MOONSPELL's New Album Will Be About Solitude, Says FERNANDO RIBEIRO

MOONSPELL singer Fernando Ribeiro spoke to A&P Reacts about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next album. He said (see video below): "When we could get together again in our studio [during the coronavirus pandemic], our main priority was to write new music. We had written a lot of stuff back in 2019, which was cool stuff, but I thought it could be much better. So I talked with Pedro [Paixão, keyboards] and Ricardo [Amorim, guitar], and I said, 'Well, let's change a little bit. Let's take what's really, really excellent and get rid of all the other parts,' and then we started a bit anew. So we still have a lot to do about this album, to define the concept. I think it won't be an album like [2017's] '1755', which was a concept album sung in Portuguese; this one will be sung in English. Also, it follows up much more, lyrically, stuff like [2008] 'Night Eternal', [2012's] 'Alpha Noir', [2015's] 'Extinct'. So the new album will be about solitude, which is a coincidence, because I thought about writing about this way before the COVID left us hanging in our own places — not alone, but not in society. So the album will be a little actual about it."

MOONSPELL will tentatively enter the studio in September to record its new LP with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (PARADISE LOST, ULVER, GHOST). An early 2021 release via Napalm Records is expected.

"[Jaime] did the last PARADISE LOST, 'Obsidian', he did the first GHOST, 'Opus [Eponymous]', he did CATHEDRAL — he did a lot of bands, he has a great curriculum, and he's definitely a very nice guy," Fernando said. "So we start working with him in September, and probably around Halloween time, we'll already have the master for the new album, which I think will be out in February of 2021."

The upcoming MOONSPELL album will be the band's first with Hugo Ribeiro (no relation to Fernando) who replaced original drummer Miguel "Mike" Gaspar earlier in the year.

MOONSPELL's latest release was the "Lisboa Under The Spell" live DVD/CD, which came out in August 2018 via Napalm Records. The live DVD/Blu-ray/3CD package captured MOONSPELL's performance before 4,000 fans at the sold-out Campo Pequeno arena in their hometown of Lisbon, Portugal on February 4, 2017.

MOONSPELL's fourth album, 1999's "The Butterfly Effect", will be re-released on August 7 via Napalm Records. The reissue will include two new remixes, a completely re-designed cover and layout artwork, as well as an exclusive excerpt from the Butterfly FX chapter of the band's official biography, "Wolves Who Were Men".

MOONSPELL's most recent studio album, "1755", came out in November 2017. The Portuguese-language disc was written about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, which occurred in the Kingdom of Portugal. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost totally destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas.

Photo credit: Rui Vasco