Was it based on personal experience or simply passive observation?

What happened in the recording studio or on stage to make one song sound different from the rest?

These are just some of the question bands and musicians attempt to answer in Line 'em Up - the newest page of The Power Of Metal.Dk.

This is where your favourite bands comment on their albums, track by track, because as someone once said, “Ideas are the building blocks of ideas”.

Enjoy!

Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album “Alpha Noir”. But could you please start off by telling us how this album is lyrically related to the previous “Night Eternal” album?

Moonspell: thanks for this chance of going through our new album. In fact there is always a streamline that connects every other Moonspell album lyrically but we always try to expand the concept a little bit with very new experience. I am fascinated since a tender age about the human mind and heart and the way it affects the world and the course of life and History. Alpha Noir tells about a new beginning based upon the ashes of a failed mankind, corrupted by Internet and by excessive freedom and it speaks of how we should stay together, endure the pain and keep our head above the waters when the flood comes at our door.

Why is the album divided into 2 parts, “Alpha Noir” and “Alpha White”

Moonspell: In fact it’s called Omega White, the second (bonus) album. I guess music presented itself to us like this. Normally we’d play with it on just one album but this time around we decided to plant these seeds in different soils and watch them grow. At first this was just an exercise, a creative principle but we found it convincing enough to become the concept of the album while allowing the band to make something we never did before and were craving for a while.

And now onto “Alpha Noir”… track-by-track, what inspired you, what topics are you dealing with, what do you want to express within the songs etc.  

01.  Axis Mundi

Into the Arena. The whole song is based upon the tragic but also apollonian, solar life of gladiators. Men and slaves fighting for survival but also with a secret wish of revolution, bringing down the system. We all have something we spin around to, love, glory, survival.

02.  Lickanthrope

An adult twist on big bad wolf/little red riding hood fable. A story which celebrates who we are, our attraction to the lunar side of things, refusing salvation brought by people who want in the end to destroy our lifestyle and the things we love.

03.  Versus

It’s a song which motivation lies in the state of the actual world and how it affects the way people deal with music, art and how disrespectful instead of positive can be the relationship between who makes and who receives. It has a lot to do with the Internet and the haters it brought and how it spoiled the magic of music. Personally I’d like to meet some of them face to face to see if their courage and wit lasts when apart from their screen.

04.  Alpha Noir

It’s probably the lyric that sums it up for the whole album, a new order, the desire for change in things, to deny what’s holy and sacred and not to be detained by the fragility of a world where an American yuppie decides the fate of nations that gave birth to their own nation, like Portugal or Greece, for example.

05.  Em Nome Do Medo

Sung in Portuguese this is a song about acting in the name of fear. Fear is something that weighs down on you like never before. In Portugal one even hesitates to buy a record, a pack of milk, going out at night, as something might happen. This song is trying to get people to be braver and to decide with reason but also with heart. That’s what separates life from mere survival.

06.  Opera Carne

It’s a song about lust and where it leads us. I did a lot of readings about Popes and Sex and High figures in Politics and society that besides all their dogma and morals still operate pretty much on basic instinct. I think lust should be glorified but one should not mix the worlds. A lot of stuff is still decided having the flesh as a standpoint, the whole world is based upon that, I believe.

07.  Love is Blasphemy

Love is a kind of blasphemy to yourself, your instinct , your nature as an individual being. That creates a tension that is never-ending but true love appears when you have the ability to desecrate the self and that’s also a beautiful thing. The song starts with Jesus getting into Jerusalem to preach false love, devoid of lust, of commitment, of heartfelt emotion to impose the praise of suffering, of celibacy that has originated Churches’ biggest sins, in the name of love, against children, for instance.

08.  Grandstand

My favourite song and chorus line. It’s a simple song about being curious and daring to know what hides behind the mask. The feeling I wanted with this one is like someone shouting on the top of a mountain as a way of relief , of being larger than life, stronger than our enemies.

09.  Sine Missione

It’s an instrumental track, so no words. The title brings us back to Axis Mundi, to an arena. Sine Missione was a fight till death.

Tell us a bit about the artwork – who made it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?

Seth Siro Anton a Greek artist and also the singer/bass player of Septic Flesh did it. I believe artwork to be as important as music or lyrics. For Moonspell it has too be deep, meaningful, thought provoking and I believe Seth achieved exactly that. It’s open to a lot of interpretations of course but for me the Alpha noir cover symbolizes tension while Omega White recalls a certain kind of mysterious, sensual dark peace in a better place than this world.

Any last words you want to round this interview off with?\

Thanks you for your time and support. Hope to play in Denmark to all Moonspell fans, it’s been quite a while!!! Cheers to everyone and all the best to your webzine!

MOONSPELL “Alpha Noir”
(as answered by vocalist Fernando Ribeiro)

Chris Galea, May 2012