That's when it became Heavy Metal: a style of rock, of music, of life, of behavior and thought.
By André Góis, vocalist of Vodu and Desaster and announcer at Eldorado FM radio.
My friend Nando Machado from Wikimetal asked me to write a text telling how Metal entered my life. Nando himself, a great bassist and vocalist who is the brother of another brother, Felipe from Viper, witnessed its peak in 1985, 1986, when Exhort, Vodu (the band I sang in) and Viper played together a lot...
In the beginning, it wasn't even called Heavy Metal yet. It was just heavy rock... Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen, Kiss...
I'd read all those names since I was a child, written in nail polish on my sister's wardrobe doors. But it was my older cousins who came along and said, "Listen to this sound." And I listened. Queen – Death On Two Legs – and my life changed. Forever.
But my go-to band has always been Black Sabbath. Today, I think we all agree that Heavy Metal truly began with Sabbath, even though it had appeared before in the sound of other bands of the time, but in terms of sound, nomenclature, and themes, it was Sabbath who laid the foundations of the style. So Metal entered my life with Black Sabbath in 1980, 1981. Rainbow, Purple, Pink Floyd, Scorpions, Rolling Stones, all of that was in the same package for us; liking that meant being a Rocker. The term Heavy Metal (and we used to say "Heavy" to differentiate) really started to spread here in São Paulo in '82, '83 at Woodstock; that's where it started for me to "be" Heavy Metal, the same year as the first Kiss show here. Those Saturday mornings were wonderful, magical, seen with today's eyes.
Judas Priest, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Manowar, Angel Witch, Loudness, Tygers of Pan Tang, Satan, etc… that was a step further, that was already Heavy Metal! \m/_ A style of Rock, of Music, of Life, Behavior, and Thought. In that same year, '83, '84, São Paulo's Metal scene strengthened, took shape and form. The places where the shows took place and the bands' videos were shown became sacred places frequented assiduously. Carbono 14, Cine Rock Show, Rainbow Bar, Ácido Plástico… and that's the story.
André Góis
