Brazilian Second Wave of Black Metal
Brazilian bands from the 80s like Sepultura, Sarcófago and Vulcano helped defining the aesthetics of extreme metal music in the 80s, which would serve as the starting point for Norwegian bands to launch a second wave of black metal in the early 90s.
As soon as the word about the Norwegian black metal revolution reached the southern hemisphere, bands influenced by the new dark aesthetic started to appear in different parts of Brazil, in all regions of the country. That was the beginning of the Brazilian second wave of black metal.
Black in Rio
Rio de Janeiro is known for its tropical landscapes with palm trees, sand and the sea. It’s also known for its famous carnival and perhaps for its huge slums known as the “favelas”. In a way it’s the perfect antithesis of the cold and idyllic Norway. Still one of the first Brazilian bands to emerge under the influence of the Norwegian black metal was Nocturnal Worshipper, formed by Eduardo Mortaza (a.k.a. Hofgodhar) in Rio de Janeiro back in 1993.
Nocturnal Worshipper in the 90s
The first incarnation of the band didn’t last long, ceasing its activities after releasing a demo tape in ’94 and an EP in ’95. A few years later, however, Nocturnal Worshipper was back, releasing their debut full-length cd “The Return of Souther Tyrants”, in 2001. In the meanwhile, with the appearance of more accessible, commercially successful black metal albums like “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” by Dimmu Borgir (’97), “Nexus Polaris” by Covenant (’98) and “Dusk and Her Embrace” by Cradle of Filth (’96), the genre was becoming more popular among metal fans, hence a few new black metal bands have appeared in Rio de Janeiro by then. Among the newcomers we have Mysteriis and Unearthly (both formed in ’98).
The relevance of the Rio de Janeiro’s “scene” grew as the oldest and most traditional Brazilian rock and metal magazine, Rock Brigade, started to hype the above mentioned bands. Suddenly, Rio de Janeiro was the new Norway (at least in the pages of the magazine) and the bands from the city were presented as “the best black metal bands from Brazil – some of them even raising above the standards of what is being made outside the country”. [1] This statement was made based on the restricted number of releases by bands from Rio de Janeiro available at the time: “About The Christian Despair”, the first Mysteriis album released in 1999, received with great enthusiasm by the critics of Rock Brigade; the already mentioned “Return of Southern Tyrants” by Nocturnal Worshipper, out in 2001; the album “Only Death Is Real…”, released by Apokalyptic Raids (featuring members of Nocturnal Worshippers) also in 2001; two Unearthly demos (2000 and 2001) and a Berkaial demo (2001).
“About The Christian Despair” was, I believe, the first Brazilian black metal album to follow the direction pointed by bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth in the late 90s. It has clear influences from both bands, mostly in the use of keyboards, but its most important feature was probably its clear production – a tendency that was new among black metal bands, which for a while were (in)famous for low-fi 4-track cheap productions. Right after “About The Christian Despair”, Mysteriis released an EP entitled “Fucking In The Name Of God”, where female vocals were incorporated to their music and the keyboards gained a more preeminent role, resulting in a sound even closer to that of Cradle of Filth. The most radical Brazilian black metal fans became suspicious with these changes, and Mysteriis started to be labeled as “trendy” band by many of them. [2]
Mysteriis
“The Return of Southern Tyrants” by Nocturnal Worshipper didn’t have the pompous production the Mysteriis’ releases had, but was decent enough to have commercial appeal. Both Mysteriis and Nocturnal Worshipper had positive qualities and released correct albums. They lacked originality, but they were pioneers in emulating the style of the Scandinavian bands in their own country. Even though their music was enjoyable, it wasn’t anything exceptional to justify all the hype created by Rock Brigade. As consequence the focus soon would relapse on the raising conflicts between the bands and the music played by them would be quickly reduced to a marginal issue.
Tropical Black Circle
It all started with an interview published in Rock Brigade where one of the members of Nocturnal Worshipper said something negative about the black metal “scene” in Rio de Janeiro and its bands. The guys from Mysteriis took offense and wrote a reply that was published in the following issue of the magazine. Unearthly, which didn’t even have an album released at the time, became involved in the dispute allying themselves with Mysteriis, and the conflict went on with bands trading offenses and both sides accusing each other of copying Norwegian bands and not being true and so on – everything made public in the pages of Rock Brigade.
Unearthly black metal look
The conflict reached its climax when a few guys from Unearthly beat the leader of Nocturnal Worshipper during a show of local bands and the guy who got beaten, Hofgodhar, went to the police and moved a criminal process against his attackers. The whole episode was covered in detail by Rock Brigade in an article called “Black Metal in Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Hell”, published in June of 2002. [3] In the end of this article speculations concerning the existence of a Brazilian “Black Circle” in Rio de Janeiro inspired by the Norwegian innercircle were raised, but it was such a pathetic attempt to hype an irrelevant episode that even the bands interviewed provided evasive answers when asked about the subject.
Despite all the hype, this specific so-called black metal “scene” in Rio de Janeiro was short lived. Mysteriis released a second full-length album entitled “Stigmati Diaboli – DCLXVI” in 2004 and disbanded shortly after. Former members of the band are, however, still involved with black metal, playing in different projects such as Darkest Hate Warfront and Vinterthron.
Unearthly released their debut album in 2002 and have since then established a solid career, touring South America in 2007 and releasing three full-length albums and an EP between 2004 and 2009. The band remains as a well-known name among the Brazilian extreme metal fans. Their sound, however, has changed quite a lot since the old days, going from the black metal strongly influenced by the Norwegian bands to a more death metal-inspired sound. [4] The band has also abandoned the typical black metal look with corpsepaint and, according to M.Mictian, the satanic themes were replaced by stories of real violence and things he experienced himself while growing up in a “favela” in Rio de Janeiro. [5] When asked in a more recent interview about the disputes and intrigues involving the bands from Rio de Janeiro in the early 00s, M.Mictian made clear those are things that belong in the past and that the band has moved on, also stating their main concern is with their music:
I don’t even remember, it happened such a long time ago! (…) divergences exist in every social environment, it couldn’t be different with music (…) we didn’t have to use these things that happened to promote the band because we have a much larger power [to promote it], we are competent enough to compose good music. [6]
As for Nocturnal Worshipper, the band didn’t release anything after their debut album in 2001 and split-up a few years later as its leader, bassist Eduardo “Hofgodhar” Mortaza, abandoned black metal and became a christian, being involved with unblack metal and christian rock nowadays. [7]
Even though Nocturnal Worshipper, Mysteriis and Unearthly received a lot of attention for a while, they were never the sole heralds of black metal in Rio de Janeiro. Many other bands were formed in the city and made a name in the extreme metal underground without being involved in the polemics promoted by Rock Brigade. These are bands such as Grave Desecrator, Dark Forest, Malleus, Imperador Belial, Cryptic Lorn, Viking Throne and others.
Go to Brazilian Black Metal History – Part 1
Go to Brazilian Black Metal History – Part 3
Tags: black metal, brazil, brazilian metal, rio de janeiro, rock brigade
July 11, 2011 at 3:02 pm |
where is Mystifier?