Lusitanian darkened gothic progressors Moonspell have announced the conclusion of the recording sessions in Fascination Street Studios for their upcoming new record of originals entitled ‘Extinct’. Moonspell spent thirty-five days in Stockholm, Sweden, working hard and dreaming harder over the process involved in the production of their album.
[blockquote cite=”Fernando Ribeiro”]A grateful word for Jens Bogren, our producer, who put long hours into this album, never giving up on the vision he had for us; always there with one idea, with an unfathomable attention to detail, persisting like no other did before in taking all we got, not only as musicians but also as the men we are, once we have entered our fourth decade of life, our Autumn. Equal praise must be addressed to his right hand, David Castillo, who was tireless in getting the right tune, the right note, the right mood as he tracked our guitars and bass, down in Stockholm. I have no problems in telling you all, that this album contains not only the best but the most heartfelt performance we ever put out for a record. We had an urgency and a heavy heart to put into our songs, and they both understood it and brought it into light.[/blockquote]
Subsequently returning to Mother Lusitania, Portugal, Moonspell indulged in a peaceful sense of contemplation and inner-thoughts, serenely resting for today, even though their new effort was barely roughly mastered at the first listen.
[blockquote cite=”Fernando Ribeiro”]We are now, as I write this, living the best moment a band can live: listening to our album rough mixes in the peace and quiet of our headphones. The world doesn’t know about our music yet. The ones who care are anxious to have the same experience. The ones who despise us are oblivious to our existence and they couldn’t care less. The album will still be mixed, mastered, sent to journalists for trial. It will get online, somehow, we never know how, never will, and it will be shredded to pieces or incensed up to the skies.[/blockquote]
According to them, ‘Extinct’ promises to embrace their sound in a far remarkable sorrowful emotional feeling, resulting in aggressiveness mixed within dark sentiments of desolation. It is said to be their heaviest and most well-worked record to date, caught a momentum in which both sides of humanity – the gloomy darkened sad and the uncontrolled need for wrath – entwine altogether in a perfect equilibrium.
Even though the production process has been reasoned, a great deal is still to be answered:
[blockquote cite=”Fernando Ribeiro”]The cover will be done,deadlines will be met, we will take pictures, we will write countless mails, disagree with each other, agree with each other and find a way to keep our head above the waters, as we always did for 22 years, 23 when the album is released. It will be a lot of work, you can’t even imagine. We will have the haters, we will have the lovers. Some will kiss our ass, others will spit in our face. Others will just enjoy it. Some will say it’s not Metal anymore while they go on writing and worshipping Dollarsvision metal and “business as usual” bands, giving them album of the month titles by the dozens. Others will feel their heart is tightening, as if squeezed hard by an invisible hand.
The biggest magazines will ignore us. The smallest will support us. We will get fat and balding american wannabe metal journalists with their stupid YouTube reviews, drinking cheap beer in their parents’ basement bashing us, while they should be drinking red wine by candlelight, if they didn’t think it’s corny. Others, will do just that. Wine and candles.
Some will write in-depth reviews, saying beautiful words about our music, making us happy. Some will find it lame and “gay”. Others will understand the beauty of being fragile and truthful to your feelings, and recognize this old school feeling of doing music without an agenda, just for the sake of expressing yourself and deal with the demons that are eating you from the inside. Some will laugh, some will cry. Some will applaud this text and me being blunt. Others will say that I am always bitching.[/blockquote]
The “we cannot please them all” proposition on Fernando Ribeiro’s words couldn’t have been more truthful and important, demonstrating a solid case and positive personality. Moonspell throughout the years have released a collective of different records that were hard to digest to a certain extent, they have gained, lost, and regained fans to later continue; in such a vicious circle, holding them at the sharpness of the strange and unexpected when a new studio record is about to be released. We cannot simply predict how ‘Extinct’ may resound, as it might be a return to ‘Sin/Pecado’, ‘Irreligious’ era, or ‘The Butterfly Effect’, perhaps a darker version of ‘Darkness And Hope’ versus ‘The Antidote’, or something entirely distinct.
In other related news, the Brazilian scene embarked on a project organized between Heavy And Loud Press and The Burn Productions, the ‘… Em Nome Do Medo… – A Brazilian Tribute To Moonspell’ digital compilation which gathers eighteen Brazilian bands from eleven states (Northeast, Southeast, South and Midwest) paying homage to Portugal’s most recognizable and most prestigious metal outfit, Moonspell. The compilation has been issued this past October 31th, 2014, in the format of digital download, which curiously coincides with Halloween.
[blockquote cite=”Fernando Ribeiro”]Moonspell is very proud about this and we wish to extend our gratitude to all the bands and producers involved in the tribute. We hope this will also make our name more known in our brotherly country and that more Brazilian metal heads and goths fall under the spell.[/blockquote]
I am not very apologist of homage tributes, as most compilations tend to be tedious and combine different bands that often, are only participating not because they have Moonspell (for example) as musical reference, but other to let people recognize they coexist in a very strategic manner by catapulting their name while connecting it with a band with a higher position in the metal panorama. Unfortunately, I won’t mention the bands involved in the compilation because after trying to download the compilation through the three links provided on the official web site, the only thing I found is a corrupted zip folder that doesn’t decompress. This not to mention that I am intimate with some of the bands and few are not entirely of my liking, hence it would be quite unfair of me to become more compassionate and go deeper into this.
Apart from musical divergences, Heavy And Loud Press doesn’t seem to be performing fairly considering the advancement of this compilation… From what I have seen, promotion is strict to their web site; there are a few shared news, and the bands that share it do it mostly via Facebook. It may be too early to receive an overall perception of how well this release will be taken over, but so far the results are somehow, disappointing.
And frankly, why everyone refers to Aires as Portuguese? For your information: he was born in Caracas, Venezuela and his name is Aires Pereira, a non-official member of Moonspell, a hired bass player that also plays in another Portuguese melodic death metal outfit, Malevolence.
