MOONSPELL – Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show (Album Review)

By now, most of us have kinda had it with orchestral metal. While the idea of writing music with both an orchestra and a very loud rock band in mind dates back to the 1960s, it really wasn’t until Rhapsody came around in the late 1990s that actual metal bands really started toying with this cross-pollination to great effect.

The appeal was certainly limited – as jaw-dropping as Legendary Tales was at the time, synthesized orchestra and all, you really had to be predisposed to floofy and flowery arrangements, castrati singing, and lyrics about dragons and goblins and warriors n sh*t for it to really land.

Metallica did make their attempt at symphonic metal shortly afterwards, and not to speak ill of the band that turned me on to metal in the first place, but S&M defied both letters in its title by being too ill-conceived to be truly sadistic, and by not being particularly enjoyable. Fortunately, the metal underground is where the innovation is, and with recording technology advancing even more rapidly than my aging process, the last twenty-five years have seen some truly adventurous forays into the concept, with Symphony X’s iconic V: The New Mythology Suite really getting things going in 2000.

Before long, groups as prominent as Therion and Cradle of Filth were recording albums with actual orchestras. Why recount all this? Just to point out that symphonic metal is no longer special in and of itself. The bars need to be continually raised in order for such endeavors to really stand out, especially if orchestras are being added to existing music, as Metallica had attempted.

Perhaps due to their recent – and mostly compelling – experimentation with synthesized orchestras, the long-running gothic lycanthropes Moonspell have succeeded at doing just that on Opus Diabolicum. A concert film/ live album documenting an ambitious performance alongside the Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa, Opus Diabolicum is a damn-near masterful offering that cuts very few corners, but does so with enough venom and vigor for it not to really matter.

The concert begins with a plodding and frankly unnecessary orchestral intro called “Tungstennio” that I can only imagine would have been a cue for the audience to take their seats on the night of the actual event. It’s a forgivable move though, given that Moonspell immediately launch into performing half of what I believe the finest record of their career, the masterful 2017 album 1755, a grotesque retelling of the earthquake and tsunami that caused the destruction, burning, and flooding of Lisbon (near which the long-running goth metal outfit originated) on All Saints’ Day in the mid-18th century.

While guest musician Jon Phipps did a remarkable job creating a very convincing virtual orchestra for the studio release, the work that the Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa provides on this performance adds depth and dimension to the already powerful songs that I scarcely believed were even needed. Without casting any undue shade towards Mr Phipps, the absolutely expert work that conductor Vasco Pearce de Azevedo and the OSL deliver on this performance makes a reissue of the 1755 album with an actual orchestra sound very appetizing indeed.

We can’t discuss the partial 1755 performance without stating the obvious: the choirs are piped in. While this is certainly not an uncommon practice when metal bands tour, a one-off performance like this – especially in a venue like the MEO Arena that seats some twenty thousand and where the likes of Beyonce and Iron Maiden perform – seems like a unique excuse to go all-out. While the performance certainly does not suffer in the least from this decision, I can’t help but imagine how songs like “Em Nome do Medo” and “In Tremor Dei” could have benefited from being sung by a live choir.

Regardless, said songs are given a fresh breath of life thanks to the contributions Mr Azevedo and the OSL provide, to say nothing of “Ruinas” and that monumental title track, where longtime guitarist Ricardo Amorim takes a rare moment to deliver an absolutely poetic solo. Given that frontman Fernando Ribeiro later gives a shoutout to Moonspell’s absolutely fanatical Mexican fanbase, it would have made almost too much sense to perform the crushing “Desastre” in Spanish (a Spanish version of this song was included as a bonus track on the American releases of 1755).

This particular concert would also have been a golden opportunity to invite Portuguese punk/ fado singer Paulo Bragança to perform the eerie, nearly Arabesque parts supplied on the studio cut of “In Tremor Dei;” Amorim instead delivers these parts, capably, though his voice could stand to be louder in the mix. None of this is to suggest that these decisions somehow cripple the performance or its grandeur – both Moonspell and the OSL are in fine f*cking fine form, with the former in particular giving the performance they were always destined to deliver. The band and the orchestra are on freaking fire, and performing together with such majestic brutality, damn near threatened to set Lisbon ablaze all over again.

“Breathe (Until We Are No More)” appropriately follows the 1755 set, its synthesized strings at last turned into a real boy, with an added set of horns, under the watchful eyes and ears of Mr Azevedo. As with the rest of the set, the band outperforms their younger selves, the OSL apparently having provided them with an elixir that lets their rage flow freely without affecting their focus.

The set continues with rearranged selections from the band’s storied past where it is all too obvious that Azevedo took to heart Ribeiro’s instructions to not deliver anything resembling S&M – the band and orchestra play off and for each other, pushing themselves and each other to heights previously unreached, never once sounding like they’re competing with one another for the audience’s bandwidth.

Paradoxically, the orchestra does so while also honoring its role as a support to the stars of the show, Moonspell themselves, and never attempting to steal the listener’s attention. They respect the fact that this is a Moonspell concert that features Moonspell songs, and the restraint that both Azevedo and the OSL offer highlights their professionalism. Not once do they even attempt to upstage Moonspell, even as they push the Portuguese wolfpack to outdo themselves.

The band and orchestra perform a selection of songs from the band’s late 2000s output that had sadly gone under my radar at the time of their release, and the vigor on display on Opus Diabolicum has prompted me to investigate an era of the band I’d missed. While Moonspell certainly heavied things up again after the more gothic and industrial work of the late 90s and early 2000s, they did so without merely aping their younger selves. The music performed in this concert is that of a band intent on maturing and redefining themselves, using their impossibly excellent debut full-length Wolfheart not as a destination but as a launchpad, and Moonspell’s collaboration with Azevedo and the OSL brings that material to an even higher, angrier level, Anneke van Giersbergen’s absence on “Scorpion Flower” notwithstanding.

The set wraps up with a triad of oldies yoinked from Wolfheart and Irreligious, two seminal albums from that mid-90s era when metal was commercially unviable but thriving on a creative level. Azevedo’s rearrangement of the original synth parts on “Vampiria” in particular deserves accolades. Opus Diabolicum boasts this song as it was always intended to be heard, and the band dropping out of the performance so that Ribeiro can sing the closing verse, accompanied solely by the OSL adds a subtly chilling vibe to an already chilling song. The set triumphantly ends with the band’s signature song, “Alma Mater,” followed immediately by “Full Moon Madness” to the thunderous applause of a stadium full of rabid wolfbeasts, many of whom crossed entire oceans to witness this phenomenal performance.

Opus Diabolicum doesn’t merely state that symphonic metal still has life in it. It also demonstrates that with a bit of clarity, ingenuity, and humility, the approach can yield music that is eerie, majestic, and not overly pompous for fear of “underutilizing” an orchestra and its many talents. A clear head and clearer vision can absolutely yield the right balance between opulence and savagery, and this remarkable performance is a masterclass in this discipline.

Release Date: October 31st, 2025
Record Label: Napalm Records
Genre: Gothic Metal

Musicians:

• Fernando Ribeiro / Vocals
• Hugo Ribeiro / Drums
• Aires Pereira / Bass
• Ricardo Amorim / Guitars
• Pedro Paixão  / Keys, guitars

Opus Diabolicum: The Orchestral Live Show Track-list:

1. Tungstennio
2. Em Nome Do Medo
3. 1755
4. In Tremor Dei
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. Full Moon Madness

Order the album here.