The torment continues...

(click to enlarge cover)

(Cezar Nemitz, Dynamite #13, 1994)

Without a doubt, SARCÓFAGO is one of the most important bands of the Brazilian Death scene. Among polemic, new album, new looks, radicalisms and a lot of alcohol, DYNAMITE had a chat with guitarist/vocalist Wagner Antichrist and bassist Geraldo Incubus (E.N.: he was writing Gerald Minelli, but Wagner erased and wrote Incubus instead!). Sometimes the answers will look like they're just joking. Are they? Find it out by yourself.

DYN - Let's talk a bit about the band's history.
GERALD - The band started in BH in '85. We started with no pretentions, but to make the world's most agressive and violent music. We had an invitation to record for the compilation "Warfare Noise I" through Cogumelo, then since we were the highlight, we recorded our first LP right after, "INRI" ('87). Our intuition since the beginning was to play not caring if someone would like it or not. Then we stopped for two years. Wagner moved to another town (he went to Uberlândia) and the other two band members (Butcher and DD Crazy) left. So we decided to keep going on the road, we got a drummer to record our second LP, "Rotting" ('89), and only then we decided to improve the band.
WAGNER - We tried to improve the band, but it wasn't possible. Sarcófago cannot be fixed, it's always a shit.
G - Here's the deal: it's impossible to make music with more than three chords. (laughs)
W - The brains are corroded by pinga, the cachaça corroded the guys' mind. You can't remember more than three chords!
G - Then we did "The Laws of Scourge".

DYN - On "Rotting" you a trio; then you started playing with four guys?
G - Actually, on "Rotting" we were a duo with a drummer friend of ours who decided to help us recording that LP.
W - Not just helping! He got a lot of money to record that crap. (laughs)
G - After that we decided to form a band to make live shows. We did it, you'll see how wonderful!
W - The band is completely tight.
G - You mean, messed. This SOB hasn't changed his guitar strings for ages.
W - It's been an year that I'm using the same strings. That's 'cos the tremelo system is one of those that when you break the string you still can use it. I just tune it and that's that.
G - By the way we use an electronic tuner, 'cos I can't tune only listening it.

DYN - Can all this come out on the interview?
G - It even should, we're way too sincere.

DYN - Let's talk about the cover artwork conceptions.
W - On "INRI" we wanted to do a bizarre cover, like in a place where nobody used before, by the time nobody ever thought about doing anything on a cemetary. Our intent was to shock.
G - There are two main issues on our band: we use a heavy look that is different, horrifying, and a music, I wouldn't say impossible to hear 'cos there's a lot of people who listen to it pretty clearly. Now we have breaking news: the looks on the band nowadays is the following - there's a lot of playboys letting their hair grow, so everybody will have their hair cut, everybody will be skinhead. (E.N.: they already did it.)
W - All playboys that you see have their cute long hairs, wearing a t-shirt of NIRVANA, PEARL JAM, etc... Not that we have something against these bands, but we have against trends. When it becomes a trend we don't think it's cool, 'cos massification twists your mind.

DYN - What if Sarcófago becomes a trend one day, will the band split?
W - For example, if an album of ours turns out to be a success, the next one will be completely different, one album can never be similar to the other.

DYN - Talking about the covers again...
W - The "INRI" CD came out with another cover, but it's from the same photo session.
G - One thing that I'd like to say is that this stuff grants a lot of chicks!

DYN - What grants chicks?
G - Making a small gig. It's just half an hour picking strings.
W - It's the only chance to get a woman. Go figure, some miserable guys who look like criminals (laughs). The cover of "INRI" had an impact, but we wanted to keep the same line, having the same impact over the Jesus Christ thing. We are against religion. Not against Christ himself.
G - We are against the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church. Crap-olic!!!
W - We think that every religion is alienation, so if the supreme icon of religion is Jesus Christ, let's bash that guy.
G - Not that we're openly attacking Jesus Christ, but we're attacking straight the principles of the Catholic Church, 'cos it reigns over the world with stupid rules which have nothing to do with our opinion. It's a form of manifestation, we have that right, so...

DYN - Then there's the cover with death kissing Christ on "Rotting"?
W - Exactly, saying that Christ is dead. And death kisses him, and he is rotting. He was a regular person, without that reincarnation story. He had his ideas and died like a regular guy. You shouldn't glorify it.

DYN - And the one of "Laws"...?
G - It was an LP in which we worked with themes without any intention. The lyrics came out occasionaly, and they ended on death, suicide or homicide.
W - And the cover is related to the song "Midnight Queen", which deals about a kid who lived in the countryside and that suddenly flew out of home to try her luck on the big city, with that illusion to win on her life, and ended up in prostitution. She saw that reality was none of what she thought and what was left for her to live was prostitution. 50% of the prostitution cases are like that, the woman tries to survive independently and what's left for her is the "easiest" way, so to deal with it she starts taking drugs and it becomes a vicious circle. Finally she goes out with a client, a sexual maniac, who had the fetish to tie his victims on the bed, whip 'em and choke them while fucking. Then he would leave the woman on the bed with the lash hung around her neck and the money over her body, but we couldn't show her tits on the cover. The idea was to make her topless, all screwed up, but we were censored. On "Rotting" we had the cover censored. In the United States it came out with a black cover. And "The Laws of Scourge" couldn't be released with the song "Prelude to Suicide", 'cos they said that it could drive American youngsters to suicide. And "Black Vomit" was censored as well. In Europe everything was released as it is.

DYN - What abot that EP "Crush, Kill, Destroy"?
W - That was an excuse to make money 'cos we were doing a lot of gigs.
G - We had two bonus tracks that the foreign record company request to be released on the CD, and they weren't released in Brazil. And since the CD market in our country is still restricted, even more on our style, we decided to release it considering our audience, so they could know these two songs.

DYN - What do you think of statements like DEICIDE's Glen Benton saying that he likes burning live animals?
W - Glen Benton is an asshole. I became aware of his ideas, they're more amateur than we are. In fact he likes it up his ass (laughs).

DYN - Where have you played outside Brazil?
W - We had six gigs in Spain, one in Portugal, one in Peru and the most recent in Chile.
G - As for Peru, Wagner lost the flight and didn't go.
W - Hey c'mon? I was there spiritually! (laughs)

DYN - And how did you perform?
G - Fábio did the vocals.
W - I had too much to drink and lost the bus. When I woke up I went to the bus station, but it was too late.
G - Playing in three is cool 'cos this guy always gets in the middle. He could do the vocals.

DYN - Until very recently you didn't perform live too much. Why that?
G - Personally I wasn't interested. I 've always been a guy who loves the studio, so much that I work a lot on one. I clean the studio of my friend Eugênio (keyboardist) just to mess with the equipment on the spare time. (laughs) I never liked playing live, but now I'm getting used to it.
W - We don't play shit, that's the truth. On studio we hire the guys, we just have our shots taken, but who performs on the LP are other people. We just pose! (laughs)
G - I wasn't a big fan of live performances, but now I'm liking it a bit, so much that for almost three years we're fooling people with the same set. (laughs) We're writing new stuff and another crap must come out by April.
W - It will be entitled "The Torment Of The Nazarene Continues", in English.

DYN - What was the funniest thing that ever happened to the band?
W - The funniest was when SPIKE (D.R.I.'s guitarist) came to our backstage at Projeto SP to have a chat and this guy of Sarcófago, whose name won't be mentioned, had just taken a dump in the middle of the backstage 'cos he was too drunk. He came in, took a look, felt the smell and left, he couldn't deal it.

DYN - By the way, how was that fight with RATOS DE PORÃO on that show?
W - This is what happend: RDP was supposed to be the opening act but they invited us instead.
G - Actually, Walcir (owner of Woodstock Records - show promoter) asked us before if there was any problem about the three bands playing, and I said: "You can't 'cos it's cool to have two bands, either you invite them or us". Then this guy of D.R.I. invaded our backstage concerned about somebody else, and Gordo came in willing to fight. But that's history, we're not angry with him, that was a bit of ignorance coming from him. But we gave him the payback, 'cos we beat the D.R.I. show the other day, our show was considered the best by the media. And even though D.R.I. is a good band, I'm not their fan. I even liked their performance, but we showed that we can make a nice disorganized sound which captivates the guys.

DYN - Weren't you afraid to return for gigs in São Paulo?
W - No, so much that we played here five times after that.
G - And RDP also doesn't need to be afraid to play in Belo Horizonte, 'cos nothing will happen to them, the guys just go to see the show if they want.

DYN - In one of the LPs which were released on the foreign was said, by the label, that you were from SEPULTURA and left the band 'cos it became too commercial...
W - It was on the American CD, the guys censored the cover of "Rotting" and had nothing more to talk about, and they ended up saying that. I don't where they got that idea from.
G - It had nothing to do with us, it wasn't something that we did, it caught us by surprise. We didn't authorize that. When the CD arrived through mail I was horrified. I called Wagner immediately and asked him if he authorized it. By the way there's a sue going on because of that.
W - It's underground. We have no intent to become rockstars.

DYN - In your opinion, what are the best Brazilian bands?
W - SEXTRASH, EXPULSER, CIRRHOSIS, GENOCÍDIO.
G - I respect a lot the work of OVERDOSE, it's a band that always did what they had in mind. And even though their music is more accessible to the media than ours, they always did a good job. There's also DORSAL ATLÂNTICA.

DYN - What was the hardest time for the band?
G - All of 'em were easy.
W - Everything's been easy, 'cos we dont take anything too seriously, we have no pretentions. There are a lot of guys who want to be the new guitar god, or the new revelation band...
G - We play trying to satisfy our musicians ego, I mean, of project of musicians. Playing in small places is way more satisfying than playing on Hollywood Rock, where 99% of the people won't understand what we're playing.

DYN - So, on the new album, the look will be with short hair?
W - Basically we'll do everything that we didn't make before.
G - For everything that we're doing one day and comes out right, on the other day we stop to start from the beginning. That's the reality, start from zero every day.