WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS

Lost opportunity

After the touring cloud, I still haven’t been properly lulled to accept my real life and existence as they are, in real time. The main reason for that is a consciential mood and notions that doesn’t leave me alone; a thought I’m unable to shake. That something, somewhere, somehow went wrong for my band MOONSPELL and it’s not without pain that I’m trying to function within this rumination, bereft of being ungrateful about my achievements as a musician, or cold about my shortcomings as one.

It all came to me when I was entertaining the thought of going through the maze of warning and signs, and security check-ins to simply say hi to my friends in the band Kreator. Actually, I didn’t dare to go that way (yellow sign, Kreator everything, arrow pointing, security at the door, for sure a lot to explain to that gatekeeper), so I gave up and went about my own life and show.

I was lucky enough to hug Mille (I call him Petrozza, he calls me Ribeiro and we stay in touch all the time) and Fred (bass player) at dinner time and it was joyful but also a hard reminder of how most of my friends’ bands grew to the status they absolutely deserve, while my own band has a stage-time Fred couldn’t conceive as possible for us.. (3PM). Our dressing room: was on general population, away from the stars we once helped to shine.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I know.

But for me, what feels right is to know and to embrace your rightful place and status on 2025 metal scene. Even essential to keep rowing this boat but it’s exactly at this crossroad where it all starts getting extremely confusing….

As far as I’m concerned, the festival season is like weddings and funerals.

You briefly meet, sometimes it’s even only a mere “hello, goodbye!”, you share your joys or your sorrows as fast as you can, everybody’s hurting and rushing. When it’s done, at least in our case, it’s back to airport hell, to deal with our fellow travellers and the rabid ground crews, who treat musicians like the shit we maybe are. World War III already started in airports a few years ago and I’m surprised nobody has yet died of so much anger, frustration and mistreatment.

It was our first Wolfheart and other stories summer “exclusive” shows, a concept I came up with to keep Moonspell on the festival radar in 2025. If it wasn’t for that, I guess, that in spite of all our proverbial sweat, we wouldn’t have played any festivals this year. The hurting truth.

Sweden Rock is an amazing festival, maybe the most luxurious of all the many festivals I ever played. Great stages, amazing crews and equipment, full catering rider (even a Highland Park 12 years old single malt scotch whisky- Viking Honor, was on our table), showers, dressing rooms, nice hostesses, à la carte restaurant and more than decent red wine. A Swedish paradise, with everything on its right place.

But the Wolfheart modest festival tour didn’t start on the right foot or paw, if you prefer.

Pics by Call of the Bird

Please don’t get fooled by the nice pics.

We played at one of the secondary stages, near the main entrance, where people commuted between stages. Before going on stage a meagre crowd was waiting, in the middle of the show it got larger, but, besides some die-hard fans in front row, living the wolf dream, and some friendly bystanders , we couldn’t gather the magic Wolfheart does contain. And we, we are to blame.

Maybe we didn’t plan it thoroughly ourselves, lost in between the new Moonspell album vibes, or maybe we didn’t take it seriously enough, or simply slipped at the opportunity. Well, it could have been many things and I’m sure, it’s our way of coping, that next stop in Czech Republic things will be much sweeter and fluid, but this show in Sweden Rock is one that we want very quickly move on from.

My feeling is that maybe Wolfheart (and maybe even Moonspell itself) is too far in the past to conquer over a new generation with different musical and aesthetic patterns and demands. The generation of Gojira, Jinjer, Bleed from Within, Orbit Culture, Lord of the Lost; the legions of Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Epica, Battle Beast, Alestorm; or maybe it was really us that were unable to bridge the generation gap (between the nineties and today as our generational comrades did, namely Cradle of Filth, Dark Tranquillity (played main stage earlier to a huge crowd and spectacular results), for example. Or are we doomed to bounce in and out of darkness like the Tiamat and Samael we worshipped back then and were simply the best bands around at the time? Food for fucking thought.

Even though while no excuses, and no apologies and the feeling of “it wasn’t that bad” sets in the dusk of our olden anxiety, I must probably state that what I also felt that Wolfheart isn’t that big, overwhelming , all-encompassing European Metal album that people praise as such. The telling on our face that it’s the best album we ever did, it’s hard to swallow after Sweden Rock. Or true, maybe, and just maybe, it’s not a classic here in Sweden, where I’ll never know if we did well or not, as we can’t possible headline there, or even take as for granted the beautiful reactions we had while supporting DT.

Back home, I had the chance of reading a harsh but honest review by a Swedish online magazine that made me think about all this spinning around around the bar, of dirt, with Moonspell for 33 years, when crystallised in just those 60 minutes in a cloudy Swedish afternoon. Read here:

Review Rocknyyt

What I also can conclude is that most of that either swollen or thinning crowd in Solvenborg, knew about two songs of Wolfheart: Vampiria and Alma Mater. The rest of the supposed jewels just marched on, unsung by all, devoid of the connect and naked of the mysticism Wolfheart sets upon as an album. We still have a couple of shows under this concept and will make them count as much as we possibly can. I made of this a personal motivation and task.

But it’s maybe time to bury the past more than what we have done lately as becoming a legacy band doesn’t make it for us, when compared to the risk of making new music, whatever it might hurt.

I’m the one of who makes all setlist for the Moonspell gigs.

So far, all the guys are okay with it. Sometimes, I butt heads with Pedro but it’s all good, as ideas are the enemy of logistics and our departments must fight sometimes. I never focus on what people what to hear or in the evergreens. My main thing is the energy of the show. I also push hard my band to know a lot of our repertoire, so that, sometimes, we might even throw in the odd Butterfly Effect card. For the upcoming Halloween show in Lisbon , I’m thinking in big surprises to contrast with the Wolfheart ceremonial set. Like an act in two parts. But does someone cares? I do. Yet, sometimes, it feels hard to be alone.

A lot of the good response and reviews we got from DT last support tour, was exactly because of that energy. We played just one song from Wolfheart (Alma Mater), and very few times (as I’m having a second love affair with vampires) we played Vampiria too. If I recall well besides three Irreligious songs (Opium, Awake, Fullmoon), most of our set was comprised by our middle career albums. They rock differently and offer other heights, because the band chemistry and formation changed drastically since our early days. Maybe that’s why they fall so well in place, that we can truly stay behind them, when the case is Antidote or even Extinct. Hermitage, for many reasons, lost its place on our setlist, which might be an even a shame but also a decision when the main looked after factor is energy;. All in all it’s, perhaps, time to cut the umbilical wolf cord and look inside our music for more alternative energy, drive and confidence.

Having said that, I do hope to see you at a Wolfheart show.

Put on your best fur and help us to invoke that pagan magic of the album.

We felt so good playing it on our rehearsal space and for sure we will have great moments this Summer in your company, if we can properly translate to the stage.

You know me, I don’t taking anything for granted. My cerebral force is full on how to lead Moonspell and save us from all this undesired obscurity. I know it won’t be easy, I know that we lost many trains, it doesn’t matter know why or how, or if we stayed truthful to our ideas and music, and while other bands conformed to success and bourgeoisie, and opportunities we lost, sometimes without knowing about them.

Nothing matters. Everything counts.

And now I know how important is to make new music.

It’s like a new stream we discover .

I’m thirsty for fresh water, peace of mind, and gothic metal music from the heart.

Hope you are too.

Note:

I’ll try to spend more time and dedication to my Substack.

Especially for those who support me with a paid membership, thanks for your patience. For my free readers, please do consider an upgrade.

I’ll be reviewing some of my readings, listens and whiskies, soon.

I’ve been a bit melancholic, that’s true, so don’t mind the dark tones. Light shall come. Or not. Hahahaha.

Next up I’ll be doing some writing on my return to homeland Portugal and how I’be been feeling uprooted and without rule in the very country I should love until I die.