The Moonspell singer says coming from Portugal means the work has to be better, and explains the five-year wait for Far From God.
Fernando Ribeiro does not think Moonspell were ever owed an audience. Portugal, as he sees it, gives a band nothing to trade on.
Speaking to Finland’s “Rockin Häkissä“, the singer drew a line between where his band comes from and where most of the bands their fans follow come from.
“We come from Portugal. We never expected to have any kind of success, so we have a different feeling about being in a band than many bands, like, for instance, from Finland or Sweden where there are so many successful bands. For us it’s a big privilege. It’s a big honor, and we have to do stuff with a lot of quality because people will not look to Portugal, unfortunately, for metal or for rock music. They will look to other countries. So when they contact with the Portuguese bands such as Moonspell or other bands, you really have to be really good at what you do. Otherwise they will just discard you,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
That standard is part of why the new record took as long as it did. Far From God, eight songs, arrived on July 3 through Napalm Records, the first Moonspell album since Hermitage in February 2021, which had been recorded the year before that.
“I think it’s always challenging for a band that is going to be 35 years next year to make new music,” Ribeiro said of the process. You always wonder if there is room for our new music because we have such great albums in the past and such a legacy and such great memories with the fans, starting from Wolfheart up to Hermitage. So it took us a while from the last album that was out in 2021, even though we recorded in 2020, so it’s, like, five, six years, to understand what kind of music, what kind of style would Moonspell want to pursue because we have a lot of musical different proposals in the albums. But once we got ourselves into, ‘Let’s make a gothic metal album,’ very simple, very laid back, very atmospheric, very melodic, we started writing very fast. So even though there’s five years [between] the release of the last album, Hermitage, to Far From God, we were quite busy touring. We did an album with the symphonic orchestra as well. We did all kinds of stuff. But all of those were also steps to make Far From God into an album that we are very proud of, an album of its time, an album that sounds really much like Moonspell, that has our signature all over it, and also an album that is getting a great response from the fans because they identify more Moonspell with this kind of music than probably when we experiment.”
He added: “I think there’s room for everything, and I think we’re very happy about this album. It’s a solid album — eight songs, and they all sound powerful. They all sound legit. So far so good. I mean, we’re very thankful. It’s our fourteenth studio album, so we don’t take anything for granted. But the response is massive.”
Asked how a band avoids repeating itself that deep into a discography, he described a method that has not changed.
“I think that’s the tricky part for every band,” Ribeiro explained. “But you have to love it, and you have to do it with proximity. Moonspell is very old school when writing. We don’t write remotely. We have all to be — the three, and then the five of us, plus the producer — on the room to make the so-called magic happen. I think first you have to have a curious mind, listening to music, reading books, paying attention to what happens in the world, what happens with people, what happens with love, death, all these big themes from heavy metal and gothic culture. T”hen you really have to set yourself in a mood to make it happen, in a way.
The bigger point, he said, is refusing the schedule most bands run on.
“I don’t think there is a formula or a secret,” he continued. “I think one thing that helps with Moonspell is that we don’t do an album just to go on the road. We try to avoid that agenda that kind of grinds the creativity of bands, which is two years on tour, one album, two years on tour, and that didn’t happen with Moonspell. It was a hard process because, of course, we are a professional band. We have to keep on the road. We have to keep releasing new stuff. But our label, Napalm Records, they were very understanding. I told them, ‘I know this is not very up to date,’ because bands just go and probably they just do an album without being ready. But for us it’s very important to bide the time and also to be ready. I think that brought a lot of good things about Far From God. But music is no secret. You have to love it. You have to love it, and when you love it, you will find the way. We had a lot of doubts about this album, and all the doubts we had, they were answered by music itself, not by agendas or plans or record labels. It just happens, in a way. But for us, what makes the difference is when we are together in the room. I think that’s where the music happens.”
He has no interest in doing it any other way: “Music is a collective thing. I don’t believe very much in doing it solo or doing it without the band. That wouldn’t be something I would see for myself. Music is a big process. It’s a simple thing, but it’s also complex because you have to think about a lot of stuff. But when you overthink it — you have to do it to a certain limit. When you overthink it, it’s already being bad to you, so you have to come back and do the feeling.
Jaime Gomez Arellano, who has worked with Paradise Lost, Ghost, Primordial and Sólstafir, ran pre-production with the band at Rock Lounge Studios in October 2025 before the album was tracked at Arda Recorders in Porto. He produced, mixed and mastered it at Orgone Studios across November and December. Eliran Kantor painted the cover. Alicia Nurho plays strings on “The Great Wolf In The Sky“, a song dedicated to the memory of Pedro Pires.
The writing credits split along familiar lines: music by keyboardist Pedro Paixão and guitarist Ricardo Amorim, lyrics by Ribeiro. They are joined by bassist Aires Pereira and drummer Hugo Ribeiro, no relation to the singer, who replaced founding drummer Miguel “Mike” Gaspar after his 2020 departure.
The symphonic project Ribeiro refers to was “Opus Diabolicum“, the band’s first orchestral performance, staged at the MEO Arena in Lisbon on October 26, 2024. Moonspell formed in 1992 and reach 35 years next year.
