Portuguese gothic metal band Moonspell will perform at Quinta da Ribafria in Sintra on 12 September at 21:00, presenting their new album Far From God, which was released on 3 July.
The concert will bring together the band's current sound with three decades of history, including a celebration of 30 years since Irreligious, one of the defining records of their career.
Moonspell reach this new stage after what frontman and founder Fernando Ribeiro described as an essential period of reflection. He said the band had gone without releasing new material for six years for a reason that is often difficult to admit: an existential crisis.
He said bands are also made of crises, and Moonspell had spent five or six years working through theirs.
Rediscovering the Passion to Create
Ribeiro said the band had reached a point of questioning its own future, including the possibility of focusing mainly on managing the legacy it had already built. Moonspell has more than three decades of songs behind it, he noted, but in the meantime the band had toured to mark the anniversary of its debut record and had also recorded an album with the Sinfonietta de Lisboa, a Lisbon-based orchestra. He said that still was not enough, and the band gradually rediscovered its passion for making new music, which set off a new creative cycle.
He described that turning point as especially significant, saying that through the songs, the lyrics and the reception the new album has been getting, he recovered the pleasure of being Moonspell's vocalist and of writing.
Far From God is therefore not just another chapter in the band's discography, but a statement of artistic vitality and a determination to keep creating. In Sintra, Moonspell will present the new material with the lineup of Fernando Ribeiro on vocals, Ricardo Amorim on guitar, Pedro Paixão on keyboards, Aires Pereira on bass and Hugo Ribeiro on drums.
Reflecting on Faith and Religion
The album comprises eight tracks, and its title, Far From God, points to a reflection on faith, religion and spirituality, themes that have long run through Ribeiro's work. He said spirituality and religion were deeply intertwined in the band members' Catholic upbringing, in a country that has drifted away from religion but not from faith. According to the musician, the record carries what he called a somewhat Nietzschean angle.
He explained that Nietzsche took the roots of words and brought them into the light of the present, to reveal how corrupted those words and their underlying concepts had become. Working from that perspective, Far From God reflects on the gap between religious principles and contemporary reality. He said the world's major monotheistic religions are increasingly turning to violence, drifting further from their God, from the original.
Three Decades of Moonspell
Moonspell are one of Portugal's best-known metal exports, and the Sintra show arrives as the band marks 33 years since it was formed. The anniversary tour for the group's debut album and the orchestral collaboration with the Sinfonietta de Lisboa both fed into the renewed creative energy that produced Far From God, according to Ribeiro.
The Sintra concert follows other recent live outings by the band, including a Halloween show in Lisbon and a tour built around acoustic performances earlier in the year.
