Moonspell – ‘Hermitage’ CD

Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band with elements of black metal. The group, founded in 1989 originally as Morbid God, was renamed Moonspell in 1992. With the release of their first album ‘Wolfheart’ in 1995, the band quickly gained status and became one of the most recognizable metal bands from Portugal.

The band started out as folk-tinged black metal. In 1992, still under the name Morbid God, they released the promo track ‘Serpent Angel.’ In 1993, vocalist Fernando Ribeiro, drummer Mike Gaspar and bassist João Pedro released the demo ‘Anno Satanæ’ under the name Moonspell, which caught the attention of French label Adipocere Records.

It was for Adipocere Records that Moonspell released 1994 a mini-album titled ‘Under the Moonspell.’ The record was considered a landmark in Portuguese metal. It sold more than 5000 copies, becoming Adipocere’s best-selling record at the time. Shortly after the release, they played with Cradle of Filth in a concert in Lisbon.

‘Hermitage,’ the gothic metal pioneers’ 13th studio album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost, Primordial, Ghost, Sólstafir, etc.) at the Orgone Studios in the UK. Building upon the album’s dark, revolutionary and sensitive facets, it is an entertaining yet epic journey through the darkest days of human existence.

‘Hermitage’ is a revolutionary, wonderfully intuitive, and epic journey by one of the most distinctive dark metal bands of all time and a testament to what they have always loved the most: Honest, emotional metal that binds us even in the darkest times.