Greetings Zhema, how are things in the Sao Paulo area?Very Well! We are doing a tour to promote our new album “Five Skulls ..."
Truly I was very surprised with the new album “Five Skulls And One Chalice” What can you tell us about the album? Does the title have any special meaning?
This album could be the follow up to “Tales…” Although it has a slightly different sound I think it keeps the same rawness that characterizes VULCANO. The title makes reference to an ancient symbol used in Black Magic in which a skull is placed in every corner and a chalice in the middle.
I have liked the album a lot. But to be honest the opening track “Messenger from Hell” is a bit weak, especially when you compare it to the rest of the album. What do you think about this?
I don’t believe this music is that different from the rest. I believe is on the same style as the others.
Fortunately for me, after the second track the album is a total blast of death/thrash. Now that you have been writing songs for such a long time, do you believe there must be some sort of balance between originality / own style and certain “rules” (it sounds a bit ridiculous) in extreme metal?
I believe that when you write a song, you have to be careful that it doesn’t sound like any other band’s song, that way you can get close to originality. There are no rules for writing a metal song.
In this album I found some similarities with “Eyes of Horror” era Possessed, are you a Possessed fan?
Yes, I like Possessed but if there is any similarity it is just mere coincidence, nothing else.
Another thing that surprised me was the change of Vocalist, what lead to Angel’s departure? Did he leave on friendly terms? Where does the new vocalist, Luis Carlos, come from?
Angel hadn’t been able to play live for some time because of other priorities. It was very difficult for him to record the vocals in the new album and then he said he could not keep up with Vulcano, and then he regretted it but there was no way back. Luiz Carlos was in Vulcano between 1996 and 1998, he recorded two bonus tracks on the LIVE CD and he also sings on the song "Steed of Steel" in the new album.
I think other news is Vulcano’s participation in the DVD documentary “Brazil Heavy Metal”. What can you tell us about this documentary and Vulcano’s new song?
This documentary is on post production at this time and Vulcano wrote a new song called “Hexagrama” with the new singer, Luiz Carlos.
There are many things on Vulcano’s past that still remain in “the dark” for me. How old were you when you started Vulcano? If I remember well you had played before in bands like Astaroth and Satanic, what type of bands were those?
I was almost 20 years old and before Vulcano I played in a band called “Astaroth” but I never played in “Satanic”. “Astaroth” had a Black Sabbath kind of style and “Satanic” had a theatrical rock style like Alice Cooper in the 70s. They were our friends but no Vulcano members have belonged to “Satanic”
How was the metal scene in your city back then? Do you remember any bands that have been forgotten and deserved a better luck?
I live in Santos, a coastal city near Sao Paulo. The scene was bigger in Sao Paulo. There were a few shows but the crowd was massive. I remember well bands like Mistic Death, Alta Tensão and Santuario.
Do you have any opinions about the fact (At least I see it that way) that Vulcano was the first extreme metal band in Latin America?
VULCANO started playing extreme Metal in 1983, after the single “Om Pusnhe Namah” and I dodn’t know of any other band playing this type of music.
Talking about the “Brazilian Sound” of which Vulcano could be considered as its creator, where did all that aggressiveness and rawness come from? Not having the resources for better instruments or better places to rehearse and record your music had in influence in that sound?
That’s right! I didn’t have good instruments because importations were prohibited, not even amps. What we had was just bad quality equipment. A recording studio was very expensive. You would have to sell a car to record an album.
How much did you know about bands like Venom or Slayer when you started Vulcano? Did you get any influences from HC/Punk bands back then?
I listened to Slayer and Venom for the first time in 1984 and yes, of course, it influenced me a lot!
I am a little confused with your first recordings, for starters with “Om Pushne Namah”… Can you tell us a bit more about that strange name? Was this one a demo tape or a single on vinyl?
"Om Pushne Namah " is on vinyl “only”. The name comes from Sanskrit and is the mantra of the Sun 6. Later after, we recorded a demo called “Devil on my Roof” which was released with a bonus track in the Swedish version of the “Anthropophagy” album.
About “Devil in my Roof”, do you remember how many copies were distributed or sold? Did anyone tell you at one point that it was too noisy or extreme?
The goal with the demo - tape "Devil on my Roof" was to get a record label interested in Vulcano, I went to many record labels and they said the songs were too extreme, they were looking for “Hard Rock” bands at the time.
Then came the recording of the album “LIVE”, whose idea was it to record and release it? Do you have any special memories from that show? Don’t you think it is a bit strange for a debut album to be a live one?
The reason for the live recording was that show promoters in Sao Paulo didn’t want to work with us, the band was too extreme and therefore show promoters didn’t allow Vulcano to play shows in Sao Paulo, so I went to another city and recorded the live album, then the band followers in Sao Paulo could listen to Vulcano live.
I have always wondered who wrote the song “Witches Sabbath”, is it some sort of cover/version from another band?
It is not a cover; it is Vulcano’s original music. We never recorded a cover.
The album “Live” was the first contact with Brazilian metal for many. How many editions of that album do you kown? Do you know the CD bootleg that was released in Peru?
The album “Live” has three different editions, the “Lunario Perpetuo” one, an independent one and the “Cogumelo” one, “no more”. I didn’t know if a bootleg version.
”Bloody Vengeance” was released in 1986. Now, with “Live” Vulcano had a name already in the Brazilian scene, would you have liked a better production for “Bloody…” or is that rawness part of Vulcano’s identity?
I would have like for “Bloody Vengeance” to have a better production but we didn’t have the money to do it. It was recorded in two days with no quality equipment. The industry didn’t pay attention to us because our music was too extreme and we were relegated by the industry.
Since the early days, Vulcano’s lyrics had dealt mostly with the obscure, witches, obscurantism, what were your personal beliefs back then? Those first primitive lyrics were written with the intention of creating an impact or were real beliefs?
The first album has a few songs based on obscure y mysterious topics, but there are other more related to other things like on "guerreiros de satã", for example. I belong to an “Ordo” and the songs I write are consequent with those principles…
Did you have any sort of promotional tour for “Bloody Vengeance” back then? Do you remember any remarkable review (good or bad) from Europe or the USA?
Yes, we did a long tour and we reached to thousands of fans in Brazil. We have received very good reviews from magazines here in Brazil and also in USA and Europe. I remember “Metal Hammer”, “Total Thrash”, “Violent Noise” and many more.
Today you are past your 50s and in part you have a personal life foreign to metal, how does it work? Do you have a family? Do you enjoy any type of Brazilian music?
I have a wife and two grown up kids. I am an engineer in a steel mill and I dedicate my free time to Death/Thrash/Black metal. I write the songs for Vulcano, record albums, I play live, etc. I like Brazilian hard rock bands like "Baranga", "Velhas Virgens" Patrulla do Espaço", etc. These bands sing in Portuguese in a style similar to AC / DC, Motorhead, Zztop. I don’t like Samba or Funk Carioca.
Let’s get back to the history of Vulcano. On “Anthropophagy” made a change to become more aggressive and technical, less primitive. What led to that change?
By early 1987 the line up changed, Soto Jr., Flavio and Laudir Piloni left the band, then that’s why a change in style took place.
Back then and specially with that album; do you think that a better production would have translated in better results? Have you ever thought about re recording that album?
Once again we didn’t have a good production, the reason for that was always the same: lack of money. We recorded that album in 24 hours and that is not enough to record a good album. I don’t think about re recording it, there are no possibilities of re recording a Vulcano album.
I almost forgot something. On “Bloody Vengeance” you have the glorious song “Death Metal”. Where did the name come from? What was your reaction when you found out that both Possessed and Onslaught had songs with the same name?
The term that defined extreme music as “Death Metal” existed already so we wrote a song in which the lyrincs talked about it.
Some years back I Hate Records re released “Anthropophagy” and was sort of a comeback for Vulcano; do you see it that way? Also, when you released the split with Nifelheim, did you anything about this Swedish band?
I knew Peter (from I Hate) through João (of Cogumelo).The idea of releasing “Anthropophagy” and the Split came from Peter. I don’t know the people in Nifelheim.
Another question from the past. What happened first, the release of “Anthropophagy” or your trip to Chile? Were you the first extreme band to go and play in another country? Do you remember anything from the other bands in that show like “Retrosatan” or “Massacre”?
I am not sure if Vulcano was the first band to play out of the country. I do remember well the bands on that show. And it was the first time Chile welcomed a metal band from another country. That day people were insane, it was madness and I thought it was very dangerous because Chile was under the Military Dictatorship of Pinochet.
Life has a lot of unforeseen events and it makes it somehow interesting. 20 years later you repeated that trip top lay in Chile again, I heard it was a great show but the attendance wasn’t great. What impressions do you have after meeting old Vulcano fans who are around their 40s and much younger fans? Could you get to know something about the Chilean scene? I believe they have a great scene today, what do you think?
When we went back to Chile 20 years later the scene was bigger and there were many more bands than back in 1987. I had the opportunity to meet many bands. I wanted to go back to Gimnasio Manuel Plaza, that’s where we played our first show back in 87 but it no longer exists. The attendance was way lower than in 87 but those who got to see Vulcano liked it a lot. It was very exciting going back to Chile. It was also very thrilling to play in Antofagasta. I remember a small scene in 87 and after 20 years I can attest that they have a big scene today.
Now that we are talking about metal in our countries, did you ever listen to old Colombian bands like Parabellum, Reencarnacion, Nemesis, Astaroth…?
Unfortunately I haven’t listened to them. The influx of the Colombian metal scene is very weak here in Brazil.
Continuing with Vulcano, you released two albums later: “Who Are The True” and “Retrace”. Do you believe those two albums never reached the level of the first two? Why are those two albums so unknown in your discography?
I think they are unknown because they don’t surpass the previous ones.
Around those years (88-90) Sepultura started consodilating themselves worldwide. Do you believe that Sepultura’s success eclipsed other Brazilian bands who were indeed better and more interesting at the time?
Sure!!!!!
You decided to end Vulcano in 1988. What was the main reason for this? Was it motivated by the fact that the album “Who Are The True” didn’t get a good response?
The Brazilian metal scene back then was full of “posers” and “fake metallers” and we were entering College. That’s why I wrote the album “Who Are The True” which contains lyrics that talk about that ridiculous scene. It is an ironic album.
Later you had reunions in 1990, 1993, 1996, and I believe more than 3 up to 2001. What were those reunions so sporadic? Wasn’t there enough motivation to establish the band full time again?
Sure, yes.
Can you clear up the date and cause of death of Soto Junior? Were you still in touch with him when he died?
Yes, we had played a show on 01/11/2001 and he died a little but later than a month after that. He died of a heart attack on 23/12/2001.
The incredible album “Tales From The Black Book” was released in 2004 and for me that is the best “comeback” album from bands that have come back to life. How was the writing and recording process for this album?
I had written 14 songs in 2001 for the new Vulcano album but I discarded it, I didn’t like it. A few months later I started writing new songs and soon after “Tales…” was ready, I believe it was a moment of great inspiration.
After all the years you have been in the scene, how is your relationship with Cogumelo nowadays? What would be your final conclusion if you could do a balance on your relationship with record labels you have worked with?
I’ve never had any problems with the record labels i had worked with. Nowadays, we are very happy with Cogumelo.
Do you believe that in the end all the sub culture of Underground Metal ends up being absorbed by society’s mainstream trends?
I don’t think so; I believe the underground culture and especially metal music become bigger. Look, by 1992 there were just a few people who liked Metal, today it is 100 times that!
Talking a bit about your views on life, do you think we are doomed to repeating historical mistakes? I believe a great part of our history is about humans killing and fucking humans. Do you believe those behaviors are innate to the human being? Is violence necessary for some cultures?
Yes, there is no solution to that problem. We are animals of humanity and animals kill each other
Do you see any ridiculous behaviors in the so called “scene” of underground Metal?
I have seen some strange attitudes but it is surely from people for whom Metal doesn’t flow through their veins. Some “posers”.
Having a song with lyrics in Portuguese (in the case of the new album, that would be Legioes Satanicas) is already a trademark for Vulcano
Vulcano only has seven songs in Potuguese, no more. Portuguese is not a good language to sing Heavy Metal.
Talking about languages, why did you decide to answer this interview in Spanish?
Because I believe that is a great opportunity to learn a bit about your language. I had to look up the dictionary many many times. Now that we are talking about languages, I believe that after English, Spanish is best suited for Metal. Metal music sung in Spanish has a beautiful sound.
An irrelevant question now. Are you fan of a soccer team in the Sao Paulo area? Do you think the Brazilian team will win the world cup in South Africa this year?
I am fan of Santos FC, the soccer team from y city. I don’t think Brazil will be champions, I believe Spain has better chances.
Well Zhema, thank you for your time, any last words? What’s for Vulcano in the future?
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to answer this interview and I want to say that Vulcano are working on a new album already and we will be on tour in Europe in October. Greetings to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Printed version in BELLS OF ACHERON ISSUE 0
