Far From God
Eight songs, not an ounce of fat: Moonspell shed the orchestral ballast and rediscover the dark romanticism that made them in the nineties. Their strongest album in years.
Five years ago it sounded like the end. After "Hermitage" (2021), Fernando Ribeiro dropped hints about a possible retirement, and anyone who has followed this band for long sensed it: that exhaustion was real. That what follows is "Far From God" — an album that sounds like a rebirth — is one of the finest turns of this metal year.
The decisive move is a step backwards, and it does the band good: Moonspell have stripped their music down. No more symphonic concrete, no walls of choir plastering over every emotion. What remains is atmosphere — and here it carries everything. Ricardo Amorim's guitar riffs less than it paints moods; Pedro Paixão's keyboards form the skeleton rather than hanging a backdrop in front of it. And Ribeiro? He sings mostly in that deep baritone that has been his true instrument since "Irreligious". The screams are rare — which is precisely why they land.
"Cross Your Heart" opens and sets the tone immediately: a post-punk foundation, a guitar melody you hum after one listen, and a chorus that doesn't roar but pulls. "The Great Wolf In The Sky" is the album's grand moment — Alicia Nuhro's strings lift the song into a solemnity that could tip into bombast and never does, because the grief underneath is genuine: a dedication to wolves that once walked alongside the band, and to a friend who never got to hear the record. "For The Love Of Mortals" is pure gothic romance, "Our Freedom To Fall" the heaviest cut, and in Jaime Gómez Arellano's production each of these contrasts gets the room it needs.
Weaknesses? Anyone who loves Moonspell for the death metal edge of their early days will find little here — this is largely gothic rock with metal streaks, not the other way round. And the swooning sentimentality this band has always risked tips a touch too sweet on "Biblical". Eight songs is also lean — which can equally be read as a compliment: nobody here is padding a running time.
On balance, "Far From God" delivers what the label promises loudly and bands rarely honour: a late work that isn't administering a legacy but actually wants something. The "Irreligious" of the 21st century? Perhaps not the crown — but closer to it than Moonspell have been in two decades.
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Strengths
- +Radically stripped back — atmosphere instead of symphonic concrete
- +Ribeiro's baritone as present and fitting as it has been in years
- +"The Great Wolf In The Sky" — grand pathos, honestly earned
- +Jaime Gómez Arellano's production: dark, clear, airy
- +Eight songs, not a single filler
Weaknesses
- −Anyone seeking the early-era death metal edge will come away empty
- −"Biblical" tips a shade too far into the saccharine
- −At roughly 40 minutes, decidedly short
Verdict
The return to form nobody expected of them any more: dark, lean, emotionally unguarded. "Far From God" is no nostalgia trip but a statement — and the best Moonspell album in years.