We love a bit of melodic death metal here at Moshville Towers, so here’s a bunch of guys from Portugal who create melodeath for the masses…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are Moonshade, a metal band from the city of Porto, in northern Portugal.
How did you meet?
Pedro and Cristiano, the founding members of the band, met when they formed Deep Cut, their first musical project together. Afterwards, when Deep Cut was over, they agreed to form a different project. Ricardo was the first and only official lead singer for Moonshade. Afterwards, a lot of people came and went, with Ricardo and Pedro being the only constant members. Nuno and Daniel, the other two current members, have been with us for close to 5 years now, and we met both of them through public auditions. The internet is an amazing tool when it comes to connecting musicians!
How long have you been playing as a band?
The band has been active since 2010, But the current line-up has been together since 2015 – at the time we had two other members, both of which have since left.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We know that metal band names usually have references to both violence and/or the lower intestines, but people like us, who grew up on extreme metal, are a bit desensitized to that sort of thing. Thus, we prefered something with a bit more class. That being said, Moonshade has a double meaning. During a solar eclipse the moon casts its shade over the entire world. Simultaneously, a “shade” is another word for wraith or ghost. So it can mean “solar eclipse” while evoking images of ghosts wandering in the moonlight.
What are your influences?
As a band, we tend to draw a big chunk of influence from the melodic death metal and doom metal genres – bands like Dark Tranquillity, Insomnium, Amorphis, Paradise Lost or Swallow the Sun are some of our biggest inspirations.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t influenced by a lot of other things as well, though: Music that reaches from post-punk and darkwave to hip hop, or from classic heavy metal to progressive rock, as well as literature, cinema and other fine arts.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
What makes us unique is our will to innovate and experiment while still keeping our personal gratification intact: we want to create sounds that don’t sound like anyone else but, most of all, we want to enjoy the sounds we create. And these two aspects are paramount.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We usually create whole stories and sagas to transmit an ideal or general thoughts about the human condition. Our latest release, Sun Dethroned, is all about the balance between good and evil, personified in the form of two mythical entities, Lenore and the God Of Nothingness.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are extremely energetic and feature a very strong visual component, one we wish to further expand upon in the coming years, to build upon the few dozens of shows we’ve already played.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
It involves a sound guy who didn’t know how to do sound, and that’s all we’re going to say about this particular situation.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
In terms of our guitarists, Pedro uses mainly ESP guitars with active pickups, while Daniel prefers Gibson/Epiphones with passive pickups. Both love SG-shaped guitars. In terms of amps, Pedro alternates between Line 6 and Peavey amps, while Daniel uses Blackstar amps.
Our bassist Nuno uses Ibanez 5-string basses with passive pickups. He also uses Line 6 bass amps.
As for our vocalist Ricardo, he can’t go without his custom SM-58 with wireless adapter and Led-infused mic-stand.
What are your plans for 2019?
We are a couple of months away from embarking on the Dethroning Stars Tour, our first international adventure, and we are working towards making it a huge success and a landmark step for the band. We will be accompanied by our good friends Apotheus, who will be promoting their new album as well.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
As we are proud supporters of our own national scene, it would amazing to be part of a triple threat Portuguese bill playing an international show, featuring our friends Gaerea, Destroyers of All, Dark Oath and/or the aforementioned Apotheus (Pick two!).
If we’re talking exclusively of international bands, Insomnium and Aephanemer would be great choices!
