Moonspell.

The heavy melodies filled Blue Box while down there, barely believing, we watched and listened to Moonspell live. Not believing to the moment when the wolves’ shade covered the hall and the band leapt into the werewolf masquerade of Wolfshade.

More than ten years divide us from the cult album with the wolves and still the songs off it bear such a strong charm, such an aura and helplessly we gave ourselves to the emotion. Over 600 people screamed the lyrics, the moshpit opened its whirlwind in front of the stage and you andd me remembered the years when we were listnening to the Moonspell albums hypnotized and that night we absorbed them the same way years later.В 

“Vampiria”, drowned in a gothic beauty and inspired not only songs but genre in the music and in the dress-code of thousands of metal-heads, sunk us “in a unique Transylvanian dream”. Growl by Fernando and we were already listening to the parable of Mephisto – sung, played and bewitching. And as a dessert there was the hymn we have all waited for – both for the night and for the last fifteen years. “Alma Mater”. The hairs flew everywhere, bodies clashed one into another and we screamed, screamed from the top of our lungs, outshouting the loudspeakers and our own throats.
В 
Not six but six hundred wolves cried under the moon mountain. And six hundred pairs of hands were clapping, six hundred people were screaming the name of the band to call them back on stage for three songs more.

While we were still chanting, the five returned. Fernando, holding a video camera announced that scenes from this very concert would become part of an upcoming DVD and they nailed “Blood Tells”. In general, perfect balance between old and new songs, between classic hymns and great tunes, presenting the contemporary appearance of Moonspell. And there followed the well-known end - “We still celebrate under a full moon madness”…Slowly and heavy, like an omen it crawled upon us and washed in red lights we listened to the epic finale, flowing in the beautiful solo of Ricardo Amorim that closes both the concert and the album “Irreligious”. We don’t want it to end, we remain standing and shouting, “We still celebrate under a full moon madness”…