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Heavy Metal Thunder Brazilian Extreme Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Brazilian Extreme Metal

Brazilian Extreme Metal

Made in a country in near-isolation on failing equipment, under a dictatorship, and it came out more violent than anything else on earth.

Peak years
1984 – 1996
Origin
Brazil (São Paulo / Belo Horizonte)
Family
Thrash Metal
Bands here
14

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident — which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

Three records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Beneath the Remains Sepultura, 1989 The landmark

    Recorded overnight in Rio because that was the cheap studio time, on borrowed equipment, and it is still the best-produced record the scene made. Where Brazilian metal stopped being a rumour and started being an export.

    Listen to Beneath the Remains

  2. Bloody Vengeance Vulcano, 1986

    Their first studio album, after a live LP that some people count as the debut. Recorded on nothing, in a country that had no metal industry at all, and it sounds like a threat.

    Listen to Bloody Vengeance

  3. I.N.R.I. Sarcófago, 1987

    The deep end, and one of the most influential records nobody plays twice. Corpse paint before Norway, a drum machine set past its limit, and a genuine sense that the people making it had lost interest in being liked.

    Listen to I.N.R.I.

What it sounds like

Chaos, recorded on failing equipment, and all the better for it. The Belo Horizonte and São Paulo bands were working from third-hand tapes with no money and no access to the scene they were imitating, so what came out was faster, rawer and more unhinged than the records they were copying. Guitars are a smear, drums are barely controlled, vocals are shrieked. Nothing is melodic. What makes it historically enormous rather than merely primitive is that black and death metal both took cues from it: Sarcófago's INRI arrived before Norway and half of that scene owned a copy. Compared with the Bay Area it is barely the same music: no polish, no craft, and far more genuine menace.

  • Heaviness 4 out of 5
  • Speed 5 out of 5
  • Aggression 5 out of 5
  • Technicality 2 out of 5
  • Darkness 4 out of 5
  • Melody 1 out of 5

Where the name came from

Emerging from São Paulo and Belo Horizonte in the mid-1980s, the Brazilian extreme metal scene developed in near-total isolation and surpassed even the most violent European and American scenes in raw aggression. Documented by Cogumelo Records, it bridged thrash, proto-death, and proto-black metal, producing a uniquely chaotic sound. Sepultura and Sarcófago became internationally known; the rest of the scene remains revered underground.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Sepultura Brazil
  • Sarcófago Brazil
  • Vulcano Brazil
  • Holocausto Brazil
  • Ratos de Porão Brazil

And 9 more

  • Mutilator Brazil
  • Overdose Brazil
  • Attomica Brazil
  • Sextrash Brazil
  • Dorsal Atlântica Brazil
  • Krisiun Brazil
  • Rebaelliun Brazil
  • Nervochaos Brazil
  • Chakal Brazil

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.