For those who follow the legends of early proto-black metal, the name Sarcófago conjures up a vision of the ultimate boundary: barely in time, barely musical, and yet intensely creative and focused, this band open the door to a new world.

A brief transcript compiled by journalist Frederico Borges of the interview with original Sarcófago bassist Gerald “Incubus” Minelli follows:

First contacts with music

My first contact, from the memory I have with music, of really enjoying music, was listening to Elvis Presley in the late 70s. Our contact with proper metal happened in the 80s, when Slayer, Exodus, Venom, Metallica appeared, then we started to get in touch with this style and to realize that it was what we wanted to do most.

Sarcófago’s origins

Me and Butcher started the band, and then Dudu, DD Crazy, came in. Zéder used the Butcher pseudonym. We started the band and we had some vocalists. Most were friends of ours, who wanted to make music, but none worked out fine until Wagner came, who fit well.

First concerts and the MG state scene

We were in the scene from the beginning with Cogumelo and all those bands. There were some interesting festivals in the beginning, where everybody played together. One was called Hoje é Dia de Rock, which was organized by Dirceu Pereira. Sepultura, Sarcófago, Overdose, and Sagrado Inferno played that festival. But Sarcófago’s first concert was at the Sagrada Família neighbourhood, at a school called Helena Pena.

Controversies and the band’s motto

We cared about the repercussions we were having. If one was speaking badly, it was cool. If one was speaking well, it was cool. Speak well or speak bad, but always remember us. We always had this motto in Sarcófago.

The pioneering blast beat drums

I don’t want to underestimate other drummers of that time, who played fast, but it was Dudu who came up with that rhythm. Not that it didn’t exist, but it came to be used by Dudu. He would accelerate so much, that the noise from de drums would ressemble a machine gun. There is no previous record of a drummer playing that way.

Aesthetic influences

Everyone says “oh, it was Slayer, it was Motley Crue”… Yes, they helped, but it wasn’t these people, these bands. It was Kiss and Alice Cooper. At that time, the references we had were these: Kiss and Alice Cooper.

INRI’s recognition

It is an album known all over the world, by many people and many bands and even music celebrities, who are into it. Like the lead singer of Pantera, among other people. Nirvana’s drummer, David Grohl, also speaks well about Sarcófago.

Whether Rotting would cause controversy today

I believe so, for using a supposed image of Jesus Christ being kissed by a skull that symbolizes death. I think it would have made the same impact. What we meant with it was that Jesus Christ had died, that Jesus Christ died.

Hate and the electronic drums

Wagner and I have always been very autonomous and authentic. It came to a point where we sat down and said, ‘let’s record another album’? ‘Yeah and we’ll do it in the most fucked up, roughest possible way’! Then we were already without a drummer, Fábio had already moved to São Paulo and we decided to record it the two of us. (…) Hate, I hate everything, I even hate myself. That was our thing. We are both not easy people to deal with.

Influences on The Worst album

In The Worst, Wagner and I sat down and said, ‘We’re going to make a record half and half. A half of it will be really aggressive and the other, I don’t know, with a Burzum vibe, kind of resembling Hellhammer, who had some sort of doom songs like that’. (…) We wrote some of the songs in which I would make a drum set and Wagner would create the guitar lines on top of it.

Crust composition method

It was like that, straight foward, doing it the way we thought it was cool. We were all about keeping the authenticity. Sometimes something that seemed to be a mistake according to the metronome, for us it was something interesting and we would keep it.

You can view the full interview here:

Tags: Black Metal, sarcofago