On October 26, 2024, MOONSPELL performed their first-ever symphonic Orchestra 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, while revisiting their classics and the bombastic album “1755” at a one-off, exclusive show and their biggest production to date. The heavy metallic power of the dark metal pioneers met the classical magnitude of the 45-piece Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra – one of Portugal’s finest orchestras – conducted by maestro Vasco Pearce de Azevedo!
Now, a year later, this monumental event can be yours to view anytime, available in DVD/Blu-ray, 2 CD, Black and Colored Vinyl and Digital formats, arriving this Friday, on October 31st via Napalm Records.
To shorten your wait, today, the dark metal pioneers are premiering a stunning live video for “Extinct”, the anthemic title track taken from the band’s iconic 2015 studio offering. The orchestral arrangements add new depth to the song‘s apocalyptic beauty, while Fernando Ribeiro‘s commanding vocals reach chilling new heights. The frontman comments:
“Extinct was quite a landmark for us and helped us to shake off some of the heavy legacy of our early albums, something very needed by the band. It was certainly celebrated by our wolfpack all around the world and created new anthems live, and fresh memories. No wonder we picked up some of it and gave it the “orchestral treatment” as in the original songs we‘d already recorded with a The Mumim Sezler string group, from Turkey. It was challenging for the musicians to recreate that oriental flair, but in the end it all came together and it sounds powerful and tasteful. With Opus Diabolicum, we wanted to bring together the power of heavy metal and the magnitude of orchestral, without sweetening the deal or watering it down for gentle ears. This is Moonspell full force, backed by an orchestra. Enjoy it, thanks for sharing, and stay tuned for our new album next year!”
“I have never been the one to push MOONSPELL into an orchestral direction,“ Ribeiro admitts.
“I mean, like any fan, I can recognise the impact Classical had over Heavy Metal (Quorthon, from Bathory, used to quote Wagner as his favourite “band”) and in my musical collection Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Ravel, could be found, shoulder to shoulder with the aforementioned Bathory, Celtic Frost, Sarcófago or 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 S&M and other “live with an orchestra” metal band‘s 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.”
No MOONSPELL fan, anywhere in the world, should miss their chance to add this rare and massive performance to their own collection! Get “Opus Diabolicum” now HERE:
https://napalmrecords.com/moonspell
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