Moonspell – 1755 – An Unknown Masterpiece?
Moonspell – 1755 – An Unknown Masterpiece?
By Victor Augusto
Hello my dear friends of Ever Metal. I hope you are all having an amazing new year celebration while reading this article. 2024 is over and I can say I had incredibly good achievements this year, despite all the setbacks from our lives. I celebrated my 40 years in such a good way and maybe the gods of Heavy Metal worked to send the Portuguese band Moonspell’s music my way. And I thought that was worth writing about.
It’s important to clarify that these words are not supposed to be an album review, but just a way to share the magical experience I had hearing this Masterpiece album called “1755”.
There are coincidences and events that made this journey through this album very interesting. I must warn you that this article is a bit long, but I do hope you have as much fun as I had, while writing it.
The Same flight – The Same Magic
Flight Air Portugal – TAP058 from Brasília (where I live in Brazil) to Lisbon (Portugal)!
Just now, when I decided to write about this album, I realised one huge coincidence. It’s the second time I discovered a masterpiece album during this flight. Maybe aviation and Heavy Metal have more connections than just Iron Maiden showing off their huge Boeing 747 and the fact I work as an Air Traffic Controller.
The first time it happened was back in 2018, when I had the chance to fly to Sweden to work one week there. During the first part of this journey (flight TAP058) I had an album to review called “The Blind Leading The Blind” from the Ukrainian band 1914. I clearly remember the magic during the first listen and still today I feel that this album is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard in my life. I still listen to it today like it is one of the classic albums that made me a fan of Heavy Metal when I was kid.
“The Blind Leading The Blind” had one more important chapter in my life when I showed the review I wrote about it to the owners of Ever Metal. At that time, back in 2019, I was looking to be part of this beautiful team, and they accepted me. Can you feel the magic around it?
Fast forward to now. This time I was going to Germany to spend a few days on vacation, also to celebrate my 40 years old doing things I enjoy like drinking good beer and running 10 kilometers in new places (yes, I am not 100% sane) and you must know what happened.
The Same flight! The same magic! The same excitement!
The only thing different was that this Moonspell album was released 7 years ago and I just picked it up to listen to because it was available on the flight entertainment system, in a section called Portuguese Rock.
Maybe TAP – Air Portugal should sponsor Heavy Metal music and Moonspell. Maybe this article could be used for something good too, in the near future. Who knows?
The Masterpiece
Similar to “The Blind Leading The Blind” album, it’s almost impossible to fully describe why Moonspell “1755” is a masterpiece. It deserves a book to mention everything in there. In both cases, I didn’t know too much about their music, which took me a few weeks of constant listening to try to find as many details as I could.
The main theme of this album is based on the earthquake that created a tsunami, devastating Lisbon, and part of Europe, in 1755. The band decided to sing it in Portuguese to really express the suffering that it was for everyone there. There are very well described things that create imagery of laments, among all the chaos, to a kind of anger at the lack of support from the religious leaders when their believers are most in need.
As I said before, I won’t review the album, because I am 7 years late to it, so I will try to mention the details (not all of them), from a few tracks, to explain why they are interesting inside the album context.
Maybe what I will write are just wrong perceptions from my sick mind, but I really think they are all connected with the entire theme!
Don’t call my psychiatrist after that, please!
Intriguing Details
1 – Em Nome do Medo
The opening track means “In the name of Fear”. Here there is a change between the words “God” and “Fear” (In the name of God/ In the Name of Fear). It is a dense instrumental track with just Vocals, Orchestra and Choir making me imagine someone praying with fear, like this person is suffering the wrath of Gods.
2 – 1755
This song kind of describes the force of the destruction made by the tsunami and the six days of burnings that it created. There is a part when the vocalist Fernando Ribeiro sings (in Portuguese) “What is this force that doesn’t retreat?”, but when he repeats this phrase for the second time, he suddenly stops the phrase before the end (What is this force that doesn’t…). At this exact moment, when he stops, there is a sudden drum fill. I immediately imagined, like a movie in my mind, someone being hit by a wave of water or some kind of destruction before he could finish his words.
Maybe I’ve been watching too many Action Movies.
3 – In Tremor Dei
The best song!
I love this song, musically speaking!
There is a more poetic side to this song’s lyrics. The title means “In Fear of God” and the chorus says “Lisbon in flames, falling apart, shaking without God”
The band invited Paulo Bragança to increase the lamentation in it. Paulo is a famous Portuguese singer of Fado. I don’t know too much about Fado, but from what I could research, this traditional Portuguese musical style is used to speak about feelings like we hear in “1755”.
4 – Todos os Santos
In many parts of the album, you can hear a description of the events of devastation in Lisbon, also the decreasing of people’s faith. Lyrics such as ‘Turns water into glass’, from the song ‘Abanão’, could be an allusion to when Jesus turned water into wine, but here water is being turned into something to make you bleed or suffer. At least I imagined broken glasses coming into the water.
The song ‘Todos os Santos’ means “All the Saints”. This song constantly repeats that the Saints are not coming, maybe because the earthquake happened on November 1st, exactly when All-Saints’ Day, a Christian holiday, is celebrated.
5 – 1 de Novembro
November 1st. The day when Europe started to be destroyed, with Lisbon being the first place hit. The song goes in a fast cadence and, again, the way that the riffs and the drumbeats flow make me imagine a movie, when you are seeing the water invading the city and taking everything away.
As I said before, this day is the All-Saints’ Day and one interesting fact is the name Santos (Saint) is a famous family name, even in Brazil, after the Portuguese colonization over this land. I don’t know the origins of it, but I should know, considering I have this last name.
6 – Lanterna dos Afogados (Paralamas do Sucesso Cover)
“Flashlight for the Drowned”! Just the title can intrigue us. It is a very famous song from a Brazilian Rock band Paralamas do Sucesso. This band hit the Brazilian mainstream during the eighties and part of the nineties, being part of the first (and very famous) edition of Rock in Rio, in 1985. The vocalist/guitarist Herbert Vianna almost had his career interrupted by a plane crash in 2001, that made him lose movement in his legs, but the band is still active, playing some important concerts and they even returned to Rock in Rio in 2024.
‘Lanterna dos Afogados’ fits in 1755’s theme. If I’m not wrong, the original song was inspired by historic tales of wives waiting for their husbands to return when they go to sea to fish in small ships, as a way of surviving, in the Northeast coast of Brazil. These wives had flashlights to guide the ships back, because there was no Lighthouse or anything to support them. Sometimes, not all ships could return, which explains why the song is a bit melancholic, despite it being a huge success among Brazilian fans, even out of the Rock scenario.
An Unknown Masterpiece?
To end this long article, there are a few questions for you.
Is “1755” an Unknown Masterpiece?
First, what makes an album a masterpiece?
For me, it is a mix of many things. I can number few of them below:
1 – To love every single track of the album, no matter the order you play it.
If you feel that punch every time one of the album songs plays, it is a good indicator that it is a masterpiece.
2 – To survive the test of time. If this album is still able to have this impact on someone, after 7 years, for sure it is going on the right path. Let’s wait 10 more years and then you can ask me if I still love this album. If I say yes, it will prove that I’m right.
3 – Why Unknown Masterpiece?
The answer is the same for “What makes a band famous?” Well…If you find the answer, then quit your job and enjoy all the money you will probably make after discovering it.
I believe that the Portuguese lyrics had a huge impact on the listeners from countries that speak this language. The way I felt connected to the entire context and music would never be the same without it.
Conversely, Moonspell probably lost out on listeners from other countries, who don’t understand Portuguese. It’s weird how the same formula that can make it a masterpiece can also make the record a bit unknown worldwide. Lucky, a masterpiece is not made by just one good detail.
4 – To catch listeners from other musical styles.
The entire composition, recording, instruments and production are close to perfection and I’m not saying it like I am that kind of fan that loves everything from their favourite band.
1914 for example, plays a kind of fast and brutal Death Metal totally in the way I like, different from Moonspell, which are also pretty Heavy, but in a very different way.
Even though Moonspell is not the specific kind of music I often listen to, they could strongly catch my attention.
Thank you for reading!
I hope you all have enjoyed reading it and congratulations to Moonspell for making such an incredible album, full of passion around it. Definitely, it’s a great achievement in their career.
My amount of rambling words here was made possible by help from my long-time friend and colleague of reviews in Brazil, Mr. William Ribas, who did a beautiful interview with Fernando Ribeiro (vocalist) when “1755” was released. At that time, in 2017, I was just an amateur reviewer, initiating my journey on it and without friends like William, I would never have had the courage to write things like this then.
See you all on my next flight!
Happy new year!
‘In Tremor Dei’ (Official Video)
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