“IRRELIGIOUS is one of those albums that tell a story from beginning to end. It is THE album for me, that combined two of my favorite genres, metal and goth rock, into something groundbreaking and immortal. Irreligious is Moonspell‘s ‘s „Master of Puppets“. To me, they are one of the bravest and most important bands in the world.“ – Mille Petrozza, Kreator

Portugal’s undisputed kings of gothic and dark metal, MOONSPELL, have revealed some brand new details about the upcoming reissue of their pathbreaking, 1996- album Irreligious!

MOONSPELL‘s second album, containing timeless classics such as Opium, Raven Claws, Herr Spiegelmann, Mephisto or the ultimate MOONSPELL anthem, Fullmoon Madness, has not only helped the band to redefine their manifold style, but it will take you back to the late Nineties, when gothic was more dark and beautiful than in any other year or age. Irreligious stands out as the archetype of Gothic Metal, at one time modern and classic, and an album that influenced dark music generations since decades.

“Irreligious is the the crossroad where Metal meets Gothic and lead the way to a different style and fusion between the darkened elegance of Goth and the powerful depths of Heavy Metal.” Frontman Fernando Ribeiro states.

To celebrate 25 years of Irreligious in style, MOONSPELL’s own label imprint, Alma Mater Records, by the courtesy of Century Media, will re-release the band’s groundbreaking record on October 29, 2021! This must- have reissue will be coming out as an ambitious Deluxe Box (a true treasure chest limited to 250 hand numbered, certified copies, only available via the band’s official store), LP Gatefold and a Tape as a token of the great year of 1996 when Irreligious took the world under its very own gothic spell. The reissue formats will be available as follows:

• Deluxe Box Set
• LP12” (Beer) – Standard Edition
• Cassette (Orange)
• Full Moon Madness LP10”, with 2 songs: Full Moon Madness (Original Version) + Full Moon Madness (Live at Porto, 2020)

The pre-sale has just started at THIS LOCATION!

MOONSPELL, the undisputed Gothic Metal titans, return to their hometown, Portugal’s luminous capital Lisbon, in style and with a grandiose DOUBLE-DATE no pack member can afford to miss out!

On June 18th, MOONSPELL will take over the stage and in front of a live audience of 300 fans (under Covid rules), to perform their pathbreaking 1996 album Irreligious in its entirety! Irreligious has not only helped the band to redefine their manifold style, but this year also marks the record’s 25th anniversary. Timeless classics such as Opium, Raven Claws, Herr Spiegelmann, Mephisto or Fullmoon Madness will take you back to the late Nineties, when Gothic was more dark and beautiful than in any other year or age. To share this memorable event with fans from all over the world, the show will be also streamed live in a top notch-production, with MOONSPELL’s own flair for a big sound and amazing lights via the streaming platform Munin Live.

Furthermore, MOONSPELL have announced to reissue Irreligious with a one-of-a-kind Deluxe Box (containing the LP + a 12” triangle-shaped disc EP of the band’s eternal ode to the moon Fullmoon Madness original song + LIVE version, an exclusive tape + slipmat) and much more! Watch out for this amazing band edition, courtesy of their own label Alma Mater Records (also available as LP + EP + MC and slipmat separately), with more details and news to be revealed in the days ahead.

But as if that wasn’t all and to get your full dose of the moon madness, just one day later on June 19th MOONSPELL  will play a full live set of their highly acclaimed, new album Hermitage! For the first time ever and in front of the “lucky 300” ( plus in a worldwide stream! ), the Portuguese dark metal masters will present their latest magnum opus live in its entirety and for a “real” audience. Join MOONSPELL for an unforgettable night of amazing songs and emotions!

“We all took a big fall with the Covid situation. It has been challenging to keep the band together and the fans  motivated,” says frontman Fernando Ribeiro. “Our legs were crushed but we are back on our feet and want to walk at your side again. We will not only celebrate the incredible 25th anniversary of one of our most fundamental albums  (Irreligious) but finally have the chance to unveil the absolute and quite powerful charm of Hermitage songs on stage. It’s Moonspell like you never seen us before, it’s being together again, our time has come.” 

Both shows can be watched via Munin, the single tickets are available yet but with the bundle you can:

– Access to both concerts!

– Extended Rewatch Availability – 96 hours after the 2nd show!
– 1hour of extra and rare live footage between the exclusive Encores for each concert!

For more info, and to purchase your tickets + bundles, visit: https://moonspell.munin.live/

Due to high demand, Portuguese dark metal masters MOONSPELL (who just released their brand new and critically acclaimed album Hermitage, out now on Napalm Records), have announced the official reissuing of their monumental record Extinct (2015), and its successor, 1755 (2017). Both masterpieces will be re-released on vinyl on July 2, 2021 via Napalm Records, but order yours soon – each will be limited to just 100 copies available worldwide!

With Extinct, the band’s 11^th studio album, MOONSPELL set the world aflame! The worldwide chart topping album – which landed at #1 in Portugal for several weeks – represents the band at their most experimental and impassioned, and is one of their most successful records to date. Its enthralling mix of darkness and beauty, modern riffing, Fernando Ribeiro`s somber vocals and blackened melodies showcase MOONSPELL’s grandeur in perfection – always one step ahead of the rest, always resisting all genre boundaries!

Two years later in 2017, MOONSPELL outclassed all standards with the colossal 1755. From the first weighty second, the conceptual dramaturgy of this record feels like a detonation of the mind. Playful and spirited, 1755 is an incomparable masterpiece. Telling the story of the year of horror, when a giant earthquake wrecked their home of Lisbon, naturally this album is performed completely in Portuguese. 1755 is an orchestral adventure including strings, bongos, epic choirs and vibrant grooves, and the grand guitars are just a tiny part of this amazing piece of work. The album also features Paulo Bragança, supplying his haunting voice to a Fado fallen angel who plays an important role in Portuguese culture. 1755 is an adventure of Portuguese medieval landscapes full of stunning highlights guarded by stirring hymns; emotional, technical and completely breathtaking!

“What I am most proud of in regards to all Moonspell records, is that nobody forgets about them,” says frontman Fernando Ribeiro. “Extinct and 1755 might have been sold out/out of print on LP for a few years, but they’re back on the market by popular demand, amazingly edited, and ready to be rediscovered and added to any proudly die-hard Moonspell fan collection. More to come, stay tuned under the spell!”

Long gone from print, both reissues will be out on July 2, 2021 and available through Napalm Records in the following formats, and limited to 100 copies worldwide:

1755 – White/Ocean Blue Marbled 1 LP-Gatefold

Extinct – White/Black Marbled 2-LP Gatefold

The pre-sale of both MUST-HAVE records, that belong in every well-sorted MOONSPELL and heavy dark metal record collection, has just started at THIS LOCATION!

Tomorrow, February 26 will see Portuguese dark metal godfathers MOONSPELL unleash their highly acclaimed 13th studio album, Hermitage, via Napalm Records.

With Hermitage, MOONSPELL is not only approaching their 30th band anniversary more ambitiously and stronger than ever, but they take us on an entertaining and emotional ride through the darkest days of human existence. MOONSPELL’s forthcoming record is a wonderfully intuitive, yet epic masterpiece, and a testament to what the band always loved the most: Honest metal that binds us even in these dark times.

Building upon the dark, revolutionary and sensitive facets of the album, MOONSPELL’s new album is also epic as hell! Inspired by their metal roots and underground metal bands like Bathory, the final single to surface before Hermitage drops, “The Hermit Saints”, takes us on an epic trip to the heights of the world and the lows of the abysses. Accented by melodic groove and bombastic choruses, this track is sure to become a fan favorite! Watch the new music video for “The Hermit Saints” right here:

“The Hermit Saints unveils even further secrets about our forthcoming album: Hermitage,” says Fernando about the track. “Make no mistake: this is a METAL song played according to Moonspell’s own signature and rules.

This song tells you about the holiness and unholiness of men, about the duality between saints and sinners. It tells of the fever that makes us cross into the desert of our own existences, perpetually looking out for the cure, that will never come until we change our ways.

Many might go. Few will come back. Lock the gates, behold The Hermit Saints!”

Hermitage was recorded, mixed and mastered this past summer by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost, Primordial, Ghost, Sólstafir & many more) at the Orgone Studios in the UK. The haunting cover artwork was created by Latvian artist Arthur Berzinsh.

The album will be out on February 26, 2021 via Napalm Records and will be available in several highly limited and collectible LP Editions, Mediabook and Cassette – all of them including the Candlemass cover “Darkness in Paradise” – in addition to Jewelcase and Digital formats. While the Deluxe Box sold out fast, better be quick and purchase Hermitage now at THIS LOCATION!

“We know that we are entering the final years of our career as musicians: the winter of our lifetime,” vocalist Fernando Ribeiro recently stated. “We don’t care about people saying we’re still young at heart, or “leading” wolves in a pack. We are not! But we do care about how those around us feel about us, and this album is all about how we feel, our answers to your questions.

Under these circumstances, we feel our musical stakes are higher than ever. For us, it’s not about likes or algorithms, reach, or opportunity of growth. We only care about the music. Music does come first on this album you will hold in your hands soon enough.”

He continues: “The record is about turning our backs to the conventions of modernity. We are currently convincing ourselves that it’s all about us, that we (humanity) are everything. That the world revolves around us. However, ipsi facto, we are nothing and nothing revolves around us. Moonspell’s goal, on these last turns around the Sun, is to write the best music we possibly can. To tell you a few stories with our lyrics, to be close to you in these times of distancing. We wish not to tease you or to influence you or to sell you our fish. We want to sit down with you at your table and feast together upon our notes and words. Like if we were close friends, like back in the time where music matters the most. In your bedroom listening to music, without having to post our smart remarks about it, inviting the hate in.

Hermitage is an open-hearted invitation to simplicity. To be humble. To be thankful. To serve you solace. Provide you comfort, entertainment. We sincerely hope this call reaches you. That you kindly accept what we offer. That you take our music with you to the place you must feel as yours. To your secret place, to your hermitage. Blessed be.“

Hermitage Tracklist:

1. The Greater Good
2. Common Prayers
3. All or Nothing
4. Hermitage
5. Entitlement
6. Solitarian
7. The Hermit Saints
8. Apophthegmata
9. Without Rule
10. City Quitter (Outro)

• Bonus Tracks:

1. Darkness in Paradise (Candlemass cover – available on LP, Deluxe Box, MC + Mediabook)
2. The Great Leap Forward (7″ Vinyl – available in Deluxe Box – sold out)

With their forthcoming 13th studio album, Portuguese dark metal giants MOONSPELL are approaching their 30th anniversary as a band more ambitiously and stronger than ever. Hermitage will see the light of day on February 26, 2021 via Napalm Records, and invites us on an entertaining and revolutionary, yet epic journey through the darkest days of human existence.

“Hermitage is an open-hearted invitation to simplicity. To be humble. To be thankful. To serve you solace. Provide you comfort, entertainment,” vocalist Fernando Ribeiro recently said. “We sincerely hope this call reaches you. That you kindly accept what we offer. That you take our music with you to the place you must feel as yours. To your secret place, to your hermitage.”

Both beautifully crafted songs, previously released singles such as “The Greater Good” show us the modernity of the wolves in 2021, while “Common Prayers“ embraces the MOONSPELL tradition of writing a dark, gothic metal track like no other band can. Now, the band is presenting us a third single ahead of the album release. “All Or Nothing“ brings back the ethereal and melodic sounds of MOONSPELL served by a beautiful musical landscape, and makes it most likely one of the deepest and most sincerely heart-breaking tunes the Portuguese dark metal titans have ever written.

“The video for ‘All Or Nothing’ was recorded in an empty theatre in Portugal and it’s symbolic of our days,” Ribeiro tells us. “Solitude dominates our lives and we divide our attentions and heartbeats at the groove of darkness and hope. At the mercy of all that can be and the nothing that we have to deal with right now. It’s a song that relies on a more intimate melodic frame, emotional, autobiographic almost, about the joy and the sorrow that is being in a band.”

He continues: “Life is a game you cannot win. You just have to play. Our job is done, we brought you joy. Every now and then.”

Watch the incredible, epic new clip for “All Or Nothing“, directed by Guilherme Henriques and shot at the historical 1908- theatre, Chaby Pinheiro in Nazaré, here:

MOONSPELL’s upcoming album Hermitage was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost, Primordial, Ghost, Sólstafir & many more) at the Orgone Studios in the UK. Building upon the album’s dark, revolutionary and sensitive facets, it’s a wonderfully intuitive and epic ride by one of the most distinctive dark metal bands of all time, and a testament to what they’ve always loved the most: Honest, emotional metal that binds us even in the darkest times.

Album Tracklist:

1. The Greater Good
2. Common Prayers
3. All or Nothing
4. Hermitage
5. Entitlement
6. Solitarian
7. The Hermit Saints
8. Apophthegmata
9. Without Rule
10. City Quitter (Outro)

Bonus Tracks:

11. Darkness in Paradise (Candlemass Cover – LP, Box, MC + Mediabook)
12. The Great Leap Forward (7″ Vinyl – Deluxe Box)

Hermitage will be out on February 26, 2021 through Napalm Records in several highly limited and collectible Deluxe and Die-Hard Editions, Mediabook and Cassette – all including the Candlemass Cover “Darkness in Paradise”, but also in Jewelcase and Digital formats. The Deluxe Box will also include an etched 7’’ Vinyl with another special bonus track, “The Great Leap Forward”, as well as much more exciting additional collectable items! The album pre-sale is available at THIS LOCATION!