A little over 10 years had passed since MOONSPELL first performed in moscow at DK Gorbunova in winter 2002. Back then, the arrival of a band of that caliber was an extraordinary event. Soon the Portuguese visited our city again and played at the moscow Palace of Youth. Interestingly, that same year of 2003, MOONSPELL released Antidote, practically reinventing their style entirely — clean vocals once again took a back seat, the music became heavier, harsher, and more aggressive, and the electronic experiments were over. MOONSPELL came to russia to tour in support of that album only on the eve of the following record's release, Memorial, performing two songs from it. Finally, in 2008, the band visited the capital again, practically right after the release of Night Eternal. And now — an especially long hiatus, conditioned by the studio process. Nearly four years had passed since the previous album, though it was known that a double album would be coming in April, with the second part — according to the band themselves — promising to be in the spirit of Irreligious.
Taking their time adjusting lights and sound, MOONSPELL created a veritable human traffic jam on the staircase, and the downstairs bar turned into a peculiar cycle of alcohol in nature. Having ordered their tonic nectars, people very quickly headed to the back of the queue, since they still weren't letting anyone into the hall and the soul demanded the party continue. Those who arrived right around eight had it worse — they spent that hour in the freezing cold. Still, there was no excessive discontent. Especially since everyone was anticipating a wonderful concert: there weren't very many people, and these were, first and foremost, MOONSPELL regulars, quite well-versed in the band's output across different periods. Although, surprisingly, at this concert too I once again saw people who had begun listening to this band relatively recently — starting with the latest, most aggressive and extreme albums. A similar picture existed 6 years prior, when concertgoers had come primarily to hear songs from Antidote. In any case, this concert was no exception compared to the previous two: songs from Sin / Pecado and Butterfly Effect continue to go unperformed, and from Darkness and Hope only Nocturna is played. At the same time, I can confidently assert that this concert was, by its setlist, absolutely unique. It began unusually. In previous visits, MOONSPELL opened their programs with material from recent albums; this time, the concert opened with the very first song from their debut, Wolfheart. One can have varying attitudes toward that album, but it's hard to deny that in 1995 it was utterly unique, strikingly different from both the black and doom releases of that era. It's long been the case that talking about the existence of gothic or gothic doom metal is a known faux pas, yet MOONSPELL fundamentally differed from the bands later slapped with those labels. Should we acknowledge that Wolfheart was absolutely distinctive? Perhaps, yes. At that time, even combining growling with clean vocals was something strange (aside from several newly emerging bands with the "beauty and the beast" vocal pairing). Adding eastern motifs and atmospheric passages to an extreme genre — all of this was a search for something entirely new. Other bands were also searching for themselves; in that same period, the uniquely singular Wildhoney by TIAMAT came out, THERION recorded Lepaca Kliffoth, and the first OPETH releases appeared, among others. I mention these bands deliberately — all of them, in various genres, were creating within Sweden's borders. The same was happening with German, English, and Finnish acts. The uniqueness of MOONSPELL was and remains that they managed to break into the top echelon of metal music while releasing albums that didn't fit neatly into strict genre boundaries — all while hailing from Portugal, a country not strongly associated with heavy metal.
So, the werewolf masquerade opened this program, and immediately a transition to the second album — Irreligious, the one most beloved by the majority of the band's fans. The perennial pair of Opium and Awake sounded. Narcotic euphoria with a Portuguese-language finale flowed into a pretentious and depressive anthem. What came next? Next, the sole track of the evening from the penultimate album — Finisterra. In its time, it had been posted on the official website before the release and heralded the fact that the 2006 album would be even more extreme than its immediate predecessor, Antidote. An almost black-metal-like intro instantly jolted the audience out of their post-Awake trance. Then Night Eternal and... a track from the forthcoming album, Lickanthrope — honestly, live it seemed completely unremarkable. Well, let's wait for the studio version. Nocturna sounded entirely different — mystical and enigmatic. The 2000s segment concluded with the melodic and completely non-aggressive (unlike the Night Eternal album as a whole) Scorpion Flower, recorded with Anneke van Giersbergen. Then, once again and now irreversibly for the evening, MOONSPELL plunged the hall into the darkness and magic of their 1994-1996 works. The first most pleasant surprise was the wonderful Herr Spiegelmann — for about 10 years, this sad and haunting composition brimming with keyboards, inspired by Patrick Suskind's novel "Perfume," hadn't been performed by the band. Now it returned to the set. The entire remaining main-set portion was dedicated entirely to the band's debut full-length. The enchanting An Erotic Alchemy, also almost never performed — its inclusion alone made attending this concert entirely worthwhile. But an even greater surprise was the performance of two other Wolfheart songs. I recall, a few weeks before the concert, talking with a wonderful person whose favorite band is MOONSPELL, and we agreed that hearing Ataegina was only possible by traveling to see the band in Portugal. The fantastic happened. The never-anywhere-performed Portuguese-language tracks Trebaruna and Ataegina made it into the concert set. Alma Mater crowned the main program, predictably enough — MOONSPELL concerts have never been without it. There was, however, still an encore. Tenebrarum Oratorium (Andamento I) from the 1994 EP sounded, along with two golden moments from Irreligious. Mephisto, indisputably the band's most powerful stage song, always complemented by brilliant lighting, and closing the concert was, naturally, Full Moon Madness (since Alma Mater had been performed at the end of the main set).
Among additional pleasant features: a wonderful video backdrop, something that has become established tradition for many European bands. What else to say — ah yes, besides the traditional flowers, Fernando received a copy of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," a dragon statuette, and a Cheburashka. A week and a half earlier, another happy owner of this unique creature had been OPETH frontman Mikael Akerfeldt. Now we can calmly await the release. It's also known that MOONSPELL plan to perform with an orchestra at Wacken this summer, so there's hope for new video as well.
Setlist:
- Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)
- Opium
- Awake!
- Finisterra
- Night Eternal
- Lickanthrope
- Nocturna
- Scorpion Flower
- Herr Spiegelmann
- An Erotic Alchemy
- Trebaruna
- Ataegina
- Vampiria
- Alma Mater
Encore: 15. Tenebrarum Oratorium (Andamento I/Erudit Compendyum) 16. Mephisto 17. Full Moon Madness
We extend our gratitude to club P!PL and personally Nikolay Sviridenko for the provided accreditation