MOONSPELL Resume Work On New Album, Continue Label Negotiations

MOONSPELL frontman Fernando Ribeiro has posted the following message on the group's official web site:

"I reckon May was left out in blank yet nothing really exciting happened anyway besides a few gigs and assorted practises so nobody missed much, really. In any case as I just finished MOONSPELL's new calendar, filling all days up to the end of September (!),I felt it was high time to drop some words to our lunar Infernet community which has been restless these days with mostly petty stuff, unfortunately, that has not go unnoticed by anyone, to the despair of all.

"The good news are, though, that we have resumed working on the new album and more and more songs keep springing up which is only good because it means this time around we will be able to choose between a wider variety of songs and moods. We will book the studio for September and this time around we are travelling to Germany again to work at the Woodhouse studios under the hawk eye of a longtime acquaintance: Waldemar Sorychta who has previously worked with us in 'Wolfheart', 'Irreligious' and 'Sin/Pecado'.

"The music and lyrics are finally gaining the texture and the structure of album worthy material. We had eight songs on a first demo but now we are looking at four, five other songs including one that will be a strong candidate to be the first advance of the record. A lot of people approach us to know the way it will sound and I have been trying my best to describe it on recent interviews but let me tell you how hard it is to state something at this stage of things. I can only come close to the truth by saying that the new songs enthusiasm me and also that they intrigue me taking me in many thoughts ad travels of self discovery which are truly fascinating. To say the music is deeply atmospheric still more powerful and epic than ever is redundant. MOONSPELL was, is and will be always describable by those words so I can only say for you to wait patiently and to let us reward you in the end. Btw the name of the album has been found already.

"There is still no other news about who is going to release it or when as the negotiations for the new deal are not concluded yet. Some labels have turned it down, some others are excited to have it, but we will make the best decision possible regarding our present and our future as a band. About the date of release we will be looking most likely at the end of the year or early 2006.

"The DVD is now on full production. Contents are being finalized and material is being chosen. As you know by now the main feature will be the Live at Katowice, Poland captured in 2004, but we will throw in a lot of bonus material which will include previously unreleased stuff like With Full Force Festival, Rock in Rio and Dortmund's Soundgarden 1996's performances. Besides the full collection of videos we will add up the making of from 'Everything Invaded' and I will see you in my dreams clips. We have also came up with a special section which will allow you to have exclusive info and photos from the band. Finally our piece de resistance will be a short feature documentary filmed on location in Portugal, written by myself (nobody else took the job) and narrated by a friend of us from the music scene whom, unfortunately, we can only confirm later. This movie will allow you to understand where MOONSPELL comes from (and goes back to),with appointments from our upbringing which might help one to know us even deeper. The DVD is scheduled to be released worldwide via Century Media not later than the end of September, early October and will be produced by Century together with Tribal DDB Portugal (artwork, documentary, etc.) and MMP (menus, authoring, etc.) in Poland.

"Moonspell.com, the new site, is also in full progress now. It will be designed by Adriano Esteves and his new company Burokratik (www.burokratik.com). We took new pictures already for the site and explored further our ideas to make an altogether more attractive, practical and 'mystical' site with a better working spirit, prompter updates, and more interactivity by the means of photography and video. One of the sections will be a diary or a blog maintained by me in which everything can happen from advance printing of new lyrics and themes to short tales or poems (by the way I am translating my second poetry book to English myself) and on the other side you will be able to buy new and exclusive MOONSPELL merchandise directly from our site for the first time ever.

"In the live field we are not playing as much festivals this year as we would like to but we look forward to a more optimistic season next year with the new album. In the meanwhile you can check the additional dates elsewhere on the site announcing our return to Finland, Suomi for the great Nummirock, the festival in Elvas to promote the Portuguese metal scene in an initiative from A.Freitas, the most prominent metal journo from Portugal and our premier at the now rebuilt Ponta Delgada's (Azores) Coliseum which will be a landmark in our career. We are still and already working on further shows which will be announced as they are confirmed by the promoters.

"I have not forgot the thematic show of the ten years for 'Wolfheart' when we would play all the songs of that record on anunique night. The band was very open to this idea and we might find time to do it in a near future though not before the end of the summer but for a fact before the year runs out. Lisbon will welcome this project when due. Then we will see.

"Individually I have finished work for my new literary project which has not still a release date confirmed (we are building a pattern here!). This time around I wrote a horror fiction tale which will bridge and connect nine other tales by the writer H.P.Lovecraft, translated into Portuguese by several persons connected with literature in Portugal. The book is called 'Os melhores contos de Lovecraft' (The best tales of H.P.Lovecraft) and will be out through Saida de Emergência editions (www.saidadeemergencia.com). Also I will be having some DJ sessions throughout the summer starting at the Dark Fashion clothing release party, the 11th/6 at a nightclub in Lisbon.

"Pedro/MOONSPELL has remixed a song by the Portuguese band F.E.V.E.R. which is out on their new remixes LP. The song is 'This is Disease'. You can order and find more about this CD at the following sites: www.fever.web.pt or www.thisco.net."