Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band, originally from Amadora> and formed in 1989>. Although mainly related to Gothic metal, their musical style also fluctuates according to songs or albums between black metal, avant-garde metal and death metal. Due to his international success, Moonspell is considered the representative of the Portuguese metal scene.
Formed in 1989 under the name of Morbid God by Fernando Ribeiro (singer), Ares (bassist), and two other musicians, the group was initially in the black metal register. Their musical style will evolve as the demos and EPs come out. In 1992, the group is renamed under its current name. In 1993, the demo is published , Moonspell participates in the first part of the concert of Cradle of Filth in Lisbon, in 1994. Shortly after, the group records its first album, Under the Moonspell , then sign with Century Media Records and publish his second album Wolfheart .
The release of the album Irreligious marks one of the group's first successes: the title Opium is included in various compilations and his video is widely distributed. This title remains one of the most known of the group and it is also often played to close the concerts. During the period 1998-2000, Moonspell moved in a more experimental vein with Sin / Pecado> and especially The Butterfly Effect. With this album, the band seems to be moving towards avant-garde metal by its extremely experimental and daring nature. But this album is badly received by the critics. In parallel, they released in 1998 a black metal album under the name of Daemonarch (with a cover of Call From The Grave of Bathory) where Fernando is called Langsuyar and with a drum machine instead of the drummer.
In 2003, the band took the jazz title "I'll See You In My Dreams" for the trailer of a Portuguese horror short film by the same name, director Miguel Ángel Vivas. The same year, they released the album The Antidote , which was at the origin of the novel of the same name by the writer José Luís Peixoto .
