Band:	Moonspell
Album:	1755
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	November 2017

01. Em Nome Do Medo
02. 1755 [ft. Martin Lopez]
03. In Tremor Dei [ft. Paulo Bragança]
04. Desastre
05. Abanão
06. Evento
07. 1 De Novembro
08. Ruínas
09. Todos Os Santos
10. Lanterna Dos Afogados [Os Paralamas Do Sucesso cover]
11. Desastre [Spanish version] [bonus]

Moonspell have returned with a concept album sung entirely in Portuguese language and focusing on the massive earthquake that took place in Lisbon in 1755, resulting in a devastating number of human casualties and a city turned to rubble. But you already know all that because the band has made quite an effort to promote these certain traits of their new album and this is called good marketing. The question is if 1755 lives up to the great expectations it created as soon as it was announced.

If you are going to build up the hype for a new release the way Moonspell did, you'd better deliver something exquisite and original. With this in mind, imagine my disappointment when I saw that the best track of Alpha Noir / Omega White, "Em Nome Do Medo", was 1755's opener. I initially perceived this choice as a sign of lack of inspiration, but my guess couldn't have been wider off the mark.

A looming catastrophe is foreshadowed in this new grandiose version of "Em Nome Do Medo" ("In The Name Of Fear"), where the orchestra is brought to the fore and Ribeiro is whispering the lyrics as if he hopes that his low voice might appease the nature's eruption. Intensity gradually builds up, the orchestra becomes more and more dramatic and screaming vocals try to warn the people about this impending tragedy, which is perfectly portrayed by the saudade-evoking performance of fado singer Paulo Bragança in "In Tremor Dei" ("In Fear Of God").

The songs in the middle of the album are structured in such a way that you can feel the earth move under your feet, producing crescendos and sonic patterns analogous to seismic activity. "1 De Novembro" ("November 1st") finds Ribeiro screaming at the top of his lungs for the calamity, while the wailing guitars throughout "Ruínas" ("Ruins") illustrate the song's title; a city in ruins, which - ironically enough since the earthquake itself occurred on All Saints' Day - all the saints ("Todos Os Santos") could not save.

The melancholic piano melody in the outstanding cover of "Lanterna Dos Afogados" ("Lighthouse Of The Drowned") found me immersed in a sea of mournful joy, watching from afar Lisbon's scorched earth and lamenting the death of loved ones, but at the same time noticing little green stems sprouting up from the ashes and a glimmer of light breaking through the thick grey smoke.

1755 must be listened to in its entirety for the full story to be unravelled. The band has paid much attention to detail; the instrumentation, the song structure and sequence and the production are near flawless. Valid points of criticism, such as the vague feeling of repetition in song-writing at times or the near total abandonment of clean vocals, are overcompensated by the overall breathtaking atmosphere. As Fernando Ribeiro stated in one of his interviews, "it's more constructed as a kind of a tragedy, like with a choir, like a Greek tragedy, more of a theatre play with music."

Portuguese metalheads will definitely relate with it at once for obvious reasons, but what distinguishes a special album from an ordinary one is the amount of emotions it arouses as well as the different elements it possesses that make you delve deeper into it in order to find out more about its specific details. 1755 compelled me to look for the lyrics translated in English, to read about this earthquake and its multiple consequences, to get acquainted with an interesting Brazilian band called Os Paralamas Do Sucesso, to discover fado music and the amazing vocalist Paulo Bragança and, in the end, offered me a wholly unforgettable experience to the point that I am currently looking for online Portuguese language courses.

Mesmerizing stuff.

"Lisboa
Em chamas
Caída, tremendo
Sem Deus"