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artist: Lord Belial
title: Enter the Moonlight Gate
year: 1997
genre: Black Metal
type: Album
label: No Fashion Records
language: English
rel. date: 1997-03-24
source: WEB/MP3
quality: CBR 320kbps / 44.1 kHz / Full Stereo
runtime: 00:49:50
size: 123.10MB
rip date: 2025-11-23
source url: https://www.deezer.com/album/180790242
tracklist:
1. Enter the Moonlight Gate 5:12
2. Unholy Spell of Lilith 6:42
3. Path With Endless Horizons 5:56
4. Lamia 4:54
5. Black Winter Blood-Bath 4:56
6. Forlorn in Silence 3:50
7. Belial-Northern Prince of Evil 3:19
8. Realm of a Thousand Burning Souls (Part I) 15:01
release notes:
Aside from the notorious Norwegian scene, the black metal scene in
Sweden was arguably the second largest exporter of black metal music in
the 90's. On one hand this scene brought us the likes of Marduk and Dark
Funeral, who carried the traditional black metal torch while placing
their own spin on the genre, but on the other hand, bands such as
Dissection and Dawn emerged from the scene, pioneering what is now known
as Melodic Black Metal. Nestled in between these two different styles of
music is Lord Belial, a band that has managed to gain a fairly large
amount of attention from black metal fans over the years. While the
band's debut, Kiss the Goat, was certainly a good album, the album's
follow up, Enter the Moonlight Gate, is generally considered by fans to
be Lord Belial's masterpiece.
One of the first things that the listener will notice listening to Enter
the Moonlight Gate is the unique production that the album has. While
the production has similarities to the likes of Sacramentum and
Dissection, there is a much larger emphasis on a wall of sound. This is
readily apparent in the opening track where the guitars emit a massive
amount of reverb that envelops the rest of the music, giving the album a
dreamlike atmosphere. After a barrage of tremolo picked guitar riffs and
blast beats, the opening track flies into an extremely atmospheric
guitar solo about a minute in that lets the listener know immediately
that this is no run-of-the-mill black metal album. As the song continues
on, female vocals enter, something that returns throughout the album, at
several points, adding heavily to the dark and sorrowful atmosphere that
the song has. Later on in the album, the listener will also notice that
Lord Belial utilizes a lot of acoustic guitar, cello, and flute at
various points in the album which can be heard on songs such as "Lamia"
and the excellent instrumental, "Forlorn in Silence" which also give
Enter the Moonlight Gate a unique sound that has allowed it to stand the
test of time.
As one could guess based on this description, the performances on Enter
the Moonlight Gate are excellent. The vocals on the album, handled by
Thomas Backelin, are fantastic and sound absolutely throat-tearing. Due
to their savage nature, the vocals contribute heavily to the dark
atmosphere overall. Aside from the vocals, Backelin also handles the
guitars on the album alongside Niclas Andersson. The riffs on the album
bounce between being melodic and standard black metal and, while none of
them are particularly complex, they are varied and memorable. The bass
work on the album is handled by Anders Backelin and is surprisingly
audible for a black metal album. The bass on the album plays an
important role in filling out the bottom end of the band's sound. The
drums on the album are handled by Micke Backelin and they are the sole
complaint I have about Enter the Moonlight Gate. The drumming on the
album is pretty unvaried and repetitive. The fast parts of the album are
backed by endless blast beats that sometimes go on for upwards of two
minutes without any fills which can be kind of annoying. Despite this,
the playing is still pretty tight overall which prevents it from being
too much of a distraction.
Despite all of these positives, there are people who write off this
album and band as B grade Dissection worship, but personally I do not
think that this is a fair assessment. Other than some superficial
similarities (like melodic riffs), I don't think that the bands are very
similar at all. Even if they are, there are far worse bands that you
could copy. In the end, Lord Belial has crafted an excellent black metal
album with Enter the Moonlight Gate that is considered a classic for a
reason. I would highly recommend Enter the Moonlight Gate to any black
metal fan who is looking for a unique album. Aside from this, the album
is also accessible to people who are new to the black metal genre since
the production isn't even remotely harsh or lo-fi and all of the
instruments can be clearly heard throughout the album's duration.
internal notes:
upgrade for the archives.
Lord_belial_-_enter_the_moonlight_gate-1997-ss (2000-03-19) is a 192kbps
rip.
"Realm of a Thousand Burning Souls (Part I)" ends at 11:58, which were
originally followed by several minutes of silence, then a hidden
instrumental track (2:57), but the silence has been stripped out in this
version.