Holocausto is certainly one of those bands no one who is into the old school stuff could ignore, for sure! Since their participation in the historical Warfare Noise compilation and their debut, the excellent and controversial “Campo de Extermínio”, they are godfathers of War Metal and one of the oldest extreme bands from South America. After some experiences with different musicalities in the 90’s, they stopped for some years and came back in full force in 2004, with the basic “De Volta ao Front”, but it took more 12 years for them to find their ideal sound again. Now, after the release of “War Metal Massacre” by NWN in 2017 and with their original line-up alive and kicking again, they are ready to conquer the world with their tank of destruction. So, it’s surely worth stopping what you are doing now to read what they have to tell about their past, present and future. With, the mighty Holocausto!

 

1. Hello, Rodrigo! It is an honor to be able to interview one of the members of a seminal band like Holocausto, whose history surpasses the 30 years and is intermingled with the genesis of the extreme metal in Latin America! Are you all right?

Rodrigo: It's a pleasure and an honor to give this interview to OLDSCHOOL METAL MANIAC, comrade Cristiano! We stand firm in this increasingly obscure third world country and in this increasingly intolerant and belligerent world! We are in war!!!

1. Well, how is it for you to be here after so much time still answering interviews to talk about something you've created as a teenager? I think it's kind of a personal victory to realize that your creation from that era still makes a big noise in the extreme music scene, right?

Rodrigo: It is a motive for a huge pride to know that a work that we have created continues to be revered to this day and above all in a still relevant way. It has been 30 years since the beginning of Holocausto and the world has not changed much at this time, terrorism is still present, wars continue, as well as killings and genocide. It is almost incredible how we evolve in technology, science and other fields, but in the field of understanding between nations we do not move on!

1. By the way, how old were you when you started Holocausto in 1984? What about the other members of the band? Back then, did any of you imagine the band would have such an impressive longevity?

Rodrigo: We were between 14 and 16 years old, and we honestly did not know if we would be alive the next year. We were young people from the outskirts of Belo Horizonte and all social problems affected us. We had nothing. It was hard times when there was a kind of curfew in the city. There were no people on the streets after a certain time of the day. There were the lack of jobs, the police violence, and so we gave a kind of FUCK OFF to all of this! Without hope ... without fear !!!

1. At that time, having a band was a kind of youthful dream, even though we thought it would last forever. However, this has become a reality for bands such as Holocausto, which have been able to continue fighting, although with a huge effort, in the underground. How do you see this situation?

Rodrigo: As I said earlier, we were young people marginalized by the extremely religious society of our state, we were invisible and oppressed by the government and music provided us with an opportunity to shout loudly in protest of this daily oppression. At that moment, music was our life!

 

 

1. By the way, what are the differences between that Rodrigo in his teens and the Rodrigo of today?

Rodrigo: There are many differences, my friend, the accounts of the abuses are beginning to arrive, the occupations and consequent responsibilities are greater, but I still try to keep intact the cultural and musical resistance.

1. Talking about the past, I find that only a few people know about the origins of Holocausto with a group called Asmodeu. Can you tell us about the beginning, who were the members of the band, if recorded something etc.? How and when did this band turn into the Holocausto we all know?

Rodrigo: Asmodeu lasted very shortly, just a few rehearsals and we never recorded anything. Basically it was me, Valerio Exterminator trying to play something like Hellhammer, Venom, Bathory with some guys ... I remember all sorts of crazy guys coming up for the band's tests, including an ex-guitarist and a drummer who had just left from the madhouse!

 

1. The Minas Gerais scene at the time was very prolific (even today, in fact), as far as the São Paulo scene. However, it seems to me that the MG scene was more brutal, more influenced by hardcore. Do you agree with that? What other elements would have contributed to this difference?

Rodrigo: I totally agree with you. The references of the punk bands from Finland like Rattus, TervetKadet, Riistetyt, also Discharge and Sacrilege from England and even the punk of the periphery of São Paulo, like OlhoSeco,Brigada do Ódio, Ratos de Porão were very present. We were also too fucked up, we had nothing, the future seemed a very distant thing and I think that contributed to this sonorous brutality.

1. Which bands did you hang out with at the time? In addition to the "big" ones (Sepultura, Sarcófago, Mutilator, Chakal, Witchammer etc.), there were many other smaller, but equally powerful groups like Anarchus, Sepulchral Voice, Placenta, Insulter, Megathrash ... What led BH to have so many bands like that?

Rodrigo: We got along well with everyone but it's also worth mentioning Aamonhammer, Freax, Attack Epiléptico, Prepúcio, RIV, Impurity, Offensor and Exterminator among others. In my view, it was a rebellion of the youth against the establishment of an ultra conservative and religious city.

1. Well, Warfare Noise compilation was a major landmark in the history of the international extreme metal scene and certainly it was very important to Holocausto. How did the invitation to participate happen and how do you evaluate this importance for the band?

Rodrigo: At the time, we shared the rehearsal place with Chakal in a rotten garage in the Alípio de Melo neighborhood on the outskirts of BH and Korg (Chakal’s vocalist) worked at Cogumelo Records. He introduced us to João and Patty and from there came the invitation to make a demo tape. We recorded the song “Massacre”, that is one of the last compositions of Marco Antônio, our bass player who died drowned in a camp on carnival. The result was devastating and so we were called to record Warfare Noise.

 

 

 

1. At that moment, you chose to sing in Portuguese, something you also maintained on the first album, the legendary "Campo de Extermínio". Why did you prefer to use your language instead of singing in English, something that was already common among the bands of the time? Likewise, why did you decide to switch to English on the next album?

Rodrigo: It was very natural to sing in Portuguese, because I could not speak English. From the beginning it sounded very good in the rehearsals and we decided to keep it. In the next album, it was another aesthetic, another project in which we wanted to show that we were not nazis, so we chose to sing in English.

1. The debut album was very influential for most of the scene, including for me, both in the musical and visual aspect. I even wanted to have those hairs that you had on the back cover, hehehehe! I guess you did not even think that this album would have such a big impact and probably you didn’t even bother about it. Am I right or did the band already have a professional ambition at the time?

Anderson: You are quite right, the band never imagined that this album would be so successful and become a classic. There were no ambitions to grow professionally, but only to enjoy the moment and create the extreme songs, to present chaotic shows and to show the brutality of this work alive.

1. What I think that is cool about that moment is that, although the Minas Gerais bands were walking similar paths, each one had its own sound. To what do you attribute this uniqueness to each group?

Anderson: Yes, at that time each band had its influences and its way of seeing and living the world. Maybe our social conditions influenced a lot, because not everyone had the same conditions as having good instruments and so the songs were created with what was available at the moment.

1. What did you hear at the time of the first album? In other words, how did you come up with such a peculiar musical formula? Was it the product of these same influences or that famous lack of experience, which often contributes greatly to originality?

Anderson: We listened a lot to Slayer, Sodom, Discharge, Destruction, DRI, Black Sabbath, Motorhead and so many other bands of the time.

Rodrigo: I believe that not being able to play was a very important factor for the development of that unique sonority.

 

 

 

1. Certainly, you must be already tired of talking about the Nazi polemics that involved the band because of swastikas and lyrics of the past. Anyway, could you tell us a little bit about this? What did the use of swastikas mean to you? Currently, do you think it would make sense to keep this symbol associated with the kind of metal you make?

Anderson: We used that look only to mirror the theme of the “Campo de Extermínio” album and also as a way of protesting against everything and everyone in the world and it is also worth mentioning that at that time it was not prohibited as today in Brazil. The prohibition only happened in the new Brazilian Constitution, signed in 1988. Today there is no sense in using swastikas, because we are also talking about war in its more general sense, the horrors of wars.

1. Did you ever have problems because of this gratuitous association with Nazism? Are there people who today believe that Holocausto has something to do with this stupid political vision?

Armando: Although we accepted an invitation to play in Germany, despite the fact that they feel ashamed for the old Nazism, they managed to understand that we do not make any apology of Nazism, but rather we just report old events of World War II.

Anderson: In Brazil, even today some people think that Holocausto is a Nazi band and some shows were canceled because of this kind of rumor.

1. Another polemic that is, in a certain way, associated with the theme of wars is that of who created the so-called War Metal. In my opinion, the first band to speak openly about the subject in the extreme scene was Holocausto, with no shadow of a doubt, but not everyone agrees. What do you think? After all, when did the term "war metal" start to be used?

Anderson: Well, Holocausto,since its original formation, always talked about wars and, because of that, Mark, Chaka’sl guitarist, gave name to our style like War Metal and this term persistsso far.

Rodrigo: It is worth mentioning that we were very influenced by Sodom's “In The Sign of Evil” and also by “Antes do Fim”, by DorsalAtlântica, that already used war themes in their songs.

 

 

 

1. The next album, "Blocked Minds", featured a more thrash metal sound and many people understood (including me, I confess) that there was an attempt there to achieve the same success achieved by Sepultura. Today, decades after that, I see this issue in a very different way. So, I would really like to know what motivated this change and how you see that issue nowadays.

Anderson: The departure of Valério would be one of the reasons, because the new guitar players entered with new proposals to make a different sound and from there we changed even the way of singing. Today the type of music proposed by “Blocked Minds” has become more up-to-date in terms of sonority.

1. Why did not "Blocked Minds" achieve the same success as the "Campo de Extermínio"? Likewise, the subsequent albums also did not have the same popularity. Was the public not yet prepared to absorb the musical proposal of Holocausto?

Anderson: We believe that people did not like to change much and the music has changed so much that it seemed like another band.

1. There was even a clear aesthetic change in these later releases, right? To what do you attribute these changes?

Anderson: It was nothing more than new experiences only to see what could happen.

1. In 1993, after the release of "Tozago as Deismo", the band decided to quit its activities. What happened at that time that tookHolocausto to an end?

Rodrigo: Actually we ended up in 1994, when we completed 10 years of band and basically it was a feeling of frustration and impotence, because there were many disagreements with the record company.

 

 

 

1. Well, despite the end of Holocausto, you did not quit the music, right? Can you tell a bit of this experience of playing in bands like pexbaA and others in the meantime? Do you think this musical diversification has contributed to your personal and musical growth?

Rodrigo: At that moment, I decided to set up a collective of anti-music called EscolaMineira de Disfunção (EMD) and to continue searching for new ways to play.pexbaA is one of EMD's projects and it also lasted 10 years and recorded 3 albums.

1. After more than a decade without playing, what led you to resume activities with the Holocaust in the 2000s?

Anderson: It was a very casual encounter and the idea to play again just came up or at least try to play. From that point on, we were gradually recovering the sonority of the 80's.

1. It seems that, after experimenting with a series of different sonorities, you wanted to go back to basics with "De voltaao Front", a rather objective album, so to speak. Why?

Anderson: We were trying to rescue the point where the original formation had stopped. “De voltaaoFront” was the beginning. Nowadays, with “War Metal Massacre” we hit the point of origin.

1. Speaking of other projects, I know that you also play in the hardcore band CertoPorcos, which makes an amazing music! Could you tell us a bit about this band for the readers who have not heard of it yet?

Rodrigo: CertoPorcos is a band I formed with my childhood friends. We always met and played some punk bands like RDP, Cólera, OlhoSeco, Spermbirds, Flipper. So we started to compose our own songs with a metalpunk sound. We released our first album “Hate 666” by Cogumelo Records and just released a split with Agathocles.

1. For you, has hardcore always been there, side by side with metal, among your preferences? In fact, does it make sense to separate these two genres, considering that both seem to have influenced the extreme scene equally?

Rodrigo: Yes, these references are of equal value to me. In fact, I am an aficionado for music, be it blues, rock, heavy metal, industrial, as well as erudite music, jazz and avant-garde.

1. Well, last year, "Campo de Extermínio" turned 30 years old! It's quite a landmark, right? What do you feel when you realize this and all the relevance of this record?

Armando: “Campo de Extermínio” portrays the gathering of efforts of musicians of the classic musical line-up of Holocausto. This musical essence continues today in Holocausto, because currently we are with the same line-up, Rodrigo F., Valério Exterminator, Anderson Guerrilheiro and Armando Nuclear Soldier, and always in a continuous process of improvement in all aspects of the band. Holocaustoconcerts today recapture the energy of the 80's, the look of the 80's and the musical brutality of that time in the present day. In other words, when we look back, we observe a time when the most extreme bands of extreme metal emerged, we decided to continue with the same sound and the War Metal theme.

 

1. And how did the invitation to record "War Metal Massacre" happen, which another masterful record in the career of Holocausto? Why the decision to go back to the band's musical roots? Did the return of the original formation contribute to this decision?

Rodrigo: First, there was an invitation from Nuclear War Now to participate in an edition of the NWN Fest in Berlin. Hence, came the idea of releasing new material from the band. As a result of fate, we were able to join the initial line-up that recorded the compilation Warfare Noise and so we decided to re-record the 3 songs recorded by this line-up in 1986, which are Destruição Nuclear e Escarro Napalm, from Warfare Noise, and Massacre, the first official Holocausto’s composition of the demo-tape, and we recorded 3 new songs with the same line-up in 2016.

1. I imagine that the old fans enjoyed this comeback, but I also see that there are many new fans celebrating the music of Holocausto. Isn’t it crazy to see people that were born years after your first records to be here today enjoying the band, including these old releases?

Anderson: A lot of the audience is formed by people of our time that go to the shows to go back to the time, but the interesting thing is that there are a lot of kids that are appearing at the shows and enjoying it a lot.

1. After so many years involved with the underground, how do you see all the changes we have been through since the old days? What is worse now and what has improved?

Anderson: What really improved was the better access to musical instruments, which was more difficult at the time. What got worseis the segmentation of the scene and so the total audience has fallen a lot in terms of numbers.

1. You've been doing some live concerts in Brazil, right? Are there any plans to go to Europe either? Is there any chance of playing in Poland? I'm sure the Polish would love to see Holocausto live, hehe!

Anderson: We are preparing a new album and, of course, some gigs have happened. Europe, whenever we can go, for sure we will be there! As for Poland, we still hope to play over there, it would be great!!!

1. I read in another interview that you are also recording a new album. How is this process? Will the music follow the aesthetics of "War Metal Massacre"?

Anderson: We are preparing the songs and it will really be in War Metal style, but the intention is to do better.

Rodrigo: The new album will be called“Diário de Guerra”. Some song titles, such as OcupaçãoHostil, Prisioneiro de Guerra and Pelotão da Morte, reaffirm our purpose in making an extreme War Metal album! It is practically composed and being arranged to enter the studio in the second half of this year.

1. Why do you think it is still worth continuing in this underground life to this day, considering all the difficulties of maintaining an extreme metal band? After all, do you think it was worth facing all the adversities?

Rodrigo: Personally, for me music is as essential as breathing. It is my addiction, my “alcohol” and it keeps my sanity. It has always been difficult and it still is in the present. I do not regret anything on this path and I would go through it all a thousand times.

1. Finally, I would like to repeat a question I have asked most of the bands I interviewed, especially the bands that already have a legacy. How would you like the Holocaust to be remembered in the future?

Rodrigo: As one of the most extreme bands in South America!

1. Well, thank you so much for your attention, my brother! I leave this final question open for your last words or for something that you find important to add and that I did not ask.

Rodrigo: We thank you a lot, Cristiano, maniac of the fucking Necrobutcher and Antichrist Hooligans! Thanks to OLDSCHOOL METAL MANIAC and all the metalheads of Poland! The war tank marches again on the war front! The victory will be ours!!!

Cristiano Passos