Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} XX Moonspell 20 anos by Fernando Ribeiro XX Moonspell 20 anos by Fernando Ribeiro. "It's hard being bored in a band such as ours." As Portuguese metallers Moonspell came to visit Stockholm, Sweden, as supporting act to British outfit Cradle Of Filth, Metal Covenant sought up the band's lead vocalist Fernando Ribeiro for a little chat. Tobbe: It's been about 4 months since 1755 was out and was that record harder to make than all the other records considering its story? Fernando: Not really. I mean, musicians always value their work a lot and we're always telling [Whispers] "Oh, it's was so hard and so difficult." and sometimes we forget that that's actually the most pleasant part of being in the band, 'cause we're able to tell such a story, because this story is so important to the Portuguese people and for me personally I studied it both in school and at university. So to answer your question, it wasn't hard to make and we were very inspired by it. It wasn't supposed to be a full album; just an EP. But we got carried away and Napalm was cooling off, you know, to let us change all the plans. And the fact that it's in Portuguese and that there was this concept that was so strong and evident for us, I think, really helped the making of the album, in all aspects, from lyrics to storytelling, up to everything, you know, and Moonspell always considers albums. We hate when people say albums are dead; "No, they are not dead. They are the most noble form of expression of a musician.". So, it's great to make a little concept that grows up to play a whole tour, singing in Portuguese everywhere, and the artwork and everything, so yeah, I think things have really fallen into place with this one. Tobbe: And does something feel different inside of you when you sing in your own native language instead of singing in English? Fernando : I think so. I mean, I've sung in my native language many times before, but not just on a full Portuguese written album. You know, we'll always have Opium, Alma Mater, Full Moon Madness and other stuff I did in Portuguese. I mean, I think first there's way less switches to pull when you're singing and thinking in Portuguese, you know. Even though I always try to improve my English, my accent, my vocabulary, Portuguese is just natural to me. It's just as natural as breathing. You know, I wake up at home speaking Portuguese; not on tour though. [Laughs] But on the other hand, no other language could add to the experience as much as Portuguese does. That was the key factor for us picking up Portuguese. And when we started, especially as a singer, it was really cool because I wanted this album to be full of dramatics and a lot of the music were already spot on there with all the arrangements and the tragedy. People say symphonic, but I hate the word symphonic. I don't like symphonic metal; well, not most of it. And live, especially, I go to different places, I think, and that's very good for me, because I want to go to these places when I write in English as well, even if it's more troublesome. It's hard to describe the feelings, but I have this story with a friend of mine [Paulo Moreira], who wrote our biography book [XX - 20 Anos/20 Years], and he was there for me in many rehearsals, you know. So when I was doing the vocals, or singing, not only he, but also some Portuguese friends, were, like, looking at me, all scared and shit, saying like "You're very angry. You're very emotional. It's just a rehearsal.". But I can not sing this otherwise and that's even on the soundcheck and everything, you know. So that's really nice in fact, definitely. Tobbe: Normally you would write the music and put lyrics on top of them, but here you had a full story and… Fernando : Yeah. But that's not really the way we work with Moonspell. I'm a very productive guy with lyrics. I love to write and to read and one thing adds to another. So I always have a lot of stuff, good stuff and shitty stuff, and some of it can definitely be used for the band. So with Moonspell we kind of do these things simultaneously. Sometimes I have the lyrics and they have songs and they show me the musical parts and say "Well, it's time to give a name to the song.". But I think that it really helps the music, especially on 1755, because we kind of consider the lyrics also to be kind of a script, you know. So I think the music sometimes follows the script a little bit, or the music can be the script and I can write something accordingly as well. But probably, unlike other bands, as a lyric writer, and especially if we get this chance, I hate to save everything for last and just do some lyrics, you know. Because music has to have lyrics and I think music is music and lyrics, you know. So we always work on things as a group and these things can not really be separated in Moonspell. Tobbe: Is 1755 the only album you will ever make that's completely sung in Portuguese? Fernando : Well, when we made it we thought so, of course. And also to make it special in a way. But I can't lie; there's many things I wouldn't probably do, or would do with Moonspell, but after 1755 was recorded and done and the ideas were all there, I have to say we were quite happy with the album. We didn't know what would really happen to the album, because it was just a one-off, like, thing in Portuguese, besides in Portugal and in Brazil. But great things happened, so I don't think it's a closed door, but an open window, because we found a different Moonspell after 25 years. That's awesome for us, because it's still Moonspell, still our sound, but it sounds really fresh in our ears. Portuguese history is long and eventful and I think this is the top, like, historical fact or event that we wanted to cover, because it's so similar to the last, you know, lyrical orientation and very apocalyptic and thinking about the end, like the child of The Cold War that I am. And we had this tragic, apocalyptic event, and people thought it was the end of the world, just in our city, in Lisbon, in our capital and it was a great subject to write about. Tobbe: After being around for so long as Moonspell has been, does a band need to do something different too, in order to not get bored? Fernando: It's not a question of being bored. It's hard being bored in a band such as ours. You know, we have a lot of stuff to do, we have a lot of touring. It's more a fact of being creative. I think a lot of bands weigh their importance in success, or money, or likes, or whatever to feel meaningful in the scene. I think our way of feeling meaningful is definitely to be creative and I think that's why the future has always been so important for Moonspell and also, if you look at our discography, we admit it's a bit crazy, but it's also honest because we did whatever we wanted, you know. Regardless we were doing big or small, or that we were trendy, or if gothic metal was like this or like that, we never really cared about anything else than writing music, and people can just listen to our records, out of our very own ideas. Sometimes against the advice of, you know, management and label. We never made a big deal about it, but we were always very straightforward. Many things will be out of our control as a band, but not the music. So I think it's more a thing of being creative. I think it's a very joyful moment for a band, especially when you have made so many albums, this is our 12th album, to find that there's still places to go, and even though there's many stages now in the Moonspell career, and going to a very recent one, I think both our last album Extinct and 1755, even though they're very different, are very adult, you know. It's not a boring word, becoming an adult, and for me it means maturity. And also, you know, try to always have this thing that early Moonspell has, which is a strive or hunger to be original; to have our own sound despite our influences. Tobbe: Does everything you do today still gets compared to what you did in the '90s? Fernando: Not really, but some people are still whining about it. But every time less really. Like, for instance, we came on this tour and we play one song from Wolfheart, that's it, and nobody went home unsatisfied. We play a couple of songs from Irreligious, but we play so much more from 1755. And it also depends on the message you give to people, you know. Like, Moonspell is 25 years and last year we did some shows, playing the whole Wolfheart and playing the whole Irreligious, and we've even recorded a DVD with those shows, to show people that our past is something very important for us, even more important for us than for probably all the fans. And Wolfheart was such a big surprise for everyone and we were, like, the most amazed about it. I remember coming home in the plane listening to a tape, of course, and I was like "I can't believe we can sound like this.". I was really happy, because "Wow! This is the sound of a band.". But "We have a lot of work to do. I have a lot to learn as a singer and as a lyric writer. The other guys as well. But I think it's a solid start.". But then again, we didn't know, and now Wolfheart is an album that is quoted in every metal history book, by all the fans, etc. So, I don't think we get that very much, but there will always be people grabbing into the past, you know, and when you are in the band you understand it a little bit better. I don't mind that and we still love to play those songs, but I don't wanna be, like, a Moonspell tribute. I wanna be Moonspell, not Moonspell tribute. Other people can do that; that would be such an honor; but not us, you know. Tobbe: It was a different musical climate back then of course and if I mention today's musical climate for bands, what comes to your mind then? Fernando: I don't wanna sound like an old goof and I'm always speaking about the future. But the future for metal I think was born in the '90s, really. The '90s were so important, because there were all these big bands still and then there was the black album [by Metallica] and then it seems like metal went to a very popular mass revolution with, you know, Black Sabbath again, Kiss came back, etc. So I think the musical climate is very interesting, even though you have to be more careful with what you choose, because especially the new bands' love is wrongly centered, you know. I don't mind them; it's their education; it's like they wanna have success, they wanna spread the music, they wanna do everything, they wanna go to the merch booth every fucking night, you know, to get the fans. And I think we never treated our fans like our clients, you know. It's just free for all; you can like Moonspell, you can hate Moonspell. It's much better for us if you like us than if you hate us, but we always understood that there will be two forms of reaction and I think people nowadays just wanna be loved, you know, unconditionally, and then, when they get shit online, they are, like, busy defending themselves. And I think that's the actual climate for today. More bands playing safe, more fans wanting to be customers and not fans and I don't like it because it affects the creativity of music. Tobbe: Not so many Portuguese metal bands get big in Europe and is that because the scene is just too small in Portugal? XX Moonspell 20 anos by Fernando Ribeiro. Regular Edition Languages: Portuguese, English (Bilingue, Bilingual) The never-before-told story of the greatest portuguese Heavy Metal band Moonspell. "We might be not as cool as the Swedish, not as evil as the Norwegian, not so badass as the American, not so grand as the British or not as good archievers as the German bands. We are Portuguese. And this is a piece of our History that, in all it´s sorrows and excellent times, is worth to be told. If you are holding this book in your hands, you´ll agree. You´re a true fan. Thank you!" Fernando Ribeiro, Mooonspell. FERNANDO RIBEIRO Says MOONSPELL Will Enter Studio In 2020: 'It's Sounding Very Melancholic' Tinnitus Metal Radio conducted an interview with frontman Fernando Ribeiro of Portuguese metallers MOONSPELL at this year's Headbanger's Ball Fest in Izegem, Belgium. You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET ). On the band's 2018 "Lisboa Under The Spell" live CD/DVD release: Fernando : " 'Lisboa Under The Spell' was a very big project for MOONSPELL . We didn't have very many live albums in our career, just a few things in bonus. We had the 'Lusitanian Metal' [DVD] many years ago that we recorded in Poland, so it was time to do something that will document the essence of MOONSPELL , which is being a live band. Being on tour made all the difference in the world for us when we released 'Wolfheart' back in '95. We wanted to record in our capital, Lisbon, because we have, obviously, a great history together with Lisbon. When you come from the suburbs like MOONSPELL , you feel like you'll never make it to your capital. It was quite good that we had this packed show and everybody was there, many people from Portugal, but also a lot of people came from many countries, a couple of Belgium people, at least. Yeah, it was a cool release. People really liked it. It was very complete. Obviously, it was hard to choose [a setlist] for us as well, but we tried to not only celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band with that album by presenting the music that laid our foundations as a band, which is hands down 'Wolfheart' and 'Irreligious' , but also the 'Extinct' record, which was the last album beside '1755' that also represents a more modern phase of MOONSPELL many years after. I think it was quite complete, I think it was hard for the band to do this little-over-three-hour show. It takes a lot of preparation. I think it's a very cool release. It feels like it's old-school. People get a lot of music. I don't know anyone who sat down and listened through the whole thing, but it's a nice experience because it's three of our most important albums." On re-releasing the song "Scorpion Flower" earlier this year as a standalone single: Fernando : "The thing that sometimes people don't understand is that being a musician, metal musician, is great, but there are all these behind-the- scenes things with the industry that sometimes you just get the short stick. That was a bit of the case with albums like 'Night Eternal' and 'Memorial' . SPV went bankrupt and the fans couldn't get the albums. The albums were sold out, they couldn't get them on CD, they couldn't get them on LP, they couldn't get them on digital. I find this very bizarre and very funny because everybody complains to me that records don't sell. I say, 'Well, but people want to buy it.' You add two plus two, and you make the record available. One of our ex-labels, SPV , who released 'Memorial' and 'Night Eternal' , was very cool. They passed us the rights so we could do a band edition. MOONSPELL is quite special for us, and it's great that someone involved with the band can pick up these releases because we have access to many things: bonus songs, etcetera, that other people don't have. It's going great. People really liked it. We released a really beautiful vinyl as well, totally special edition with all the songs we recorded. We're not the kind of label that wants to make, three, four, five editions with one different song. It came out well. We have more plans. 'Scorpion Flower' has never been released on vinyl. People loved it." On the status of the band's next studio album and which label will release it: Fernando : "It will be on Napalm [ Records ]. We're still a Napalm band. [The band's] Alma Mater Records is something we do for the old repertoire of MOONSPELL , and also to distribute our music in Portugal because we work with multi-nationals in Portugal. We were not enjoying it. They were talking about problems for a metal band…we don't like to waste time, so that's one of the reasons we formed our own label, but not to release MOONSPELL so far. Maybe there will be a time sometimes, but not real soon. Our new album is going to be very different. It's picking up from 'Extinct' , not from '1755' . We're writing down the album already. We have six songs ready. We love what we are doing. It's very melancholic, it's very existential. It's very different from what we did. Different is always something people will always expect from MOONSPELL . We're having lots of fun doing it because we love songwriting. I think the album will be coming out, we're going to record it in 2020. We're in no rush. For sure it's coming out in 2020. We will definitely like to spend a lot of work on this album. We start the summer festival season here. We still have a few shows, but in between all the shows, etcetera, we are going to always be at the studio recording and constructing the new album." MOONSPELL 's "Lisboa Under The Spell" live DVD/CD was released in August 2018 via Napalm Records . The live DVD/Blu-ray/3CD package captures the band'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 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. La Poza (del Meh) 20. años. tiene mi amoooor. Le gusta. tanto. bailar el rooooock. Sí, amigos, 20 añitos cumple el enorme Wolfheart , el primer LP de los portugueses Moonspell . Un disco redondo en el que todas sus piezas encajan a la perfección y en el que se pueden encontrar múltiples influencias desde folk a black metal, todo aderezado por el toque gótico que tanto ha caracterizado siempre el sonido de la banda de Brandoa. La formación en ese momento la completaban Duarte Picoto conocido como ' Mantus ' a la guitarra, Miguel Gaspar 'Mike' a la batería, Pedro Paixão 'Passioniss' a las teclas, João Pedro 'Ares' al bajo y todo liderado por Fernando Ribeiro a las voces. El disco fue grabado en Alemania y producido por Waldemar Sorytcha (que ha currado con gente del rollo como Therion, Lacuna Coil, The Gathering o Tiamat) . Cabe decir que, pese a ser un discazo de LPB (La Polla Bendita), Wolfheart no tuvo una gran repercusión en su momento, puesto que la fama de verdad les llegaría con su segundo trabajo, Irreligious que es otra joya. Hechas las presentaciones, vamos con el disco. El material que contiene este CD es una maravilla, sus cerca de 44 minutos (sin contar Ataegina) valen oro de pe a pa. Una conjunción de melodías, partes oscuras, partes pesadas, partes rozando más el metal extremo, puntos de folk metal. lo tiene todo y todo encaja. No hay una sola pieza, un solo segundo del disco que desentone con el resto. Esto empieza con Wholfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade) que se inicia con una suave intro acústica para romper con el desgarrador grito de Fernando Ribeiro con el que se inicia el cotarro. A partir de ahí las melodías tan típicas del sello de Moonspell nos empiezan a atrapar y, ay amigo, ya no nos van a soltar. este tema junto a Love Crimes son como una demostración de lo que es capaz esta banda, una carta de presentación en la que introducen todo su arsenal, siendo necesarias varias escuchas para apreciar todos sus detalles al 100%. Dos temas y ya me tenéis acojonaito, cabrones. con Lua D'Inverno y Trebaruna tenemos el puntito folk del disco, la primera a modo de intro instrumental y la segunda cantada íntegramente en portugués, lo cual le aumenta el puntillo de teatralidad que la hace tan grande. Además, este disco cuenta con dos clasicazos intocables en los setlists de la banda, Vampiria y mi favorita de siempre, Alma Mater . Un tema potentorro y directo, marcado por un riff junto con un ritmo de batería que hipnotizan a cualquiera y liderado por el registro más cercano al black metal del señor Ribeiro . Clásico imprescindible tanto de Moonspell como del metal gótico en general. La discográfica Century Records añadió al LP el tema Ataegina, corte de estilo folk metal con un ritmo muy coreable y que entra realmente bien. Al final queda un trabajo en el que la banda pone todo su arsenal de forma salvaje y con un hambre y una ambición típicas del que debuta y quiere poner los cojones sobre la mesa para decir, eh! que aquí estoy. Aunque el primer trabajo oficial de la banda es el EP Under The Moonspell , con este disco se daba el pistoletazo de salida a una brillante carrera, con algún punto bajo ( Sin/Pecado ) pero que en general se ha mantenido a un alto nivel durante casi 25 años dando pelotazos como Irreligious o Night Eterna l y lo que les queda, colega. De momento Extinct , su último trabajo es una joya más que añadir a su brillante historia y en directo están en un excelente estado de forma.