Black Pantera is a band with a defined and explicit political purpose. The trio from Minas Gerais, playing crossover thrash, strongly opposes racism and other forms of oppression in society with surgical and impactful lyrics, but nothing compares to the live experience of the band confirmed for Rock In Rio .
Currently on tour promoting their album Ascensão , released on March 11th of this year, the band performed at the Centro Cultural Tendal da Lapa, in São Paulo, last Sunday, the 24th, in an equally fierce and inspiring show, accompanied by a diverse and intense audience.
With the trains of the CPTM's Ruby line as an occasional backdrop during the performance, not even the roar of the machinery in transit could interfere with the unstoppable sound of Black Pantera, especially with the tracks from the new album, the result of years of experience on the road and designed to explode live, as the band told Wikimetal .
And the audience's response is delirious from beginning to end, with the front of the stage taken over by mosh pits and headbanging, as the song "Mosha" aptly describes: "Weighing a ton / Without brakes, without a lock / Going down the hill / At every corner it just gets faster."
In this effervescent attitude guided by the voice and guitar of Charles Gama , the thunderous bass of Chaene da Gama , and the furious drumming of Rodrigo “Pancho” Augusto , the Black Pantera is not just an underground spectacle due to its hardcore attitude and the band's absolute competence, but also its ability to create a utopia of resistance amidst the chaotic, already dystopian world in which we live, where injustice and oppression walk freely in broad daylight.
By reclaiming the rightful place of Black people in rock and metal, railing against the "scoundrel" of current president Jair Bolsonaro , widely rejected by the band and the audience, inviting the public to "light the bonfire" by chanting "Fire on the Racists," a song that was born a classic in the group's repertoire, and providing a mosh pit exclusively for the women present, Black Pantera demonstrates itself as a revolutionary force of reappropriation when a considerable portion of the heavy music scene seems to have forgotten that this genre emerged from the hands of the oppressed – and to fight for change.
This isn't to say that every rock and metal band has an obligation to embrace causes, despite the implicit and undeniable privilege of those who can afford to "not raise any flags," but it's impossible not to see Black Pantera's incendiary show as part of building something bigger.
Black Pantera's show has graced stages of varying sizes in Brazil and abroad, but the band's attitude remains consistent: delivering a frighteningly visceral and genuine performance, elements that will surely place them among the most captivating acts at Rock In Rio's Metal Day on September 2nd of this year, when they take the Sunset stage with Devotos .
The Ascensão began in March in Uberaba and continues touring Brazil until the end of the year, with dates confirmed until November of this year . Black Pantera's next stop in São Paulo will be at the Extrapunk Extrafunk Festival on July 30th, at Espaço Super Lounge, located in the Barra Funda region, with tickets at affordable prices. Buy here .
READ ALSO: Black Pantera talks about Rock In Rio and the challenges of being an anti-racist metal band