PERSEFONE –  Live In Andorra (Album Review)

It’s not at all weird that one of the most exciting bands to have come to my attention in the past decade is releasing an orchestral live album almost immediately after Moonspell did. Many things set Persefone apart from Moonspell and their ilk (their uplifting lyrical content among them), but the most obvious distinction is Persefone’s head-spinning complexity. To say that I was eager to hear how a band I’ve often described as “tech-death for yoga nerds” would meld with the Orquestra Nacional Clàssica D’Andorra would understate my anticipation by a margin wide enough to comfortably seat said orchestra.

It’s Persefone’s very impenetrability that limits what conductor Albert Gumí and concertmaster Pere Bardagí are able to arrange; a band with as many time changes in a song as I have follicles on my face will present a monumental challenge even to the most accomplished arrangers. Their noble efforts are nearly imperceptible during much of Persefone’s metric madness, which is where I was most anxious to hear their work.

However, it’s during Persefone’s more meditative moments,  as on the instrumental break and interlude during “Stillness is Timeless” and the interlude to “Prison Skin”, where the ONCD is actually noticeable, accented strikes notwithstanding. In fact, it’s only towards the end of the set, during “The Great Reality,” where we hear the orchestra adding sounds and moods to Persefone’s heavier material. When it happens, though, it becomes clear that it fucking works.

This is where more moderately paced songs like “Kusanagi” and “One Word” come in. While the band’s signature suffocating rage leaves very little room for breathing, comparatively mellow cuts like this one actually have room for the orchestra to add dimension to what’s already there. We also hear this on the stellar “Merkabah” and the mostly-crushing “Living Waves,” though Persefone continues to make the baffling decision to pipe in Paul Masvidal’s robo-tuned vocals even though they now have two plenty-capable clean singers in their ranks. This very song, in fact, boasts both longtime keyboardist Miguel Espinosa and newish frontguy Daniel Flys singing fucking perfectly together while the ONCD adds unnerving beauty to one of the more succinct moments in this band’s intimidating discography.

This, y’all! This is what I was hoping to hear throughout! While the set’s heavier moments certainly do not suffer from the orchestra’s relegation to the background, it’s on songs like these – especially “Kusanagi” – where hearing the band and the orchestra truly work in tandem takes the listener places where these two prodigious ensembles somehow couldn’t do on their own. That’s some fucking teamwork right there. And the actual strings doing what Espinosa’s synths had previously done on “Flying Sea Dragons” and the “Spiritual Migration” outro? Fucking perfection.

As daunting a challenge as Gumí and Bardagí face here, and as smoothly as it works, Live in Andorra amounts to a terrifyingly accomplished band playing their own songs almost completely by the book, with the odd orchestral flair, flawlessly executed with formidable aplomb, but only occasionally adding to what was there already.

Unless viewed as a live “best-of” compilation that somehow omits “Spiritual Migration,” Live in Andorra is a marvelous performance that only diehard Persefone fans really need in their collections. (I’m getting mine on vinyl the moment it becomes available).

Release Date: December 5th, 2025
Record Label: Napalm Records
Genre: Progressive Metal

Musicians:

• Daniel Rodríguez Flys / Vocals
• Sergi Verdeguer / Drums
• Toni Mestre Coy / Bass
• Carlos Lozano Quintanilla / Guitars
• Filipe Baldaia / Guitars
• Miguel Espinosa / Keys, vocals

Live In Andorra Track-list:

1. Sounds and Vessels
2. One Word
3. The Equable
4. Stillness is Timeless
5. Prison Skin
6. Cosmic Walkers
7. Living Waves
8. Kusanagi
9. Leap of Faith
10. Merkabah
11. The Great Reality
12. Flying Sea Dragons
13. Mind As Universe
14. Outro

Order the album here.