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.
Following the epic previously released live video for the band’s anthem “Vampiria”, Moonspell has shared “In Tremor Dei” featuring the Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa. Epic, emotional, and devastatingly heavy – this new live version of “In Tremor Dei” shakes the very foundations of Moonspell‘s pioneering metal sound, blending soaring melodies and crushing intensity: a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Pre-order the album here.
Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro comments: “‘1755’ was an essential album for the orchestral show and the very foundations of it are based on this portentous record, Portuguese sung and thematic around the great earthquake of Lisbon, in the 18th century. It’s a track that captures the essence of the whole show and theatrics – Lisbon trembled again, but the orchestra played on.”
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.”
