Wolfheart

Moonspell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Century Media
• ASIN: B000005HMA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,469 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2007 digitally remastered and expanded two CD digipak edition of the Portuguese Metal band's 1995 debut album featuring a bonus CD containing ten previously unreleased live tracks. This album includes everything needed to become a classic: 'Wolfshade' opens the album with a blast of sheer ferocity, followed by the dark and majestic classics 'Love Crimes', 'Of Dream And Drama' and 'Vampiria', finding its climax in 'Alma Mater' (still considered one of the greatest Black/Gothic Metal songs of all time) before it ends with the surprisingly folkloristic tune 'Ataegina'. Century Media. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of talent and a lot of emotion..., March 5, 2004

By 

Chad Brendan Fogelberg (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wolfheart (Audio CD)

This is a superb release that mixes dark Gothic Metal with a bit of death metal. It is better than most CDs in this genre. This is the debut album from this Portugese band. It is for people who like Paradise Lost, Tristania or any heavy Gothic Metal band. It truly has a spine-chilling amount of emotion and rage. Moonspell have done better in their first album than many bands could ever hope to do in their career. This is now one of my favorite CDs. You will not be disappointed by this album. If there was ever any question that Gothic Metal is turning "weak," one only needs to look to this stalwart. Granted, this is the best of their CDs, but their new CDs aren't mediocre by any measure either.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional alchemy, January 17, 2000

By 

James F. Colobus (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolfheart (Audio CD)

An incredibly intense listening experience! I love the production on this album - raw, as though the great Moonspell is performing in your living room. All 8 songs are excellent. The album builds up to a powerful crescendo with the concluding tracks, An Erotic Alchemy and Alma Mater. Fans of Type O Negative and Paradise Lost will not be disappointed by Moonspell. Like those bands, each of Moonspell's albums has been different - I believe Wolfheart represents the most intense listening experience in the Moonspell oeuvre.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive Goth album, May 5, 2006

By 

bottleHeD - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolfheart (Audio CD)

Moonspell's early releases, the demo "Anno Satana", and the mini-album "Under The Moonspell" were essentially black metal releases that had gone down very well with fans of the genre.

However, for this debut album, "WolfHeart", Moonspell adopted a more distinct and innovative Gothic style. It remains till date, the best Moonspell album, with its success stemming largely from the amazing vocals of Langsuyar, i.e. Fernando Ribiero and the highly original folk-inspired music.

Mostly guitar-based, the music has excellent keyboards accompanying it, which make for some real eerie atmospheric sounds. Birgit Zacher provides the female vocals on tracks like "Love Crimes". This offers a total contrast to Fernando's powerful vocals. All the songs have a certain exotic appeal to them, which makes you want to play the album over and again. The lyrics deal with legends and lore of the night, werewolves, witches, love and lust, and the eternally enchanted.

The album opens with "WolfShade (A Werewolf Masquerade)", and it immediately sets the tone for the rest of the album to follow. The intro manages to lull you before the vocals rip into the song. Though the guitar tone sounds very raw, the keyboards are very well rendered, and the latter half of the song has some excellent musical composition, with Fernando's vocals alternating between some clean singing and growling.

The two songs that follow, "Love Crimes" and "Of Dreams And Drama" work as one. Following the same theme, the songs are some of the most underrated of all of MoonSpell's works. Blending some hypnotizing melodic rhythms with heavier riffs and some mesmerizing displays of well placed keyboard interludes, they showcase the amazing song-writing skills of Fernando Ribiero, which focus on not a particular instrument, but rather on the entire feel and structure of the song. Some more of this is present in the instrumental that follows it, "Lua D'Inverno". It features the interesting combination of the flute and the guitar, and even though it is pretty short, it works really well as an interlude.

"Trebraruna", a song about the goddess of Love and War, is sung in Portuguese. In the words of Fernando, "The evident contrast between war and love and the feminity involved in the cult of this deity inspired us on the building of a somewhat praise song". The goddess would have been flattered by the intention, but not too pleased with the outcome. The song ends up sounding too whimsical and listless. Possibly the only song the album could have done without.

Another concert favourite is "Vampira". It starts off sounding a bit corny, with Fernando droning on about his "only love and true destiny", but it soon changes gears with some real bone-crunching riffs and deep, powerful vocals. The venomous scream at the end is bound to send a real chill up anyone's spine. The album is finally wrapped up with "An Erotic Alchemy", and the amazing "Alma Mater", one of the biggest fan-favourites.

This was the album that introduced me to Goth genre, and pretty much got me hooked. It is a pity that Moonspell never came up with anything later to match the intensity of this one, but then again, I guess that is what makes Wolfheart stand out.

A definite must-buy.