GIG REVIEW: Cradle Of Filth & Moonspell Live at MON, Madrid

Last Friday night at Madrid’s MON concert venue, while the waiting time was predictable to see two of the biggest death metal bands still running for more than 25 years now,  the organizers already announced that we would be packed like sardines in tins.

I was exchanging with die-hard fans about both last opus both from Moonspell and Cradle of Filth when we realized that it was in 2015, last time both bands came to Madrid. Spanish fans were really dying to see both touring together live!

Set up is done and the almost celtic cross mic stand topper of Moonspell’s leader Fernando Ribeiro was well set up in the middle of the stage waiting for its master. Fernando came on stage to introduce the crowd to their album ‘1755′, a record about the earthquake which happened the same year in Lisboa, revealing a radical change from then on. How radical was the change – for Moonspell – indeed when Fernando started to sing in Portuguese. This was the first time since their start in 1992 that they were singing in their native language. Together with their leader, both musicians from Moonspell had a stunning and undeniable presence on stage, being technically amazing.

Even though, Fernando thought and mentioned that they were abandoned by their Spanish audience, he was happy mentioning he had “huevos rotos” before starting and was happy of it. Beyond his expectations, Madrid crowd contradicted him as they never stopped singing along their tunes during the whole act.

It was the first time I saw Moonspell live and I really got impressed by the communion appetite Fernando Ribeiro and his pairs shown to their audience.

They really formed a great crew until the finale when Fernando took some drumsticks to play cymbals together with their drummer, Miguel Gaspar, the other permanent member of the band while their keyboard player, Pedro Paixão,  as well as their lead guitar player, Ricardo Amorim, were doing the folklore touch with their chorus.

With only an hour long show, Moonspell created a very intimate moment, and even more playing Lanterna Dos Afogados, if I’m not wrong, when keyboard and nostalgic guitars resonated like the calm before the storm.

After a long and boring stage set up, the storm finally came with the presentation of Cradle of Filth last opus, ‘Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay’.

Dani Filth appeared on stage ultra horror-gothic made-up and despite his 1,65m, after almost 30 years, he still had the power to  subjugate the masses thanks to his screaming vocal techniques. Like Moonspell’s, Cradle of Filth’s musicians were as well decisively and graciously acting. I was really blown away by the headbanging of both bass player, Daniel Firth, and lead guitar Richard Shaw. Moreover, Richard was funnily hurting himself… hitting himself in the head.

Besides their performance, the undeniable talent of live keys and singer Lyndsay Schoolcraft singing with Dani since 2013, was pure chemistry and she was highly praised by the audience.In my opinion, it was just a shame that she was not front and centre to increase her stage presence.

The crowd was almost burning out when Cradle of Filth played their staple “Nymphetamine”, a soundtrack from Resident Evil 2, the same which categorized CoF into some more mainstream band at that time.

Nonetheless, while introducing their new record, they proved their ability to renew far from mainstream and last friday night in Madrid, they did a stunning performance.

At a certain point, I got distracted from Cradle of Filth show by the awkward behaviour of drunk or too talkative people which was painful even for die-hard fans close by, but after an hour and a half, the show was over. Some have been left a bit disappointed by the length of the show and went out before the band’s farewell. Some others got the point, waiting for their idols to come outside!

After their success in Barcelona, we could say that Madrid metalheads had attended numerous and did not loose their opportunity to hit two targets with one bullet seeing at Moonspell & Cradle of Filth, two of the most important metal extreme bands.