Moonspell

‘Under Satanae’ is the eighth studio album from Moonspell, a dark metal band from Portugal. The band started out life under the name of Morbid God in 1989; in 1992 the name was changed to Moonspell however and in 1995 the band released its first album under the title of ‘Wolfheart’. ‘Under Satanae’ sees the band revisit early material, rerecord old tracks from the 1993 Demo ‘Anno Satanae’, tracks from first EP ‘Under the Moonspell’ which was released in 1994, and the final track on this album is actually a rerecording of ‘Serpent Angel’ which takes the band back to its days under the Morbid God moniker; it was the first track that the band ever recorded and is now over 15 years old.

For die-hard Moonspell fans this is an absolutely vital album to add to the collection, the band here records rarities from releases of old and although its not the best album in the world it still provides for an entertaining 50 minutes of music. There are ten tracks here, with every one of these the band shows off its fine talent for recording fine dark metal and although the final track on the release is now over 15 years old it certainly doesn’t sound it. ‘Serpent Angel’ still sounds as fresh as ever, the track is well constructed and comes complete with some frantic guitar work, furious drumbeats, and super vocal tone also. The vocals are dark and mysterious, powerfully put across and always there is a great deal of emotion in the vocal performance. The band means business here, the music is dark and the energy here runs incredibly deep.

The first six tracks of this album explore the dark metal finesse of the bands ‘Under the Moonspell’ EP, an absolute classic of a dark metal release and one that is held in incredibly high regard by many. Quite why the band saw it fit to rerecord the tracks I’m not too sure, the music is certainly interesting however and although rather unnecessary its quite nice to hear the bands take on the music 13 years after the EPs original release.

As the tracks here are taken from three different releases of the band the album therefore doesn’t run entirely smoothly, it works quite well though and although the music doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre of dark metal; the fact of the matter is that all of these tracks are over a decade old and since then there have obviously been a vast array of imitators and a great deal of progression also within the genre. Moonspell is an excellent band at what it does, the genre has very much moved on but the band is here proud to revisit its roots and inject new life into former classics and previous successes.

‘Under Satanae’ is an interesting album, if you’re not already a fan of dark metal then this will not be the one to change your mind about the genre but for fans of the sound it’s still an album that is really quite worthwhile adding to your collection. For all fans of Moonspell this album is most definitely worth investing in, the band revisits old material and here attempts to better what it already recorded and released over a decade ago. Are the rerecordings better than the originals? Probably not, it’s still interesting to hear them however and this album is therefore one that I would highly recommend to all fans of the genre of dark metal.

Label: SPV/Steamhammer
Release Date: October 15th 2007

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