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Rating: Gothic Metal.
In the myriad of debates surrounding the incredibly complex definition of this genre, rivers of words have been spent, and I certainly don't claim to give a complete definition, an impossible task. In fact, under the overused label of Gothic, bands and albums are often categorized together without reason even if they have nothing in common.
We range, therefore, from bands like Tristania, Theatre Of Tragedy, to Lacuna Coil or Within Temptation, passing through the Paradise Lost of "Draconian Times." We are thus faced with an eclectic and vast genre encompassing extremely diverse musical expressions. My intention is to present to you one of the greatest examples of an album that can be defined as "true" Gothic Metal, by one of the most important bands in the field, namely Moonspell.
"Irreligious" is released a year after the fiery trial our Portuguese friends gave with "Wolfheart." After such a masterpiece, expectations could only be sky-high. And so it will be. "Irreligious" is the album that definitively delivers Moonspell to the empire of Gothic Metal. Fascinating, morbid, dark, intensely dramatic.
The album's opening is shocking: after a brief intro, they present themselves with an undisputed masterpiece of unprecedented proportions, namely "Opium", the most famous song by Moonspell. It's pointless to dwell on how superior and captivating this song is. Simple, flowing, yet overwhelming in just under 3 minutes, Moonspell condense their essence.
Following is "Awake", another adored and revered track, especially for its memorable chorus. The atmosphere distinguished is gothic in the truest sense of the term: everything here is dark, melancholic (yet not cloying) from the guitar riffs to the lyrics recited by Fernando Ribeiro, one of the greatest Metal singers.
After the beautiful but overall negligible tracks "For A Taste Of Eternity" and "Ruin And Misery" (some will lynch me for this, I know already), the album closes its first part with a song that closely resembles "Vampiria" from 'Wolfheart.' It is "A Poisoned Gift", an atmospheric track where keyboards and darkness reign supreme, without sparing the listener from a sudden (and beautiful) central break truly involving, thanks to an excellent guitar work by Ricardo Amorim. "Raven Claws" is instead a particular experiment that almost seems like a preview of the (brief) turn of "Sin/Pecado", a very direct track and rich with modern influences (almost dark rocky) where Fernando alternates his deep baritone voice with that of Brigit Zacher, already present on Wolfheart but here with a much less operatic and more seductive voice.
The gothic and ancestral soul of Moonspell resurfaces in "Mephisto", another absolute masterpiece, built on a splendid structure where Ribeiro almost seems to enjoy reciting his lyrics with a mystical air. An unforgettable composition, intense and filled with all that hypnotic charm typical of the Portuguese band. After the particular and disorienting "Herr Spiegelmann" (don't miss the initial quote from "Perfume" by Patrick Süskind) played entirely on disturbing keyboard melodies, it is the turn of the grand finale which, as in 'Wolfheart' ("Alma Mater") also in "Irreligious" represents the emotional peak of the album.
"Full Moon Madness" is a solemn, majestic track in its slow advance and represents the dramatic climax of the album in a symphony of pride, anger, and passion. The crescendo is irresistible, and absolutely spine-chilling is the conclusion of the track where, after a lethal and devastating almost prophetic declaration by Ribeiro, space is left for an unforgettable interplay between Amorim's solo and the keyboards.
Taking stock, "Irreligious" is beyond any discussion, an essential work in a genre too often afflicted by comic elements and banality. A work that (even if slightly inferior to 'Wolfheart') represents a point never again reached in its perfect alchemy, neither by Moonspell nor by anyone else.
"Somos memórias de lobos que rasgam a pele, lobos que foram homens e o tornarão a ser... ."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Opium (02:46)
Opium,desire or will?
Inspiration bound from a elegant seed.
Subversion,through smoke i foresee,
Erotic motions of lesser gods in ecstasy.
Opium, bring me forth another dream.
Spawn worlds of flesh and wrath,
Litte jewels of atrocity.
Opium, I sleep in debauchery,
And burn with you,
when you burn in Me.
Opium, we fantasize,
as we fuse with your root,
You are a strange flower,
We are your strangest fruit.
Opium,it burns in me and you.
Opium,it burns for me and for you.
"Por isso tomo �pio.� um rem�dio.
Sou um convalescente do Momento.
Moro no r�s do ch�o do Pensamento
E ver passar a vida faz-me t�dio."
03 Awake (03:05)
Awake... for all is dying, even the dead
We are our Past failing to come back
All of us visionaires
with a rope around our neck
04 For a Taste of Eternity (03:53)
Your honey on coil burns,
As tears drop from your grand dead womb
Undesired, I fell into your being
Releasing shapes inside of you
Only seen in your wildest dreams
I am the impossibility
of your long-kept chastily
I am your offence and you can't wait
To have me inside of you and taste...
Eternity
Revolving around me,
in desire, you burn
As blood drops
from your new-awakened womb
Undesired, and thrown away from your belief
I am the one whom you
were taught to renounce
In your virginal fear
The sweat, the hands, the sleepless nights
And the violence of the silent sighs
All of them gather in me
Take my hand and taste eternity
Take my hand and find a new god
05 Ruin & Misery (03:48)
In each of your failures
I saw my victory
And each time you fall
A knife tattoos a smile
On my lips
You are now empty of life
And we are drunk with death
Raw models
Ruin & Misery
I can offer you a hand
To help you hold the dagger
A perfect jewel for
Our perfect end
And as we lay,
we kissed
Fingers wet
with poison
Thinking to each one
There is no beauty
in death
Raw models
Ruin & Misery
Allow me to doubt
We were lovers
who could really share
The only love between us
Was hate
Without hope we could not fear
And silently we disappeared
Hand in hand, we took our lives
And together stopped being
Raw Models on a novel of Ruin & Misery
06 A Poisoned Gift (05:34)
Forever young in a ground so cold
The splendor of your death still fresh to behold
In your neck an open wound
To spawn life into your Love
And to feed the creatures of our world
We have tasted from the poisoned gift of love
Which condemned us to forever fly alone
We have experienced an aged potion
The wine of life which stole us light
May we gather again and be as one
And to forever relish in the twin joys
As we taste from the poisoned gift of love
Forever young in a ground so cold
The splendour of your dance still there to behold
Our legend is a sin in tongues
To eternal sleep, to trance we belong
We are now but an empty glance
Palid is your state of grace
To eternal sleep we belong
Feeling the rapture of the world
Beneath the violence of this curse
From the poisoned gift of love
Once I asked you to fly
Tonight I recreate the vow:
Do not fail to love Me as I have failed to die
With you...
07 Subversion (02:44)
Perverse: the religion of pain
In each detail a world,
I know you hide something...
08 Raven Claws (03:16)
I remember her as a child
Raven...on and on with her raven claws
Carving...on and on with her raven claws
How she lusts when she remembers
The night of her first blow
She always wanted to know
How far could she really go
Inflamed, a dead-end room
Seduce to consume
Nightsilence...Vampire...Empire
Statues with open wounds
The flavour of poison and moon
Still maturing on her blood
She is not your occasional affair, no!
But eternal love, drop by drop...
Raven...on and on with her raven claws
Carving...on and on with her raven claws
How daylight hurts when moonlight bites
She juggles with her invisible knife
A black bird senses danger and flies
Gives peace to a tall figure in the dark
Little silhouette snakes find
a warm nest behind the door
And whip-tongues and skins
of sisters now gone.
Bodyprints cover the velvet floor
Which grows red and red
They know she will hunt and hurt tonight
And they crown her Queen of the Dead.
Raven...on and on with her raven claws
Raping...on and on with her raven claws
Will she weep for them or whip them once again?
09 Mephisto (04:58)
As madmen, some hung head down
From a long dead tree
Some discuss, all at once
For no one to hear
Variations on emptiness
Great themes on vain glory
And as some go feral in strange performances
Dressing customs that are metaphors
Of your disease
Hungry eyes are looking for Me...Mephisto
Laughing, I feed you
With meaningless games, tricks and philosophies
Whose answers you would die for
In your hunger to believe
How it does amuse Me
And makes Me wonder
For how long that it was Mine
Because now it does really inflame Me
As if ignorance was my secret desire...Mephisto
I am an angel who dresses in red
Riding above you, etching fire rings
I have learned to fly
Don't you remember?
While you still have not come down
From your long-dead tree
I can teach you wonders if you give me your soul
Marvels and wild dreams can be yours
I can teach you how iron turns to gold
And how life can grow so old
But I am a demon who dresses in red
And I do not hope you will understand...Mephisto
10 Herr Spiegelmann (04:35)
Look Me in the eyes and drown...
"Everyone considered the man in the blue jacket
As the most beautiful human being they have ever seen:
Nuns saw on him the Messiah in flesh
Satan's adorers the lustrous Prince of Darkness
Philosophers the Supreme Being
Young females an enchanted prince
Men an ideal reflection of themselves."
Patrick S skind: The Perfume ("Story Of An Assassin")
Look Me in the eyes and drown...
I am your vulture, your immoral sculpture
Mirrorman, who understands
I am you, I know you
Your fantasy and reality
I wait for you to welcome you in my dreamworld
My water-eyes
Look Me in the eyes
Touch me in the eyes and dream...
11 Full Moon Madness (06:47)
[1st Portuguese verse:]
We are wolf memories
that tear the skin apart
Wolves that once were men
and shall be them again
[2nd Portuguese verse:]
We are wolf memories
that tear the skin apart
Wolves that once were men
and shall be them again
or perhaps memories of men
who insist of not tearing for to be wolves
but that never shall be them again...
Somos mem�rias de lobos que rasgam a pele
Lobos que foram homens
e o tornar�o a ser
They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light
To blind you and me
Full Moon Madness,
We are as one and congregate
Full Moon Madness
We rise again to procreate
Somos mem�rias de lobos que rasgam a pele
Lobos que foram homens e o tornar�o a ser
ou talvez mem�rias de homens.
que insistem em n�o rasgar a pele
Homens que procuram ser lobos
mas que jamais o tornar�o a ser...
They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light
To blind you and me
Full Moon adness,
We are as one and congregate
Full Moon Madness
We rise again to procreate to seal our fate
Irreverence was cast out from the sky
And eternity lost its sex forever
And under the same heaven they voted to emptiness
They still celebrate under a Full Moon Madness...
They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light to blind you and me
Irreverence was cast out from the sky
And eternity lost its sex forever
And under the same heaven they voted to emptiness
We still celebrate under a Full Moon Madness...
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Other reviews
By cliffburton86
"The mastery of the Portuguese is fully expressed in this stunning record."
"The union between the strength of metal and gothic elegance...reaches the dimension of the sublime being!"
By _Ozzy
This album, sadly, marks the end of my relationship with Moonspell.
Fernando Ribeiro, always the true star, is undeniably the focus of the album and it hurts to hear him sing bland and senseless melodies.
