Sarcofago was a Brazilian extreme metal band founded in 1985, and is considered one of the most highly influential metal bands of all time.
Founded in Belo Horizante by Wagner Lamounier and Geraldo Minelli, the group sought to create the most extreme music that the world had ever encountered, and drew musical inspiration from other extreme bands like Slayer and Celtic Frost, along with groups from the Finnish hardcore punk scene.
Sarcofago made their first appearance on a 1986 split album titled "Warfare Noise I," contributing the tracks "The Black Vomit," "Satanas, " and "Recrucify." At this time, the band consisted of "Antichrist," (Lamounier, vocals, ex Sepultura, ) "Butcher," (guitars,) "Incubus," (Minelli, bass) and "Leprous," (Armando Sampaio, drums.)
The groups' extreme lyrical content and Satanic imagery drew them a sizeable amount of attention, and shocked the country with their openly blasphemous lyrics.
In 1987, the band released their debut album "INRI" with drummer D.D. Crazy, who would become widely renowned for his excessive use of blast beats. This album is highly regarded as the first official representation of black metal, both in sound and imagery. Sarcofago's use of bullet belts and corpsepaint influenced many other bands, most notably in the Norwegian scene, (much to Lamounier's confusion.) Soundwise, Sarcofago is considered the epitome of first wave black metal, and is highly influential to the war metal scene.This album alone is considered highly influential on the black metal genre, and is considered a huge milestone in the evolution of extreme metal.
While the release of this album reached legendary status, Lamounier himself was displeased with it, citing inner conflict and the recording quality for his dissatisfaction.
Sarcofago briefly disbanded after the album's release, with Wagner going off to study economics. Meanwhile, Butcher and D.D. Crazy left the band, with D.D. going on to contribute drums for Sextrash's 1990 debut, "Sexual Carnage."
In 1990 Sarcofago returned to release their first EP, "Rotting," this time with session drummer "Joker" joining the lineup.
This record differed drastically from the legendary INRI album, replacing the hyper speed black metal with influences of cross over thrash.
The founding members would also undergo a change in aliases upon release, becoming "Wagner Antichrist" and "Gerald Incubus." They also abandoned the use of spikes in their stage appearances, as they were difficult to perform in. Additionally, Wagner would pick up the guitar for this record, and contributed many of the album's riffs.
While Rotted was the first Sarcofago release to boast international distribution, the band found conflict with Maze Records from the U.S., when they released a censored version of the album and placed a sticker (without agreement from the band,) that read:
"Featuring the Original Lead Singer of Sepultura."
The band would release their second album, "The Laws of Scourge" in 1991. This record was another radical shift in Sarcofago's musical sound, and is considered one of the first technical death metal releases in the history of Metal. This new sound was partly influenced by the band's new members, "Jhasko" (guitars) and Lucio Oliver (drums.) The album would become Sarcofago's best selling record, and resulted in their most robust touring schedule in their entire career.
The band would release a third album in 1994 titled "Hate." This album would cause controversy over the band's use of a drum machine, though Lamounier had no respite with its use.
At this time, the band also cut their hair short in protest of the grunge music scene that was taking the world by storm. Wagner stated that they had no issues with bands like Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but that their defiance was directed towards "jumping the. Bandwagon," or trends, which they believed stripped people down of their intelligence through massification.
Sarcofago would release a compilation CD in 1996, which included rare backstage pictures and demo versions of their early song.
The band would release their fourth and final album in 1997, titled "The Worst." This record saw a considerable change in tempo compared to it's speed infused predecessor.
Around 2000, Sarcofago released another EP called "Crust," and was supposed to serve as a preview for their next album. However, the band split up before recording.
While the band had parted ways, Geraldo Incubus and Cogumelo Records would collaborate on a comeback show in celebration of Warfare Noise's 20th anniversary. The lineup for the event would feature Minelli, Jhasko, Joker, and an old time friend named Juarez "Tibanha" to cover vocals. Wagner himself did not participate due to his disinterest in performing professionally. The event took place in 2006 at Belo Horizonte, and was recorded.
The last appearance of Sarcofago would be in 2007, when they played alongside Possessed for the Black Shadows fest in Santiago, Chile.
In 2009, Sarcofago was rumored to reunite, and make appearances at well known music festivals like Wacken and perform in various cities like New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Wagner exposed these rumors as false.
The band is still split up, having been inactive since 2007. There is one final compilation released in 2015, titled "Die... Hard."
Wagner now works as an economics professor, and has a crust punk side project titled "Commando Kaos."
