Bold move of a bold band, that’s what “Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show,” the new Moonspell release, is. The album was recorded one year ago at the MEO Arena in Lisbon featuring the 45-piece Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra – one of Portugal’s finest orchestras – conducted by maestro Vasco Pearce de Azevedo. It takes a lot of the finest to record a Metal band with an orchestra, although this is exactly no news as Metal bands have been recording with orchestras for some time.
Well, as usual, first things first. Let’s give Fernando Ribeiro a say about the album who, ironically, says Metal meets orchestra has never been planned:
“I have never been the one to push Moonspell into an orchestral direction. I mean, like any fan, I can recognise the impact Classic 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 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”
After eagerly listening to “Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show” from head to toe, the majestic comes to mind instantly. The fan who knows the tracks performed will rapidly realize they are radically, or not that much, changed by the orchestra. Album first blood “Tungstennio,” for instance, was prepared for the album – I guess because I looked all over the band’s discography and did not find it. The outcome is majestic. An interesting fact of the album is that the band goes slowly taking part of the album. I mean, the intro is totally orchestral and in “Em Nome do Medo” the Metal part is in the background let’s say. It’s only with “1755” that the Metal part takes over and participate equally of the song.
The fact of being both orchestral and alive makes “Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show” such a colossal unique album. MEO Arena’s acoustic helps a lot as well. To some extent, there are two obvious points of sinergy. The first is Fernando with the audience. It is possible to see how grateful he is for being there. Some tracks as “Everything Invaded” have some long talks to show his appreciation to them all. By the way, the song got extra powerful here. The other is the band with the orchestra. The way they perform sounds so perfect rehearsed. I guess it may have taken lots of rehearsals to make them sound like this so natural and organic. It takes a lot of precision, mostly from the the rhythm section of a band to be able to follow an alive orchestra a thing that “Proliferation” showcases very well. Perfection is the word Fernando used to explain this meeting, which, as a matter of fact, is not that unusual because many classical musicians are Metal fans and vice-versa.
The combination Moonspell plus Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra sounds so natural that one question immeaditely pops up. Why haven’t Moonspell done it before? The orchestra gave the songs an extra power not only the musical power, but also the emotional power the band regards so much. As I said before while reviewing 2021s “Hermitage,” Moonspell are the kind of band that emotion comes first. The band captured perfectly the Portuguese soul. The other question that pops up is why I was not there…
Moonspell “Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show” will be released on October 31st via Napalm Records.
Track Listing:
1. Tungstennio
2. Em Nome do Medo
3. 1755
5. Desastre
6. Ruinas
7. Breathe (Until We Are No More)
8. Extinct
9. Proliferation
10. Finisterra
11. Everything Invaded
12. Scorpion Flower
13. Vampiria
14. Alma Mater
15. Fullmoon Madness
Watch “In Tremor Die” official alive video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!