MOONSPELL Working On Ideas For Next Studio Album

The German edition of the Metal Hammer magazine conducted an interview with MOONSPELL vocalist Fernando Ribeiro at this year's Summer Breeze festival, which was held August 13-15, 2009 in Dinkelsbühl, Germany. Watch the chat at this location.

When asked if there are any plans for MOONSPELL to record a new studio album in the not-too-distant future, Fernando replied, "It's in the making. I already have all the story in my head, all the concept... It will be something more blasphemous but also more elegant [than what we've done before] . . . We're [getting there] and I hope we can record and release [the new MOONSPELL CD] in 2010. 'Night Eternal' [MOONSPELL's most recent studio LP, which came out in 2008] is not such an old album, but I think you should do albums when you feel like it, and we feel like definitely doing a new album in 2010."

Regarding whether the forthcoming MOONSPELL album will be a concept effort based on one particular theme, Fernando said, "I think it's gonna be made up of little stories. MOONSPELL never did, actually, these conceptual albums, as they are, like KING DIAMOND's 'Abigail', which is like a story with different chapters, or [QUEENSRŸCHE's] 'Operation: Mindcrime'. I think we always have been a conceptual band — 'Wolfheart' [1995] is a concept, 'Irreligious' [1996] is a concept, 'Memorial' [2006] is a concept, 'Night Eternal' is a concept, but never in the way of those albums I [mentioned]. I think everything has to tie with each other, and I think that's what we do with MOONSPELL — work hard that the music and the lyrics can tell someone a story, and to do that, you have to be conceptual, definitely."

MOONSPELL released a DVD, "Lusitanian Metal", in December 2008 in Europe via Century Media Records. The first disc features one complete live show recorded live in Katowice in 2004, all video clips (from "Opium" to "Everything Invaded"),an in-depth interview with all current band members and a detailed discography. The second disc offers a historical overview of the Portuguese metal group's period as a Century Media recording artist, with no less than 50 live tracks, starting with some very old-school live rehearsal recordings back in 1992 and ending with live footage from the "Spreading The Eclipse Tour".

The band's latest album, "Night Eternal", entered the national chart in Portugal at No. 3 and in Germany at No. 62. The follow-up to 2006's "Memorial" was recorded at Antfarm studios in Denmark with producer Tue Madsen (THE HAUNTED, DARK TRANQUILLITY, HALFORD).