While it’s packed with gorgeous women and way too many alkies, Portugal isn’t exactly the mainstay of the current metal scene. The plethora of Pork Chop metal acts could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare. The good ones are even fewer.
Enter Moonspell, the country’s finest distortion-laden export. Touring the globe in support of their fifth album Darkness and Hope (Century Media), the band are stoked at coming back to Canada, home of some of their best sold-out shows ever.
But as singer Fernando Ribiero relates, Canada has been more than just the locale of their box office victories.
“Leonard Cohen was a big influence on both my vocals and my songwriting in the most seminal stages of my career,” relates the goth-metaller. With the assistance of bassist Sergio Crestana, drummer Mike Gaspar, keyboardist Pedro Paixao and guitarist Ricardo Maorim, Ribiero has been pounding out dark, almost mystical metal for the better part of a decade.
Initially plugged by the critics (yes, I’m shooting myself in the foot here, but if the bullet-ridden shoe fits, wear it) as blatant goth-metal, Moonspell feel their music is something far deeper than poorly written cryptic teenage suicide poetry.
“We’ve never been concerned with labelling ourselves. Although it happens very quickly when you’re wearing all black, right? If we had to say something…call it something, it would be metal-influenced music that is always open to anything that will take the band a step further. Metal with a dark edge.”
Feeding off influences from the aforementioned Cohen to thrash metal granddaddies Celtic Frost and black metallers Bathory, their idols are always the most extreme elements shaped into something even gloomier.
“Like Type O Negative. They’re probably the biggest influence of all on us,” beams Ribiero.
Still, Ribiero doesn’t feel an overt kinship to Peter Steele and crew. There’s still some form of positive message in their otherwise bleak sounding music.
With Darkness and Hope especially, Ribiero relates that the band have tried more than ever to bring the yin-yang forces of good and evil together.
“When people see us play this music, they will see both universes of Moonspell. One of darkness and one of hope—the same as what you find on our albums: something that rides somewhere between the realms. Something best compared to purgatory, but without the dreary connotation.”
