Moonspell

In Portuguese black metal, Decayed has made more of a sustained impact but MOONSPELL--from Amadora, in the Lisbon area--had a rather early impact on not just Portuguese black metal, but world black metal. A noteworthy difference in the trajecteories of these two bands was that after their early years of influential black metal, Moonspell changed direction completely and became a melodic gothic metal band. Decayed, however, has remained a black metal band.

Forming in 1989 under the name Morbid God, the members continued in the extreme metal tradition of using dark and demonic stage names. There was Langsuyar on vocals, Tetragrammaton on bass, Malah and Mantus on guitar, and Baalberith on drums. Their sound can best be described as a dark, atmospheric metal that is heavily steeped in old-school black metal. Aside from some rehearsals, the only actual release put out by Morbid God was a one-track promo in 1992, "Serpent Angel." This song also made its way onto some compilation albums.

Here is Morbid God's "Serpent Angel"

1992 was both the beginning and the end: it was the end of Morbid God, but it was the beginning of Moonspell. They quickly took the metal world by storm with 1993's Anno Satanae demo. This was a very atmospheric release, with melodic and gothic elements that would remain with the band throughout their career.

Here is the Anno Satanae demo in its entirety

In 1994, Moonspell put out their now-famous self-titled EP. It was a clear continuation of their earlier sound, but you can already hear them moving away from black metal. The songs were more riff-oriented than your standard black metal (especially considering that this was 1994), and there was a heavy emphasis on a keyboard-driven melodic atmosphere. You can definitely hear the seeds of their later gothic style on this seminal release, and they moved even more in that direction with 1995's Wolfheart.

"Tenebrarum Oratorium" comes from that 1994 self-titled EP

1995's Wolfheart gives us this track, "Wolfshade"

Wolfheart is rightly hailed as a masterpiece. It contains an excellent balance of the melodic and brutal, the gothic and the black, the romantic and the necro. The changes that came after this album are changes that have divided a lot of metal fans. Moonspell would choose to emphasize the gothic more and more, with often inconsistent results. Some of their post-Wolfheart albums alienated metalheads pretty strongly, and as such, I think that their early years are the ones worth focusing on most for the purposes of the history of black metal.

Select Discography

Anno Satanae (demo) (1993)

Under the Moonspell EP (1994)

Wolfheart (full-length) (1995)

Next time: NIFELHEIM

Decayed

Portugal, like many countries, had a small black metal scene in the 1980s. Black Cross--from the city of Barreiro--was one band that made waves with their Venom-like black metal in the mid 1980s, and black/doom band Bactherion (later Filii Nigrantium Infernalium) also helped forge a path.  But it was Lisbon's DECAYED that really put Portuguese black metal on the map.

Starting out as Decay in 1990, they drew upon such extreme 1980s bands as Venom, Sodom, Kreator, Possessed, and Slayer as intial inspiration for their style. With the intention of creating a lasting presence in the extreme metal underground (as opposed to a band that was around for only a short while), Decay immediately got to work recording material. The result was an unnamed 1990 promo tape.

This is Decay's 1990 promo tape in full

The initial sound was raw, vicious, fast. You can definitely hear the debt that is owed to bands like Venom and Possessed. Decay continued in this more thrash-like vein for a while, getting darker and more evil with time. By the time of late 1991's Dark Rehearsal and early 1992's Thus Revealed demos (by which point they had changed their name to Decayed), the sound had evolved to an eerie, death-metal influenced sound that had an occultic atmosphere to it. One can even hear the influence of old-school death metal (think early Death, for example).

This is the Thus Revealed demo in full

Shortly after this, Decayed participated in the legendary metal compilation The Birth of Tragedy (along with other Portuguese luminaries like Filli Nigrantium Infernalium and Moonspell), and then put out such seminal releases as The Seven Seals 7" and then the full-length album The Conjuration of the Southern Circle (both released in 1993). By this time, their sound had matured to a very definite black metal style. The influence of death and thrash metal were clearly present, but this bore little resemblance to the trebly, necro style of Norway, or the melodic riffing of the Swedish scene.

Off of their first full-length, this is "Immortal's Entreaty"

Since its inception in 1990, Decayed has never tried to follow any trends. They have always been about making their own unique mark on world black metal. With releases such as 1996's Resurrectionem Mortuorum and 1999's The Book of Darkness, they continue to push forward their old-school influenced black metal. They have never been afraid to incorporate keyboards (without sacrificing quality), nor have they been afraid to use differing tempos to convey an evil atmosphere.

From Resurrectionem Mortuorem, here is "Archdemon"

This is "The Beast Ascendeth" from 2003's The Beast Has Risen

Portugal's black metal scene has grown quite a bit since the late 1980s and early 1990s, but Decayed still remains at the head of the pack. Their innovation and ground-breaking work paved the way for such crucial modern-day acts as Corpus Christii, Sirius, Morte Incandescente, and Daemonarch.

Select Discography

Dark Rehearsal (demo) (1991)

Thus Revealed (demo) (1992)

The Seven Seals EP (1993)

The Conjuration of the Southern Circle (full-length) (1993)

Resurrectionem Mortuorum (full-length) (1996)

The Book of Darkness (full-length) (1999)

Nockthurnaal (full-length) (2001)

The Beast Has Risen (full-length) (2003)

Next time: BARATHRUM