In a conversation with Nando Machado on The Wikimetal Happy Hour , Val Santos talked about how he decided to change instruments after a "trauma" related to his departure from Viper in the 80s, where he played drums.
At the time, Val recounts that he didn't have a drum set, so he couldn't practice enough to maintain the level of expertise the band needed for the Theatre of Fate . "I only discovered I wasn't playing well during the recording," he says. "In the studio you discover some things, and that's where I discovered my flaws. You hear every detail."
According to Val Santos, the producer of the Viper album in question was the same one responsible for Testament 's Practice What You Preach , and he "saw right away" that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the band's pace during the recordings, which led Val to pass the drumsticks to Sergio Facci .
“Serginho was really nice at the time, he came to talk to me and I told him I understood,” Val recounts. “He had to learn the songs really fast and record them right away, so, poor guy, he suffered. I spent hours conducting him, even during the recording. Then the guys [from Viper] came to talk to me, to let me know they were going to need another drummer. I felt really bad, but I understood.”
At the time, the drummer who replaced Val Santos in Viper was Guilherme Martin , who later gave way to Ricardo Graccia . “An interesting detail is that before Renato joined, I helped with the arrangements for the song 'Rebel Maniac' in rehearsals. This is a detail that few people know,” reveals Val Santos. After a while playing drums in his own band, Zuris , Val decided to put the drums aside and switch instruments. This year, at the end of May, Val Santos released his first solo album, the heavy metal project 1986 .
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