I was going to delete everything, but I noticed some entries were linked on forum and other blogs, so I left some 0f the posts behind.

I guess I see you guys in hell!

Lars downloads Endgame

Hell, Lars… the Megadeth album?! what James will say about it?!

=P

I found out it wasn’t the case when someone sent me a leaked song from Endgame, the opening instrumental track “Dialectic Chaos”. It sounded like Megadeth, it wasn’t a song I heard before and it was fuckin’ killer! I was happy for myself, I was actually able to enjoy it and be impressed by it, I’m not that old and bored at all.

But one thing you have to know is that music presented as leaked stuff on youtube is not to be trusted, specially when it is an instrumental track. And the song I heard is not a Megadeth song at all, it’s an excerpt of a song from a Russian thrash metal band called DeadXheaD. Based on this song it’s a really great band, it sounds like you would expect a thrash Megadeth to sound in modern times had them kept the passion and intensity (except for the vocals). The 30 seconds excerpt of the real “Dialectic Chaos” sounds like a pale, thin alternative for any excerpt of the DeadXheaD song.

Nowadays making good music won’t take you anywhere. With so many bands a known name is worth more than all the best songs in the world (and that’s why every band from the 80s are making a comeback these days, even the ones that failed to get attention back in the day, because the status of being a “classic” band from the 80s is worth more than any killer music by any band recently formed). Endgame alone will sell hundreds of times more than DeadXheaD will ever dream about and the later will disappear in obscurity just like a million other great underground bands no one ever heard about.

Concerning Endgame I came to the conclusion I really don’t like Andy Sneap’s production, at least for Megadeth it doesn’t work. Even the Russian band, which certainly had a much less expensive production, has a more heavy and impressive sound. Sneap’s production sounds thin and generic and artificial. Luckily Mustaine didn’t have today’s technology when he recorded Megadeth classic albums, ’cause even the remastered versions he has released a few years ago suck, he ruined the old albums remastering them.

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

Bestial Devastation

When the words ‘metal’ and ‘Brazil’ are uttered together, a third word inevitably comes to mind: ‘Sepultura’. With the thrash metal masterpieces “Beneath the Remains” (’88) and “Arise” (’90), Sepultura was the first Brazilian metal band to become known worldwide, becoming synonymous of Brazilian heavy metal. And they would get even more famous abroad with their later groove metal albums “Chaos AD” (’93) and “Roots” (’96), which were influences for the nu metal sound that was a huge trend in the States in the mid-late 90s.

Sepultura’s first efforts, however, influenced bands that were quite different from Korn or Limp Bizket. Formed in the early 80s by the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, the band started out playing a far more aggressive, raw and blasphemic sort of music than that they are better known for. This music can be heard in the albums Bestial Devastation (’85, a split with Brazilian band Overdose) and Morbid Visions (’86).

Sepultura "Morbid Visions" era

Influenced by European bands like Venom, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Kreator and Destruction [1], Sepultura early releases date from a time when metal sub-genres like death metal and black metal were not yet crystallized. The term ‘death metal’ was first used by bands like Death and Possessed, while ‘black metal’ appeared as the title for a Venom album in 1982. A clear distinction between the two genres wouldn’t exist until the mid 90s with the rise and consolidation of the Norwegian black metal, as even Euronymous used the term death metal sometimes to describe Mayhem’s sound in the late 80s/early 90s [2].

Sepultura, together with the European and American bands that inspired and were inspired by their sound, helped defining the most extreme trends of heavy metal. It’s curious that hailing from a country with no tradition in heavy metal at all, they started playing it in its most heavy and aggressive form. According to Igor Cavalera, they were inspired by the music of the NWOBHM most satanic act, Venom:

I remember the first time I listened to Venom, it was on a friend’s borrowed tape. It was similar to Motörhead, only a lot heavier. I remember someone saying: it’s the devil’s Motörhead! After we got acquainted with Venom, we stopped listening to Iron Maiden and all that lighter stuff. [3]

Sepultura circa '85

Maybe this longing for extremes is related to the difficulties Sepultura members experienced while growing up in a very religious third world country like Brazil, which until 1985 was still living under a military dictatorship. Not only Sepultura, but the majority of the first generation of Brazilian heavy metal bands had a very aggressive and blasphemic approach.

Sepultura moved forward to a more classic thrash sound after their second full-length album “Schizophrenia” (’87), but their first albums were highly influential in the extreme metal underground, remaining as absolute classics of the first black metal wave in the 80s.

Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum

First stable Sepultura line-up featured Cavalera brothers and vocalist Wagner Lamounier (a.k.a. Wagner “Antichrist”), who would soon leave the band to join another pioneer black metal act, Sarcófago.

Sepultura circa '84 (from left to right: Max "Possessed" Cavalera, Wagner "Antichrist" Lamounier and Igor "Skullcrusher" Cavalera)

Sarcófago’s goal at the time was to create the most aggressive music ever, and to a great extent they succeeded with their first album, “I.N.R.I.”: it sounds raw, fast and extreme as nothing you would hear back in 1987.

The music played by the band was different in every album that followed. On “Rotting” (89) they offered a more thrash oriented sound, while “The Laws of Scourge” (91) appears as a more technical death metal effort. The band chose to use a drum machine instead of real drums on “Hate” (94), with really extreme but kind of awkward results. In 1997 they released their last album, “The Worst”, which was followed by the EP “Crust” (00) and the band’s split-up.

Sarcófago's visual on the cover of I.N.R.I.

Sarcófago’s first album, I.N.R.I., remained as the band’s most acclaimed release, gaining a legendary status with time. This album wasn’t only sonically influential, but also visually: as pointed by Metalion (from Norwegian cult zine Slayer) on his interview in the book Lords of Chaos, Sarcófago was the primary inspiration for Mayhem’s visual in the late 80s/early 90s (and consequently the main inspiration for the whole Norwegian black metal scene):

I think it was really from a band called Sarcófago from Brazil. A very extreme Metal band, they released an album and Euronymous was totally obsessed with them because they wore lots of spikes and corpsepaint. He said he wanted every band to be like this, because he was so against the Death Metal trend from the USA and Sweden… (Lords of Chaos, p.36)

Curiously, Wagner “Antichrist” Lamounier, the mastermind behind Sarcófago, has pursued an academic career after Sarcófago disbanded and is currently a professor of economic science and applied statistic at the University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, the city where both Sepultura and Sarcófago were born.

Who are the true?

Vulcano, a band from Santos, a coastal city in the state of São Paulo, is considered the first Brazilian metal band ever and probably the first metal band in the whole South American continent as well. Their first EP from 1981(?), however, is said to sound closer to the 80s progressive rock than to heavy metal music [4].

Despite the sound of their first EP, Vulcano’s black metal vein was fully developed in their debut album from 1985, entitled Live! Because of the difficulties for a metal band to record an studio album in Brazil at the time, Vulcano debuted with a live, unmixed album, which remains as a classic for being one of the first metal albums ever released in the country.

Vulcano in the 80s

The band followed through the 80s releasing a few albums, “Anthropophagy” (87), “Who Are The True” (88) and “Rat Race” (90), after which they disbanded. Vulcano acquired cult status with time and kept influential in the extreme metal underground, being quoted by Fenriz of Darkthrone together with Sepultura and Sarcófago as one of his favorite Brazilian bands [5].

In 2003 the band was brought back to life by founding member bassist Zhema Rodero and Angel,Vulcano’s vocalist from 1985 onwards. Recruiting a new guitarist and drummer, they released “Tales From the Black Book”, their first album after a hiatus of 13 years. Vulcano has been active since then, and has released a split 7″ EP with the Swedish black metallers of Nifelheim in 2006.

Go to Brazilian Black Metal History – Part 2

Well, that was quite funny because my impression pointed to the exactly opposite direction. What I’ve heard and saw about them sounded and looked pretty much like a slightly different version of the modern Norwegian black metal bands.

They claim their makeup is inspired by a local folklore concept, but visually the result is something really close to the old corpsepaint cliché, only slightly different.

Chthonic

Cradle of Filth (UK)

The Kovenant (Nor)

Their lyrics deal with local legends but are still presented in English. They use some exotic native instruments, but from what I have heard these instruments don’t seem to play any important role for the band’s sonority, they figure as an exotic element in songs that are in their essence totally derivative from what Norwegian bands were doing a decade ago.

“The band’s new record label, Spinefarm Records, noticed that CHTHONIC’s music contains not only the elements of mysterious, wrath, evil, but also a sorrowful emotion.”

Is it Chthonic’s new and unique style they’re talking about? I really can’t see what’s new about it, this description would fit prefectly hundreds of black metal bands that appeared since Burzum almost 20 years ago.

“It’s very different from typical black metal bands that describe themselves as ‘Anti-Christ’ or ‘Satan/demon worshippers’…etc.”

Again nothing new here. If you take the mainstream bands like Gorgoroth and Dark Funeral they are mostly anti-christianity and satanic, but come on, there are non-satanic black metal bands since the dawn of the genre. Enslaved played some sort of viking black metal, Immortal never dealt with satanic themes, Bathory went from satanic to viking themes… And what about all the pagan-oriented black metal bands popping up everywhere in Europe in the mid/late 90s?

The video below is quite funny as it was posted together with the article and contradicts everything it says about the band…

You can notice the vocalist is wearing a very typical black metal spiked bracelet and the guitarist has an inverted cross on his t-shirt (I thought they weren’t anti-christian?). The music sounds totally generic and unoriginal,  except for the musicians’ racial features I have to confess I’m unable to point out a single element on the whole thing that indicates they are a Taiwanese band. The drums, the vocals, the guitars, the keyboard, it all sounds so generic, just like a thousand other bands out there.

A few oriental exotic elements here and there are not enough to create a new and “unique metal genre”. As I understand it, Chthonic is just copying a western music genre and selling it as something else.

The very name chosen by the band seems to confirm my impression, as Chthonic derives from a Greek word – Greece, the cradle of the western civilization!

Not exactly good looking (especially the frame with the dead flies)…

and definetively NOT an original concept…

Arch Enemy “Anthems of Rebellion”, 2003

Cattle Decapitation “The Harvest Floor”, 2009

The changes in Metallica image and sound at that time are usually justified by the lack of popularity metal music was experiencing. Smaller metal bands were vanished from the face of the planet and the icons of the genre didn’t  survive this tumultuous period without “changing up the image, tuning down the no-frills thrash sound and incorporating some alternative/ grunge/ whatever/ the/ fuck/ you/ wanna/ call/ it contemporary vibe”, as someone said.

“Youthanasia” and “Sound of White Noise”, released in the mid 90s by two of the most influential American thrash metal bands of the 80s, Megadeth and Anthrax, are indeed albums that have the vibe of that period, they incorporate alternative/grunge elements to the metal sound.

Musically, “Load” and “Reload” fit the 90s atmosphere for the most part. But in terms of visual and attitude Metallica was alienated at the time, they weren’t following the contemporary vibe at all.

Metallica’s gay look and attitude fit way better the contemporary rock scenario of the late 2000s, dominated by the European “gay-sophisticated” indie rock trend and its flamboyant acts like Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and so on…

Metallica in the 90s

Franz Ferdinand

But comparing Metallica with the contemporary European gay rock trend isn’t really fair. Metallica was one step ahead. I don’t think the kind of explicit display of homosexuality they were up to back then is very common in the contemporary rock scene:

Probably the thing with Metallica is that they were always gay and their gayest moments in the 90s had nothing to do with the contemporary vibe (which wasn’t gay at all), but was something they were and felt like sharing with the world at that point of their careers. I say that because they were acting gay even before they adopted their infamous 90s gay look, at a time when they were still metal:

Gross…

James stated he didn’t feel comfortable with the way the band looked through the 90s. He’s probably less gay than Kirk and Lars, but still he played along very well…