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Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Entertainment
Rich Hobson

"The very first thought that came into my head was, ‘This band are going to get ripped off’." Corrupt police, crumbling dictatorships and amateur translators: The 80s metal classic that smashed borders and helped launch one of metal's most iconic labels

Sepultura band press photo 1989.

When Sepultura made their debut album, Morbid Visions, in 1986, heavy metal had already begun to take root in Brazil. The country’s military dictatorship had come to an end, and Kiss had played in 1983, followed by Rock In Rio in 1985. It wasn’t all imports, mind; speed-metal act Stress released Brazil’s first metal album in 1982 and a number of cities began fermenting their own scenes.

Sepultura’s home of Belo Horizonte in the southeast was no exception, the thrashtastic offerings of San Francisco’s Bay Area and beyond inspiring a bands to create faster, nastier music that could express their hatred towards a system that had failed them.

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