Fernando Ribeiro, frontman for Portuguese metal veterans Moonspell, has checked in with the following trip down memory lane:

"The always watchful internet let us know that our album The Antidote was out 16 years ago. We recorded it in Finland with Hiili Hiilesmaa, and his first comment after we laid down the first tracks was: 'This is not rock and roll anymore. This is something else.' In fact, we were just coming from the Darkness And Hope cycle, an album we thought too goth or soft and very downcast, as sad as the band was back then with all our issues and problems. The Antidote became an album about fear and musically we dove deeply into eerie passages, death metal, lyrics that showed no resolution or overcoming, but rather how fear paralyses us, reducing our life into a succession of decisions that only allow us to stay and survive, not moving forward. A haunting of the body and of the mind.

We have also collaborated with our friend, the amazing writer José Luís Peixoto, who penned a whole small novel, inspired by the mood of the album. As far as we’re concerned this union with JLP was one of the band’s most successful moments, vindicating all the attention and dedication throughout our years of making literature a true and noble influence in our music.

This video was directed by Tiago Guedes and it stands like a trailer for a never made horror movie that could actually become a cool project if we had the money or the talent to do so. I don’t quite recall the response of the fans back then, I think it was quite solid yet some people were a bit far away from what we’re doing then. I also recall many new fans coming our way drawn by the feeling of being uncomfortable and scared due to the album heaviness and layering. So, same response as always, some loved it, others kept on dreaming about the nineties Moonspell.

The Antidote, originally released with Century Media Records, was our last album ever on this company ending our CM years. It will, in a near future, receive the reissue treatment via Napalm Records in colab with the band and Alma Mater Books & Records.

It’s great to know that a lot of our old records still capture people’s imagination and that our fans usually come back to them in the different moods of their own existences, so if you go take some time to remember about this album, today is a good day.

..and all the thirsty can now approach..."