"Originally released in 2001 and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, MOONSPELL’s fifth album, Darkness and Hope, caught the band in a strange crossroad upon its debut. Their first four records saw them skyrocketing from Portugal into Gothic Metal stardom, yet their almost violent musical swings left a lot of their fans confused and unaware of what to expectnext. Nonetheless, Darkness and Hope was the ticket for many followers of the band to continue their journey with the Portuguese wolves. The reconciliatory album, lost in between the light and the shadow, included amazing melancholic anthems such as 'Nocturna', 'How We Became Fire' and 'Than The Serpents In My Arms' – not to mention the inclusion of tracks delivering MOONSPELL‘s very own brand of infectious gothic metal like classics 'Firewalking' or 'Devilred'!
“Darkness and Hope is such a representative title for that period in our personal lives and also as musicians, as a band,“ Fernando Ribeiro reveals. “We were astray and this album made us find our way again into our songs, our darkness, our will to play music together for many years to come. We had a hard time, after an album so experimental like The Butterfly Effect, to make our peace with Darkness and Hope. We were depressed and extremely sad when we went to Finland to do this album and by making it, we raised our heads again and since then never gave up the fight for our fans’ hearts and souls. Moonspell might be darkness but for sure we are hope too.”
Gone out of print and sold out for many years, Darkness and Hope will finally be re-released and available in several exclusive vinyl LP colors and digipack, re-designed to portray the obscure elegance of the original album. This must-have reissue will also contain some very special, personalized cover versions of Ozzy’s 'Mr. Crowley', Joy Division’s 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', and a beautiful tribute to Portuguese wool music masters MadreDeus with cover songs of 'Os Senhores da Guerra' (The Warlords) in Portuguese language.
MOONSPELL may be celebrating 20 years of Darkness and Hope in glorious style, but they once again prove in this day and age that they are still the hopeful kings of the dark!"
