Moonspell is a Portuguese gothic metal band formed in 1989. The group released their first EP, Under the Moonspell, in 1994 and followed up with their debut album, Wolfheart, a year later. They quickly became the most recognizable metal band from Portugal and a key figure in gothic metal. Fernando Ribeiro is the co-founder, singer and songwriter of the band.

Moonspell achieved success in Portugal with their 1998 album Sin/Pecado. With Memorial (2006), the group also became the first Portuguese metal band to have a record certified Gold. They are also popular in Germany, where their albums consistently enter the Top 100 Chart.

Although they had been playing since 1989 under the name of "Morbid God", the band settled on the name Moonspell in 1992, shortly after they released the promo track "Serpent Angel". At the time of the name change, the band's line-up was Fernando Ribeiro (Langsuyar) on vocals, João Pedro "Ares" Escoval (Tetragrammaton) on bass, Duarte Picoto (Mantus) and Luís Lamelas (Malah) on the guitars, and Miguel "Mike" Gaspar (Nisroth) on the drums. Ribeiro and Ares were the founders and masterminds of Morbid God / Moonspell, while the latter members joined Morbid God at different points in 1992. Of them, only Mike Gaspar joined after the recording of "Serpent Angel".

On 24 February 1993, the band released their demo Anno Satanæ, which contained three songs accompanied by an intro and an outro. In September, Pedro Paixão joined the band to play keyboards. On 6 November 1993, Moonspell performed their first show in Charneca, Lisbon. Shortly after, Lamelas was fired and replaced by João Pereira (Tanngrisnir). The demo circulated around the scene and eventually attracted the interest of independent label Adipocere Records, which signed the band for a mini-album.

On 27 April 1994, Moonspell released the mini-album Under the Moonspell and toured around Portugal to promote it and try to jump to a bigger label. After the release of mini-album Under the Moonspell, Moonspell signed with Century Media Records for six albums.

Wolfheart was recorded in Germany with producer Waldemar Sorychta and was released on 1 April 1995. By June, João Pereira was struggling with the band's breakthrough and his daytime job, and was replaced by Ricardo Amorim, who was asked to join the band on 13 June. Shortly before, Ricardo had been approached by the band to possibly replace João on some shows, but that came to nothing as João was given a second chance.

In July, Moonspell performed three shows in the United Kingdom, their first ones outside Portugal, and in September, the band embarked on a European tour, supporting Morbid Angel. Duarte Picoto told the band he couldn't go on the European tour as he was having personal issues of his own, but they went on anyway, as they felt it was too big of an opportunity to throw away, and played as a five-piece. Ricardo, who had joined the band after Wolfheart's release, was then the sole guitarist playing live. Duarte's status in the band was on hold during the tour, as the band was initially reluctant about firing him due to his perceived importance on songwriting, but after it, the band felt comfortable as a five-piece and Duarte ended up not being reinstated.

For 1996's Irreligious, the band again recorded with producer Waldemar Sorychta. The song "Opium" became the first Moonspell single. It quoted one of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms, Álvaro de Campos, on his poem "Opiário", and its music video featured the character of the poet writing in a bar with the band playing. Along with the release of the album in a convent, the Convento do Beato, there were factors that helped the band sell 10,000 copies of the album in their homeland.