Colombia's El Santuario Del Rock recently conducted an interview with vocalist Fernando Ribeiro of Portuguese metallers MOONSPELL. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

MOONSPELL and Swedish black metallers MARDUK will join forces for the "Voices From The Dark" North American co-headlining tour in February/March 2013. Support on the trek will come from Colombian/American black metal rising demons INQUISITION, Italy's gothic melodic sensation THE FORESHADOWING, and Sweden's dark rock/metal band DEATH WOLF (featuring MARDUK members).

MOONSPELL's new album, "Alpha Noir", was released on April 27 via the band's new label home, Napalm Records. The cover artwork for the CD is an intricate, marvellous and symbolic creation by Seth Siro Anton, the Greek artist who collaborated with the band on "Night Eternal".

In a recent interview with Decibel magazine, Ribeiro stated about the meaning behind "Alpha Noir" and its companion album, "Omega White": "If we chose to ignore the detail who runs mankind and the world since the dawn of knowledge and conscience, birth and death, solar/lunar, dare to know/ignorance is bliss, the best thing I have to offer is that 'Alpha Noir' is someone screaming at your face while 'Omega' retreats into being the voice inside your head or the unsuspecting murmur in your lips. The stand for both albums is quite different and maybe I probably have watched 'Spartacus: Blood And Sand' too many times, but I grew fond of seeing 'Alpha' as the arena and 'Omega' as the healing room. Somewhat the albums split in two and if even both have an intention of proximity, one goes the way of interiority, while the other, if all works, will incite you to be yourself, to love yourself as you are, to be fine without the annoying prospect of salvation. 'Alpha Noir' is, for me, like a code, people would say to each other, in secret first, then out loud, as they are tired of the ways of the old world, now that they know how to put a face to the evil and fear around them. 'Alpha' is one album that roots in what is around us today. And for a Portuguese what is around today is the fact that the already few people who knew anything at all about our country will now see us as a specie of beggars, of people who can't handle their bills, all because a yuppie in New York woke up in the wrong side of bed and labeled us a junk, disregarding years of history and culture. Thus, people will get fired and broke being that the biggest, deepest cut is the one that makes them start to losing self-esteem and the love for their country. Even if it's based on poetry, metaphor, after all 'Alpha Noir' it's a record, but not a pamphlet, it's the only way we know how to reach the world and, hopefully, in the process agitate some minds, like ours were agitated by other bands before. All this while listening to the music, of course, that's how ambitious we are. In 'Omega', we deposit the broken hearts, the tribute to the dead and greatly missed friends, the erotic dreams we couldn't fulfill, that kind of things you go through on your late thirties, with the forties like Damocles sword hanging on the back of your neck."

Interview (audio):