Heading Into Another Vanishing Act with Moonspell (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Zagreb / Vintage Industrial Bar / Croatia
Concert date: October 4, 2016
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: 150.00 HRK (advance) / 170.00 HRK (day of show)

Moonspell, the legendary dark metallers from Lisbon, Portugal, are now on the second leg of their new European tour promoting their latest album »Extinct« (2015). Their visit to Graz, Austria at the end of last October is still ringing in our ears, but the dedicated Portuguese lads started touring the new album much earlier than that. Back in July of last year we were already getting some serious neck-vertebrae action, when they took the headliner spot on the second stage of last year’s Metaldays festival in Tolmin. This year, too, Moonspell are keeping their live activity high. And, as a result, their attractiveness too, of course. The RockLine crew caught them again this year at one of Europe’s most notorious festivals, Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic.

This second leg of the European tour also includes a mini Balkan sub-tour, with Moonspell moving from western Slovenia, where they played in Nova Gorica, south to Zagreb, Croatia, and then on toward the heart of the Balkans, Belgrade. Given the years-long apathy of poor metal gig attendance from the target audience in Slovenia (20-30 year-olds), it makes no difference to the handful of older Slovenes who still bother to criss-cross Europe for several hundred kilometers in every direction where they go to see a show. Zagreb or Solkan’s Mostovna. The distance from Ljubljana, for example, is almost the same to either location. Still, Vintage Industrial Bar in Zagreb offers somewhat more decent restrooms, which even have hot water and soap, along with a more respectable beer selection, though you do need a PhD in parking. Even so, crossing the border is still a major pain, and of course there’s the need to exchange currency. So until further notice you’re simply condemned to weigh up the pros and cons forever.

Before Moonspell, who were announced for eleven o’clock, three acts hit the stage. Apart from Phantasmagoria, musically very interesting alternative rock veterans of the Croatian underground, there were actually two more (entirely dispensable) support acts: Swedish symphonic power metallers Eleine and Italian gothic metallers The Foreshadowing. Already before eight o’clock, the gothic darkers, or post-punkers, Phantasmagoria were rumbling through the venue, led fearlessly through decades of defiance by their charismatic vocalist Tomi Phantasma. The band came with a well-thought-out show, minor but catchy choreographic touches and a polished stage »out-fit«, wrapped in curtains of fog that boosted the theatrical drama of the gothic gloom. Tomi’s thunderous, manly mid-to-low (and lowest) register vocals, backed by the singer’s elaborate stage persona, naturally took the central position, while the rest of the quartet kept up a dark reserve and cold detachment, following the stylistic inspiration of the acts that popularized the post-punk dark movement, especially in the second half of the eighties (The SIsters of Mercy, The Mission). Phantom-like, piercing vocals contrasted with a female voice, the sharpness of the bass lines just short of breaking through the sound picture, fat guitar tone. Old school! Alongside the original material there was also an excellent cover of the EKV classic Ne. All in all, a very interesting set from a band that remains an absolute stylistic relic within the region in these new times.

The set of the first proper support act, the one accompanying Moonspell on their entire new tour, came across as rather boring. Eleine, a quintet that took its name straight from its singer, Eleine of course. The sound wasn’t tuned all that well. The contrast between bass and guitar in particular wasn’t clear enough, and the sound also failed to build any predatory bite. Eleine sounded hollow, underused, run-of-the-mill. Still, they delivered a polished, professional set. The guitarist took the lead in communicating with the crowd and tried every way he could to get them going, but they gave the band’s energy back with a few polite rounds of applause and nothing more. The central role was of course the singer Eleine, who unfortunately lacks the vocal charisma of singers like Floor Jansen, Tarja Turunen or Simone Simons, but made up for that deficit with the »out-fit« of a heavily tattooed belly dancer. At this show the band presented their debut album »Eleine«, released last year.

Not much more exciting were the Italian gothic metallers The Foreshadowing. Six guys piled onto the stage, no joke. So the small club stage was packed to the brim and the lads couldn’t move left or right. Naturally they came across as static, which kind of fits the darkness of gothic metal anyway. Still. Not even the vocalist Marco mentioning that his grandmother is from Croatia got the thinned-out crowd watching the show all that excited. The rest of the audience was, meanwhile, still paying more attention to the lively chatter in the hall’s foyer than to what was happening on stage. At least the sound was incomparably better than during Eleine. Accompanied by the monotonous blue-red stage lighting, no fog. Clumsy English, the proverbial flaw of Italian bands when they tackle the language, but still. The melodies and riffs did give the impression of a talented band fighting to develop its own musical identity. The band has been on the scene for twelve years, and at this show they presented their freshly released fourth studio album »Seven Heads Ten Thorns«. No particular impression, then.

But of course the long wait for some real concert substance paid off the moment our good old friends, the gothic extreme metal foxes Moonspell stepped onto the stage at eleven o’clock sharp in the evening and began howling passionately at the moon. Apart from the opening stretch, the band quickly built an exceptional wall of sound that gripped in full force right up to the last note fired off and the last hit on the drum head of this new and, immodestly speaking, excellent Moonspell show. Moonspell are incredibly convincing stage performers. They have enormous live mileage behind them, regular gigging, regularly gathering experience, both in front of many thousands of people and in the current situation, touring the club venues of Europe. The venue at Vintage Industrial Bar finally filled up with a good three hundred attendees, who gave the band solid support with singing the verses, while the dark phantom Fernando Ribeiro spellbound those present so fast that they were happily eating out of both his hands throughout the show.

Moonspell are a superbly well-oiled band. You can tell they know countless club venues inside out and handle all kinds of situations damn well when it comes to setting up both the stage and the sound. This time the backdrop was a giant curtain with the motif of the latest album, which toned down the gaudiness of the stage shows from the earlier part of this tour, when Moonspel used digital monitors on stage. So Moonspell, after their show at the end of April 2009, when they opened for Cradle Of Filth (and were already stealing the concert evenings from them back then), played Zagreb for only the second time in their career. The setlist saw a few adaptations compared to the previous tour. The expected Scorpion Flower got the axe, replaced by the phenomenal Luna from the album »Memorial«. The band is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album »Irreligious« this year, so Opium and Awake rang out early on, joined a little later by Ruin & Misery, and right at the end of the show by the expected obsession courtesy of the excellent Fool Moon Madness. Moosnpell played the latter at the very tail end of the obligatory encore. As expected, the album »Extinct« was strongly represented, even though the band cut the infectious new track Domina from the setlist (they played it on last year’s tour). So a touch shorter setlist compared to last year’s show in Graz.

Otherwise, yet another outstanding stage execution. The band was in superb spirits, and the crowd came fully alive especially in the second half of the show, particularly during the back-to-back »Wolfheart trio« (Vampiria, Ataegina and the absolutely mandatory Alma Mater), which in turn fired up the Portuguese, who gave an even greater sense of commitment and fierce devotion to the music their hearts beat for and that they breathe. It’s a pleasure to watch a band that draws you in so hypnotically with its demonic charm, trading with incredible skill between gothic, if not downright dark rock elements, the well-worn drives of the branches of extreme metal, and highly infectious melodic bombast, packed in a deep sack of healthy emotions, especially passion on the one hand, and great performing sensitivity on the other, which we could enjoy above all in the calmer passages of the songs. The only minor slip came in the first pre-chorus of the new The Future is Dark in the obligatory encore, where Fernando’s vocals were about half a tone too low, but that’s a trifle, since it’s clear there’s no hero in this galaxy who could play a show without an unintentional flub. To err is human.

In short. Moonspell remain the very definition of a huge live attraction. If it’s not outright spectacle, it’s at the very least a convincing picture of a predatory show and the creation of a unique world of gothic darkness, which carries you far, far beyond reality and straight into the intoxicating expanse of the boundless abysses of gothic blackness, with a one-of-a-kind musical character. The great masters of the musical craft from Portugal have cast their full-blooded spell on us once again.

photos: Boštjan Kepic

Setlist

MOONSPELL:
1. La Baphomette (Intro)
2. Breathe (Until We Are No More)
3. Extinct
4. Night Eternal
5. Opium
6. Awake!
7. The Last of Us
8. Medusalem
9. Ruin & Misery
10. Luna
11. Malignia
12. Vampiria
13. Ataegina
14. Alma Mater
—encore—
15. Everything Invaded
16. The Future Is Dark
17. Full Moon Madness