MOONSPELL Announces 'Opus Diabolicum' Live Album Featuring ORQUESTRA SINFONIETTA DE LISBOA
Архив новостей | Русская версия
October 26, 2024 saw Portuguese metallers MOONSPELL perform their first-ever symphonic show, dubbed "Opus Diabolicum", at the MEO Arena in Lisbon, Portugal's capital city. The band made history at this unforgettable live event, adding another magnificent chapter to both metal music made in Portugal and their very own legacy. Now, a year later, this monumental event can be yours to view anytime, available in DVD/Blu-ray, two-CD, black and colored vinyl and digital formats via Napalm Records on October 31, 2025.
On "Opus Diabolicum", MOONSPELL revisits its classics and its bombastic album "1755" at a one-off, exclusive show and its biggest production to date. The heavy metallic power of the dark metal pioneers meets the classical magnitude of the 45-piece Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa (Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra) — one of Portugal's finest orchestras — conducted by maestro Vasco Pearce de Azevedo.
A new video clip for the MOONSPELL anthem, "Vampiria", is premiering today here. Captured live at the "Opus Diabolicum" show, it's a haunting tribute to the gothic roots of MOONSPELL, that now rises once more in full symphonic glory, unleashing dramatic orchestration and vampiric grandeur like never before!
MOONSPELL frontman Fernando Ribeiro comments: "'Vampiria' is a MOONSPELL classic, as old as time itself. It was a first choice for us because it's actually one of the most remarkable arrangements of the whole show, which granted new blood and life (aren't they the same?) to a timeless, eternal song. See it risen from the dead with your own eyes, after 'travelling oceans of time'."
Regarding his vision for "Opus Diabolicum", Fernando said: "I have never been the one to push MOONSPELL into an orchestral direction. I mean, like any fan, I can recognize the impact classical had over heavy metal (Quorthon, from BATHORY, used to quote Wagner as his favorite 'band') and in my musical collection Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Ravel could be found, shoulder to shoulder with the aforementioned BATHORY, CELTIC FROST, SARCÓFAGO or [IRON] MAIDEN. But I wasn't a fan of the metal-meets-orchestra efforts myself and when I approached Jaime (Gomez Arellano) to mix this beast, I asked him: have you heard [METALLICA's] 'S&M' and other 'live-with-an-orchestra' metal bands' albums? We want nothing like that!
"This is work of passion: truly the work of the devil (opus diabolicum): imperfect, unprocessed, untamed. A release made by friends to all the friends we have around this goth forsaken world and that in an arena in Lisbon or in a sweaty club in Texas, keep the spell going, until we are no more."
"Opus Diabolicum" track listing:
01. Tungstennio (CD + DVD/Blu-ray only)
02. Em Nome do Medo
03. 1755
04. In Tremor Die
05. Desastre
06. Ruinas
07. Breathe (Until We Are No More)
08. Extinct
09. Proliferation
10. Finisterra
11. Everything Invaded
12. Scorpion Flower
13. Vampiria
14. Alma Mater
15. Fullmoon Madness
In a recent interview with Greece's Keysmash magazine, Ribeiro spoke about a possible follow-up to MOONSPELL's 2021 album "Hermitage". He said: "Well, material we never stopped writing. But I had a kind of dilemma, because we are 30 years old as a band. This year, it's 30 years of [MOONSPELL's debut album, 1995's] 'Wolfheart', three decades of 'Wolfheart'. Next year is gonna be three decades of [MOONSPELL's second album, 1996's] 'Irreligious'. So I entertained the idea of why not be a legacy band? Why not play some shows? What's the point of making new music? I think that's a question that every musician, every honest musician, has to answer. For instance, when I see METALLICA struggling with a new album… Personally, I didn't like [METALLICA's '72 Seasons'] — I mean, not liking, but I didn't [think] it was like such a special album. I like 'Hardwired[... To Self-Destruct]' but '72 Seasons', I think, 'Well…' But I understand, as a musician, that sometimes, even if you are the biggest band in the world, you are not inspired and you just do it for reasons that I want to understand. So we kind of delayed and delayed the album."
He continued: "'Hermitage', the last [MOONSPELL] album, was from 2021. We had our label saying, 'What's up with the new album?' But we did touring, we did the theater acoustic show in Portugal, we did the orchestra show in Portugal. That's all coming out. And I know it's very romantic sounding, but we had to feel the muse calling. And I went to Pedro [Paixão, MOONSPELL keyboardist] and Ricardo [Amorim, MOONSPELL guitarist], because we write the songs, and I said, 'I think it's time for a new album. I think it's time to man up and do something.' And I think that this is gonna be one of the most important albums of our lives. That's what I'm writing. I wrote a lot of lyrics, like 30 lyrics or more. We wrote a lot of songs. We are now cherrypicking what's coming in the album, what's not coming in the album [and what] can be used later on. And I think we're gonna have a new MOONSPELL album in the first semester of 2026."
In the spring of 2023, MOONSPELL completed the "American Full Moon" 30th-anniversary trek.
Three years ago, MOONSPELL canceled its summer 2022 North American tour due to "unsolvable logistic and transportation problems".
In September 2022, MOONSPELL released a very special Blu-ray/DVD and album, a live performance of their latest studio album, "Hermitage", with "From Down Below - Live 80 Meters Deep" via Napalm Records.
MOONSPELL's 13th studio album, "Hermitage", was released in February 2021 via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (PARADISE LOST, PRIMORDIAL, GHOST, SÓLSTAFIR) at the Orgone Studios in the U.K.
In 2020, MOONSPELL parted ways with original drummer Miguel "Mike" Gaspar and replaced him with Hugo Ribeiro (no relation to Fernando Ribeiro).
(Source: www.blabbermouth.net)
