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Rating: The so-called Gothic Metal is undoubtedly one of the most successful genres in recent years within the Metal scene. However, one thing must be clarified: by Gothic Metal, I certainly don't mean those works that are churned out every year on the market with questionable results, merely rehashing the same banal formula (female vocals to the point of nausea, melancholic yet not excessively so melodies, simplistic choruses, and so on). Gothic Metal is the fusion of extreme Metal (Doom or Black) with dark, folk, or indeed gothic elements and is a genre that reached its peak potential during the five-year period of 95-00.
"Wolfheart" by Moonspell is indeed one of the top 4-5 albums that this genre has ever produced. Combining the charm of Portuguese folk music with Black Metal and dark elements, Fernando Ribeiro and his band created in the blessed year of 1995 this milestone; an album that is truly magical and intense. The dark and melancholic atmospheres are present right from the beginning with "Wolfshade", which features, besides the already mentioned Black-styled riffs, some dreamy acoustic passages that really make you imagine being catapulted into a Portuguese woodland amidst wild nature.
The band can also hit hard when needed, and Ribeiro excellently alternates between growl and scream with his now-famous warm, baritone clean vocals: "Love Crimes" demonstrates this, a song often unjustly overlooked, where rapid and aggressive verses frequently transition to more gothic passages accompanied by female vocal choruses, concluding with a memorable keyboard work that crafts sweet and moving melodies. Our Portuguese musicians also showcase more typical Metal influences with "Of Dream And Drama (Midnight Ride)", which apart from the omnipresent keyboards, is an exhilarating and classic Metal ride.
After the interlude "Lua D'Inverno", which perfectly breaks the tension, it's time for "Trebaruna". This track is nothing more than a ballad of Portuguese Folk music which Moonspell have translated into a Gothic Metal version. The rhythm is, of course, tribal and hypnotic, Ribeiro captivates and enchants with his warm and emotional voice, and it will be difficult to resist dancing wildly while listening to this track.
The album enters its final and darkest part with the subsequent "Vampiria" and "An Erotic Alchemy". The first track is a gothic masterpiece, obsessive and unsettling in the first minutes and surprisingly aggressive in the middle section, concluding with one of the most majestic and redundant parts of the album. The second track, on the other hand, is supported by a series of well-designed keyboard melodies which, however, do not overshadow the guitar work, embodying the perfect and morbid alchemy mentioned in the title (and in my opinion, this track alone "created" hundreds of albums that have been released in the last 5 years...).
The album closes with the anthem, THE quintessential Moonspell song: the incredible "Alma Mater", perhaps their masterpiece. The wonderful main riff is the meeting point between the aggression of Metal and Portuguese folk, and the use of scream/growl here reaches stratospheric levels of perfection: wild, aggressive, rending.
The tension throughout the entire track is maintained at very high levels both in the already mentioned aggressive parts and in the cleaner, more tribal passages. The result is an epic, intense song that, together with the previous ones, delivers this "Wolfheart" to history in all its majesty, in all its pantheism, in all its folklore.
An album to own, which also, in the end, has a didactic value: it demonstrates how hundreds of thousands of copies still don't even come close to the original.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade) (07:43)
She brought the Night hidden in her sad Wolf eyes
The perfume of a twilight, her strongest scent
Half Wolf, Half female - what a strange wedding
Mother Nature has offered us to see...
Her mask lays lost in a fatal dawn
Closed were the eyes of the Sun. He sleeps.
And in the name of Her Father.
She will kill. My child kills.
You nightly birth. A requiem God can't forget.
For your life is just a celebration of his death
Without his thorns in her heart. She wears a shadow as face.
A werewolf masquerade. In her eyes the wolfshade.
She brought the Night and by the night was brought
We are but children of the powers she had set free
Strange are the ways of the wolfhearted...
03 ...of Dream and Drama (Midnight Ride) (03:58)
You've no mother to feed you
or to lick your so deep wounds
nor Earth where to lay your timid crown
You've suffered by your father
and even the Moon lies to you
When she shines...
The seduction of an altar
Is a weakness in her movements of Death
It is a mere vanity of Woman
to delay her midnight ride
Suicide... Midnight ride...
Beautiful dagger you may now leave your case
Wild red tears at the lady's hand
Kissed were her breasts with your sharpened face
Given is now what Love had taken
death and Love, they together danced
Yes, the flames did smile to her
Invited her to their fiery peace
To a funebre dance around a bonfire
Where all Women are naked and alone
Immolating their pride
May they forever ride. Far, in a midnight crime.
Midnight Ride, Suicide, Midnight Ride...
05 Trebaruna (03:29)
Trebraruna filha da Dor
Guerreira sagrada, Deusa do Amor
Trebraruna teu leito semente
Acolhe-nos agora num muy doce abraço
Trebraruna és Vida és Morte
da Lua és filha, dos Lobos consorte
Trebraruna pagão é teu ventre
Ansiado refúgio de quem ainda te sente
Viva!
Trebraruna és tu quem nos gera
Alimento teu seio d'Amor e de Guerra
Trebraruna a tua voz é
a melodia mais doce da nossa Terra
Trebraruna nós tuas crianças
Beijamos teus olhos cerrados com fervor
Trebraruna cantamos para ti
Somos teu eterno, fiel trovador
06 Vampiria (05:35)
Vampiria, you are my destiny
My only Love and true destiny
Vampiria...
You're a beast, evil one
Above your head lays a Star
In your heart is buried the jewel
of a Serpent who wished to die
your red long tongue has her poison
And you will spread it as you breed
in the unique transylvania dream
Conceiving the creed of all creeds
Vampiria, fly Vampiria
In your eye burn, defying
All those who in silence sleep
In a city once named Desire
Dreaming with the entombed dear
The lady has fallen in a blossom
Spread far away by undesirable winds
To females conspiring in gloom
Hiding your pearls from the pigs
So open your arms!
They were shaped as wings
A serenade of revenge draw on your lips
The sombre hill you're staying in
Is now defined
And your Star had start to shine
Depart now on your bright wings
The world envy
The skies have always seduced you
Precious Queen
and you know your time has come
To fly away with Me, so far...
07 An Erotic Alchemy (08:05)
Queen of all my sleepless nights
For whose beauty I, Faun
have played my pipes, with heart
Queen in white silk, skin like milk
Horns of Faun, lips of dawn
You are now honoured you with my presence
As I'm honoured by your sight
I crown your perfection
The predator in your breast, I devour
"Tempted is now my light body"
From where it burns spirals of exotic scents
Rose, sandal, jasmine, all kinds of incense
Aged fragrances only dreamed of once
Dragons do dream far beyond the sense
We make love in the dusty throne
of a Modern Sodoma
"Come to Me, step further into my nakedness
Caress me in your breasts of Fire"
"Breed my flame, have no fear or weakness
I welcome you in my hole of desire"
"Have me now, Prince, have me here"
Your beg still whispers in my ear
Daylight has broken into a strange nostalgia
Night tired candles seem like two lovers
Melt in a embrace of conspiracy
Between us there is this strange chemistry
but would you die for me?
would you die for what I've longed to be?
"Imperious, choleric, irascible,
extreme in everything,
with a dissolute imagination of the like
which has never been seen,
atheistic to the point of fanaticism,
there you have me in a nutshell
and kill me again or take me as I am,
for I shall not change."
(De Sade)
"Breed of a nameless force, origin of our Sin
We are as large as Gods, we are their tragedy
We are the four arms of the solar Cross
Lightning in incredulous faces the flames of Uthopy"
Would you die for this
08 Alma Mater (05:37)
Mother Tongue speaks to Me
In the strongest way I've ever seen
I know that she sees in Me
Her proudest child, her purest breed
She speaks to Me in colours
That I can't really understand
I only know that they are ours
And to those I'll proudly bend
For I am your only child
And you my dearest mystery
From an ancient throne I defy the world
To kneel before the Power within.
For I am your only child
And you my dearest mystery
World can't you see it?
Am I alone in my belief?
Virando costas ao Mundo
Orgulhosamente sós
Glória Antiga, volta a nós!
ALMA MATER!
Breaking waves announce my Bride
It is the only way the Sea could sing
Legends of Lusitanian pride
He sings the words I cannot spring
At the Moon Mountain six wolves cry
Your lost glory we'll regain or die
For I am her only child
And she is my dearest mystery
Pagan Gods in conspiracy
For the sword of Tyranny
Mother Tongue has spoke to thee
In the strongest way they've ever seen
World can't you see ?
I am not alone in my belief.
Virando costas ao Mundo
Orgulhosamente sós
Glória Antiga, volta a nós!
ALMA MATER!
Mother Tongue has spoke to Me
In the strongest way I've ever seen
I know that she sees in Me
Her proudest child, her purest breed
She speaks to Me in colours
I can't really understand
I only know that they are ours
and to those I'll proudly bend
For I am her only child
And she is my dearest mystery
From an ancient throne I defy the world
To kneel before the powers within.
For I am her only child
And she is my dearest tragedy
World can't you see it?
I am not alone in my belief.
Virando costas ao Mundo
Orgulhosamente sós
Glória Antiga, volta a nós!
ALMA MATER
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