Fury – the history and stories of heavy metal in Brazil
Chapter 1: Nativity In Black
By Luiz Cesar Pimentel & Wikimetal
Friday, February 13, 1970.
There's no arguing with this date. So, let's settle it: This is the day Heavy Metal was born, after all, this is the day Black Sabbath's first album, which bears the band's name, was released.
The eternal debate is who created the genre. Valid arguments abound. But it's also impossible to argue if you delve a little deeper into the issue.
It's 37 seconds of the sound of thick raindrops, dramatically accompanied by scattered thunder and the ringing of bells in the background. It's a combination that becomes visual, until Geezer Butler's bass and Bill Ward's drums provide the backdrop for Tony Iommi's guitar to forcefully extract Heavy Metal in one of the most classic riffs in music.
Three notes that form a musical interval known as a tritone, in dissonant effect. So tense that in the Middle Ages the combination was forbidden – “ it attracts the devil ,” justified the religious, who baptized the tritone “ diabolus in musica ”.
Tony Iommi didn't care at all. He had no idea about it.
And the lyrics, written by bassist Geezer Butler, reinforced the dark atmosphere.
What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quickly, and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Oh, no…
Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan's sitting there, he's smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh, no, no, please God help me.
Is it the end, my friend?
Satan's coming 'round the bend
People running 'cause they're scared
The people better go and beware
No, no, please, no.”
The inspiration for the music came from the blues. Black Sabbath, when known as Earth, called themselves a "heavy blues" group. For Butler, the inspiration for the lyrics came from horror movies – he saw lines of people outside cinemas to watch films of the genre and deduced: " If people are interested in the subject, I'll write about it ."
When all the elements above were combined, they formed the atomic nucleus of the heavy metal.
The first known reference to the style appeared in the novel " Nova Express ," by Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs, in 1964. One of the characters in the book was named " Uranium Willy, the heavy metal kid ," basically because uranium, as an element, is a heavy metal.
Four years later, pop culture was taken over by the " heavy metal thunder " from the lyrics of Steppenwolf's " Born to be Wild ." But it was also a reference outside the musical aspect, to the roar of motorcycle engines.
As for musical references, the first known one was given by the celebrated critic Lester Bangs, in the magazine he edited, " Creem ". It's worth remembering that Bangs slammed Sabbath's first album in a review for the magazine he edited, calling it "confusing," to summarize.
Among musicians, many are considered the fathers of Heavy Metal. Many say it's Led Zeppelin. Or Deep Purple. But they were heavy rock bands, without the combination of elements that would elevate them to the paternal category. The closest Zeppelin came was through guitarist Jimmy Page's obsession with occultism and black magic, which led him to buy the house of the "wizard" Aleister Crowley (Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley"). As for Deep Purple, it stopped at the witch hats that guitarist Ritchie Blackmore wore at the time.
So much so that a year before the release of "Black Sabbath," the album, Ozzy listened to a copy of Led Zeppelin's first album, also self-titled, and asked Tony Iommi:
– “Did you see how heavy this record is?”
To which Iommi shrugged:
– “ Ours will be bigger. ”
And so it was.
At a cost of £600 and recorded in two days, “Black Sabbath” was released on Friday the 13th, which opens this chapter and featured classics such as the title track, “The Wizard”, “NIB”, “Behind the Wall of Sleep” and “Evil Woman” (this one, a cover of The Crow).
The four members were from the English industrial city of Birmingham, all born between 1948 and 1949, shortly after the Second World War. As a teenager, Iommi lost the tips of two fingers on his right hand (he is left-handed) while working in one of the factories in his hometown. Turning to continue playing guitar, inspired by the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, who only had three fingers on his left hand, Iommi created the heavy style, adapting strings, tuning, and fingerboards.
In the United States, at the time, some groups followed the heavy blues line as well, but didn't cross the genre line. In the equally industrial city of Detroit ("Detroit Rock City" by Kiss is a play on this, since the city was known as " Motor City " because of its automobile factories), heavy and violent groups like The Stooges and MC5 were successful.
The closest competitor was Blue Cheer, a power trio from San Francisco, California, formed in 1967 and who debuted on record the following year with "Vincebus Eruptum". The heavy version of "Summertime Blues" from that album is the one that generates the most discussion about being the first Heavy Metal song ever recorded. But, damn, it's "Summertime BLUES". In other words:
– “ They were very important groups for the (Heavy Metal) scene. But the style of music they made was more about volume and fury ,” explains Rush bassist Geedy Lee aptly.
Black Sabbath's release came at a strange time for world music. The debut reached number 8 on the British charts, an unexpected success. Perhaps a harbinger of difficult times for music sounding the alarm.
In April of that year, the Beatles officially announced their separation. And from September 1970 until the middle of the following year, rock lost three of its main representatives – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, all victims of drugs.
The 1960s were coming to an end. The 1970s, alongside Heavy Metal, heralded the most evolutionary era of rock – it was in this decade that arena rock exploded with Aerosmith, Kiss, and Van Halen in the United States, punk on both sides of the ocean, and progressive music in the middle of it all.
Jimi Hendrix wisely called Heavy Metal " the music of the future ".
Progressive rock was kicked in the ass by punk boots, and barely managed to end the decade standing. Punk, on the other hand, had a simultaneous explosion in the mid-to-late 70s in London and New York, and ended up diluted into hardcore, post-punk, and new wave at the turn of the 80s. Heavy metal, meanwhile, remained in the shadows, where it stays to this day, a giant hidden in the basement.
The flame remained strongest in England during those years, where groups like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Motörhead, and Saxon formed and triggered what would become the genre's first major moment at the turn of the 80s: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
That's when the genre spread virulently across the globe. And it resonated in Brazil.
Here, as in the rest of the world, the paternity of Heavy Metal is claimed and attributed to many groups. Most fingers point to Patrulha do Espaço, a group created in 1977 by Arnaldo Batista, recently departed from Os Mutantes. But the same principle applies as when the genre was created – Patrulha was a rock group. Heavy. But it didn't have the head, torso, and limbs of metal.
The first manifestation of Heavy Metal as a genre in the country, in terms of unifying factors, came with the launch of a fanzine, which circulates as a magazine to this day, " Rock Brigade ", in March 1982, in São Paulo.
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Read Chapter 2: Crusader, The Landing in Brazil
Read Preface (aka Carmina Burana)
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