Vulcano were one of the earliest bands in extreme and speed metal. Born out of Brazil in the early '80's, they spearheaded the heavy metal movement, and set the stage for the likes of fellow country-men like Sepultura, Mystifier, and Sarcofago. Call them Thrash Metal, call them Death Metal, call them Black Metal, hell, call 'em Satanic Punk for all I care, I just call 'em VULCANOOOOOO!!!!!!
Interview by - Erik Chrupalyk
Thank you guys for the opportunity to tell about our new album. First, excuse me about my bad English. It's hard to explain, but I think this new album's content has the same atmosphere we had in the 80’s. It's songs show Vulcano sharper and stronger, different of the 3 bonus tracks (which featured a different line-up) on the "LIVE!" CD version. Now Vulcano has it's original line up, except for guitarist Soto Junior. He has died in December 2001. So you can expect 13 tunes sounding like the “Bloody Vengeance" LP.
Do you feel the band hasn't been given proper credit for helping shape what came to be known as extreme metal? Obviously, Venom, Possessed, and Hellhammer get credit, but I rarely hear your name mentioned and it's pretty ironic because you guys were doing this stuff just as early, if not earlier than Venom!
The Brazilian metal scene in the early 80’s was not known to foreigners, so Vulcano was known just inside of our own country. Just around 1985, our first album "Vulcano: LIVE!" was released in Europe. I think it's the reason that Vulcano were not credited like those bands were.
Can we expect a North American tour any time soon?
Yeah! We're working very hard to release our new album soon, so we can spend more time to plan our foreign tour, and we plan touring in USA for sure. Do you know somebody interested in taking us?!
What was the Metal scene like back in Brazil, in the early '80s when Vulcano were first formed?
At that time, there were many famous Brazilian hard rock bands. They appeared on T.V. and radio stations singing in Portuguese. The lyrics was censored by the other side. The military dictatorship didn't allow import records from foreign countries. So it was very hard to get some records by Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Venom, etc., many times after the big-time record companies released albums of those bands along with Judas Priest, Accept, Saxon, and others. Only in the underground scene, was it possible to get some cassette tapes of some interesting bands. Vulcano were totally unknown and underground in those days.
Who were your influences in the earlier days, and who are your influences nowadays?
Black Sabbath and Motorhead. Sometime after, arrived records and cassette tapes of Hellhammer, Venom, Bathory, Slayer, Destruction, Slaughter, etc. Nowadays, I'm listening to classic 70's heavy metal bands, and old metal bands of my collection, like Celtic Frost, Sodom, Assassin, Onslaught, Death and Morbid Angel.
What do you think of today's "Extreme Metal" bands? It seems to be very hard to find originality these days, yet in the early/mid 80's, bands like Vulcano, Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Sepultura, Sarcofago, Exploited... They all had so much in common, yet were totally different from each other! I miss that sort of freedom and originality!
I like them. They sound very raw, fast and strong! This is the current metal scene, but I agree there is some exaggeration.
The new album is titled, "From The Black Metal Book" and these days the BM scene is predominately very generic and degenerated from it's original form. Does it concern you that people might lump you in with the trendies (not saying ALL newer BM bands are trendy) when they hear the title of the album?
I think so, but this title is not definitive. I'll explain about it. Between 1979 and 1981 a friend of mine, named Carli Cooper wrote a book called “Contos Soturnos", something like “Gloomy Tales” in English. In 1984 he changed the name to “Metal Negro” (Black Metal). The Vulcano lyrics came from that book, including “Devil On My Roof”. That book is very important for us, so we honored it! I'll reflect about your advice.
On the "LIVE!" album, the vocals are so raw that I can't even tell if they were spoken in English or Vulcano's Native tongue: Portuguese! Which is it!? The only English lyric I know is "I THOUGHT I SAW A DEVIL ON MY ROOF!" And are there any available lyric sheets anywhere?
There are Portuguese lyrics and English lyrics. I know, the English lyrics are very, very bad! Excuse us!!!
What do you think of ex-Sepultura vocalist Max Cavalera's direction in his "Nu-Metal" band Soulfly?
Shit !!!!!!! In 1988, Max was at J.G., studio watching Vulcano record our fourth album, and at that time he was like into Faith No More (shit!!!).
Vulcano always threw a bit more of a traditional heavy metal approach in the feel and songs. Do you feel that sort of thing is lacking from Thrash/Black/Death bands today?
Yeah, I think it is lacking a bit more freedom of expression in Death/Thrash Metal. Nowadays they sound the same. All the bands sound the same way.
Have you ever heard of Unstoppable Force before I contacted you, and if so, what did you think of it?
No man! You told me about U.F. and I'm surprised cause I agree with you guys!!!! I hate MTV and it's shit crew!!!!!!!! I don't like "Nu- Metal" and I think it's not real metal, cause metal comes from the veins. IT IS AN INSULT TO METAL. Congratulations to Unstoppable Force!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Zhema, mega-fuckin' thanks for doing this! Feel free to spill your last words here, website addresses, a discography, anything you want!
I just want to say Vulcano are working very hard on producing our new album. It will be released in CD and vinyl/LP versions. I hope you enjoy it. We are constructing Vulcano's Official Website too, Wait!!!!!!! Thank you all (the fans) and especially Erik & Unstoppable Force !!!!!!
DISCOGRAPHY
Om Pushne Namah (1983)
Vulcano Live! (1985)
Bloody Vengeance (1986)
Anthropophagy (1987)
Ratrace (1990)
LINKS
First of all, thank you Zhema for doing this interview! So you guys have your new album to be released within the coming months... Care to shed a little light on what we can expect?
