Planet Metal #3: Brazil!

So we’ve been to Italy and to Russia over the past couple of months with our Planet Metal feature so the question is, can we do a five band feature for Brazil without mentioning Sepultura? You bet we can! If you’re new to this game, then the rules are real simple. Each week we highlight a band from the UK Underground Metal scene in our Black Map feature for reading with your morning coffee on a Sunday. Each month we go international and highlight five bands you may not have heard of from foreign lands with Planet Metal.

We said we weren’t going to mention Sepultura but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to mention any older bands. Torture Squad have been around since 1990, bringing us sonic brew of Thrash fueled Death Metal from the streets of San Paulo. But things changed in 2015 and the band have had a new lease of life with vocalist Mayara Puertas and guitarist Rene Simionato joining the powerful rhythm section. We recommend 2017’s “Far Beyond Existence” as all the evidence you’ll need of that.

The return of Nervosa with a new album in “Perpetual Chaos” and a new line up that leaves guitarist Prika Amaral the only original member of the San Paulo Thrash act certainly raised a few eyebrows. But the replacements in vocalist Diva Satanica of Bloodhunter, bassist Mia Wallace of Abbath and drummer Eleni Nota has gone a long way to appease the fans and 600k of collective streams for single “Guided by Evil” in 3 months can’t be bad can it?

Back in 2018, San Paulo Brazilian Hardcore crew Worst dropped their finest hour in fourth studio album “Deserto” via BDHW Records. Formed in 2012 by a pair of Drummers in Fernando Schaefer and Thiago Monstrinho who took up vocal duties to fuse lyrics in both Portuguese and English. But then things seemed to South and a year later they announced former Pay No Respect frontman Joe Kenny as replacing Thiago Monstrinho, who formed new outfit in F***ing Violence Hardcore. New material is overdue so we’re hopeful about what the future will bring.

Death Metal trio Hranice Abyss have brought their first single “Violation of Human Condition” to the table just before the turn of the year. The band comprises vocalist Vic Ferreira, guitarist Henrique De Fina and bassist Bruno Nicolozzi and have a unique combination of six and five strings, seeking the union of visceral with aesthetic beauty, from pure catharsis to sublimation.

Progressive Instrumental band Vitalism hail from Rio de Janeiro with influences in both Metal and Latin music. Founded by guitarist Ed Garcia in July 2014 this band is characterized by heavy riffs, followed by intense and catchy melodies with Progressive leanings, they’re a band we’d love to see at Tech-Fest in 2022 with new material to follow recent single “Eutera“.