There are certain bands I like that I don’t always follow closely. I’ll resurface in their discography when a new song grabs me, but then I might miss some albums along the way. Moonspell has always been that way for me. They recently released a new album called Far From God back on July 3^rd, and quite honestly, I think it’s one of their best.

Moonspell are a legendary Portuguese metal band that’s been around since 1994. Over the years, I’ve loved various albums, like 1998’s Sin/Pecado, 1999’s The Butterfly Effect, and others. I really started to notice them again with 2021’s amazing Hermitage, though, and Far From God was an anticipated album for that reason. The current lineup includes Fernando Ribeiro on vocals, Ricardo Amorim on guitars, Pedro Paixão on keys, Aires Pereira on bass, and Hugo Ribeiro on drums.

I’ve always loved their smooth as butter gothic metal sound, but this album really amplifies the melodic side. It’s not just dark and melancholy, a little doomy and fairly heavy, but it’s also catchy as hell at times, and incredibly well-written. I won’t lie and say this album is groundbreaking or pushing the envelope for the band, but it’s still seriously addictive.

The imagery, too, is shadowy and irreverent, just how I like it, and the album flows by without a hitch. It’s somehow both a dead-serious album, and also sort of fun, you know? One thing I noted is Fernando’s accent seems especially heavy on this album, specifically in the first half. But, I don’t know, that somehow adds a sense of mystery for me. I love it.

Far From God has eight tracks. I’d say that I prefer the first half slightly. The record opens with “Cross Your Heart” with its kinetic groove, a fleeting and bright track that will absolutely get caught in your head. Next come my favorites: the title track with its feathery rhythm layered against a dark groove—I adore the effervescent nature of the chorus, and “Biblical”, a darker and moodier piece with some sacred cinema in its wings. I love how it slowly builds from spacious melancholy into angst and riffs. The first half ends with “The Great Wolf in the Sky” with Alicia Nuhro on strings. It’s a sinister song, one that feels like a mystery under the night sky, one that layers utter beauty with gruffer, primal rhythms. It is so haunting.

In the second half, we get “Your Promise of Life”, a leering tune that fades between whispery corridors and brash vocals. It’s very effective. “For the Love of Mortals” is mostly a hushed song with quivering breath and careful ponderance in its lyrics; it feels like a wall of separation, and subsequent mourning over it. Of course, “Our Freedom to Fall” is probably the heaviest on the record, though it is still keyboard-forward in its primary melody. I love how dark it gets, how groovy its shadows are. The closer “Reconquista” has some style in its blood; with a fantastic guitar solo right in the middle, this is like a wave of Moonspell dark magic hovering and riffing its way to the ending.

Moonspell have been around a long time and they always deliver. Far From God might be one of their best, though. It has all the whispers and doomy darkness I crave, but also strong hooks, introspective lyrics, and a stream-of-consciousness feeling to its grooves and track listing that makes it fly by. It’s a great place to hear the band for the first time, too.

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