Text written by Luiz Pimentel
Today, June 8th, is Municipal Heavy Metal Day in São Paulo. The date was established by then-mayor Bruno Covas , shortly after the death of Andre Matos , exactly two years ago. Both are no longer with us, both so young and full of the cliché "with so much future ahead of them".
I will not go into lamenting the deaths here, but rather celebrate life. In this case, the life of my friend, André.
Upon learning of his passing and still reeling from the news, I sought information from my friends Nando and Felipe Machado ( Wikimetal and Viper , respectively) regarding the farewell. Respecting Andre's privacy, the family did not hold a ceremony for friends. That's when the three of us decided to hold a farewell mass.
A friend of ours had contact with Bruno Covas and invited him. He replied a day later, regretting not being able to attend the ceremony, asking about another tribute, and attended the show that Angra and friends put on in Praça da República to celebrate the maestro's life. There, he announced the date as Metal Day.
To conclude the political part of the story, I need to state for the record that the mayor was not a marketer nor did he make political use of the story – I closely followed every step and I guarantee that the tribute was completely sincere. I remembered this a year later, when he started his reelection campaign and appeared in the advertisement wearing an Alice in Chains t-shirt. And when we met shortly afterwards, he spoke to me about it.
But I'm digressing from the subject and what matters here, which was the tribute paid at the mass.
The Church of Consolation has never seen a celebration like this, I can guarantee it.
One of the people in charge of the church's youth group was a fan of Andre and had briefed the priest on his importance beforehand.
We invited the public and fans, and the place was packed with people wearing black T-shirts – it felt like Woodstock on Saturday mornings as we made our weekly trip to the store. Walcir even closed the store for the first time on a Saturday to go.
When the event is as genuine as this one, it's difficult to translate the energy of the place into words. Or worse: it risks sounding cheesy. So I'll just say that there was a speech by Felipe, a performance by Rafael Bittencourt from Angra , playing songs that made André famous in Viper , Shaman , and the band they shared. And there was a round of applause and the priest asking everyone to make noise in praise of André, which I prefer you watch in the video.
Every time I watch it, I get goosebumps and tear up.
Happy Metal Day.
