Just last week we noticed Moonspell were in the studio and today they confirmed we will see a new album this year! The Portuguese gothic metal masters unveiled the title of their forthcoming album will be 1755 and it will be sung entirely in Portuguese. Rightfully so, since the album is about the Great Lisbon Earthquake that took place in 1755. The band explores this concept through different perspectives such as death, rebirth of Lisbon, and its aftermath resulting in how it changed Europe.

Initially this album was supposed to be a four-song bonus for their Under the Spell DVD/BluRay set to release in 2018 and it expanded to be a full length album. Luckily we get to hear it sometime this year!

The band announced the following on their Facebook:

“MOONSPELL NEW ALBUM 1755 TO BE OUT IN 2017!!!

The rumours are true! MOONSPELL is ready to release their next album this year.

The band is currently on pre-production with John Phipps orchestralmetal.com at their home studios (Inferno) in Portugal and has recently posted online some pictures of videos of their daily work at the studio.

The album title will be 1755 and it’s a quite surprising twist of events and direction for the band. Versing the Great Lisbon Earthquake (1755), the band has developed a lyrical concept that looks into the death and rebirth of Lisbon and how the disaster changed Religion, Politics and Philosophy in the whole of Europe. The surprise is that the album will be fully sung in PORTUGUESE!

What was supposed to be just a 4-song bonus for the LISBOA UNDER THE SPELL DVD-BLURAY (recorded last February in Lisbon with 4000 wild fans attending, to be released in 2018) evolved into a full length album that will be produced by Tue Madsen(Antfarm Studios, DK) who worked with the band in a few previous releases (UNDER SATANAE, NIGHT ETERNAL, ALPHA NOIR/OMEGA WHITE).

In the band’s own words, Fernando (lead singer) explains:

“We fell in love with the concept and made perfect sense to sing it in our national language, Portuguese. I guess we were just waiting for the right opportunity to work on such an album. Musically it will be heavier than Extinct. It will be earthshaking but also very detailed with orchestrations and percussion as we want people to relive the Lisbon of the 18th century. Singing it in Portuguese, allowed me to find a different expression as a vocalist and my job is to be the survivor of the Earthquake, roaming the ruins and telling you all about it.”