Occult pagan black metal legends Opera IX have revealed the cover artwork and tracklisting for their upcoming seventh full-length album, The Gospel, out via Dusktone in 2018. The much-anticipated new opus from the Italian masters is currently being recorded at both Music Ink and Occultum Studios, and produced by Ossian and Federico Pennazzato (Death SS).
Opera IX mastermind Ossian comments: "The Gospel is a concept album focused on the Italian myth of "Aradia And The Gospel Of The Witches, written by Charles Godfrey Leland and containing what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy, documenting their beliefs and rituals. Leland reported receiving the manuscript from his primary informant on Italian witchcraft beliefs, a woman Leland referred to as "Maddalena". Its chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals, and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Roman Catholic Church."