We were in the studio when the president of Roadrunner in Brazil called us: "Viper has been invited to play at the first edition of Monsters of Rock in Brazil."

By Felipe Machado (*)

When I was a teenager, in 1984, I was part of a huge group of long-haired rock and roll fanatics. Our main activities included: listening to rock, talking about rock, playing rock, watching rock videos, buying rock records, going to rock concerts… well, you get the idea.

We liked it so much that several members of that group ended up becoming professional musicians or professionals connected to rock a few years later. I, Andre Matos, Pit Passarell, and Yves Passarell formed Viper; Marcos Kleine is the guitarist for Ultraje a Rigor; Eduardo Simões moved to Belo Horizonte and played in Chakal; Nando Machado formed Exhort and today, with Daniel Dystyler and Rafael Masini, they set up the production company/label/podcast Wikimetal. And we continue listening to the same things (and others, of course) to this day.

It's important to clarify that it was very difficult to obtain rock videos, especially heavy metal ones. The solution was to resort to pirated VHS tapes or attend some of the underground screenings at cinemas like the Rock Show and Carbono 14. Calling them cinemas, in fact, would be an insult to cinemas: they were rooms with terrible video projectors and even worse audio. Air conditioning? An unthinkable luxury at the time. Therefore, someone would buy a VHS tape in the United States and lend it to the producers of the Rock Show and Carbono 14, who would charge a small fee and show it to teenagers who didn't mind being crammed together, singing, clapping, as if it were a real concert. It wasn't – but the magic was there.

The highlight of those afternoons were the festivals: that was the only way we could see several bands in the same session: Woodstock, US Festival, Monsters of Rock, it was a dream. On the same stage, bands like Ozzy, AC/DC and Scorpions transported us to a visual world that until then only existed in our ears. We could see our idols moving, shaking their heads, headbanging like us. Amidst sweaty and excited teenagers, as if they were at a real concert, life was happening.

Ten years later.

After two European tours and one Japanese tour, Viper was invited to record an album in Los Angeles, California. We spent almost two months in Hollywood, sharing a studio complex with bands like White Zombie and Body Count. We recorded 'Coma Rage' with production by Bill Metoyer, who had worked with Slayer and Testament, among others. The result was the heaviest album of our career (and here a parenthesis is in order – today I think the album is even too fast…).

That night I arrived home and was so tired that I didn't even dream. I didn't need to.”

All this to say that we were in the studio when Jerome Vonk, then president of Roadrunner in Brazil, called us and told us the news: Viper had been invited to play at the first edition of Monsters of Rock in Brazil! "Wait, what?" That's right!

The show was scheduled for August 27, 1994, so we checked the recording schedule and discovered it would end on… August 25th! Phew! We traveled on the 26th and arrived in Brazil on the morning of the show. I remember taking a taxi straight to the festival press conference and chatting with journalists and friends while almost asleep. Meanwhile, the roadies were already taking the equipment to Pacaembu Stadium, where we went for soundcheck. All this without sleep. But who wanted to sleep when they were going to play a few hours later at the biggest Heavy Metal festival in the world?

That's when they confirmed all the bands on the lineup: the Brazilian bands Angra (with Andre Matos on vocals, who would have thought time would bring us together again…), Dr. Sin and Raimundos; the international bands Suicidal Tendencies, Slayer, Black Sabbath (with Tony Martin on vocals) and Kiss. ​​And Viper in the middle of this sensational crowd. What an honor.

It was one of the best performances of our career. I don't even need to say much, the show was played dozens of times on MTV and today the whole thing is on YouTube. We had already played for huge crowds before, opening for Metallica at Palmeiras Stadium and opening for Black Sabbath outdoors at Ibirapuera Park. But there we were playing at Monsters of Rock, the festival we dreamed of when we were kids. If we were there, it was because we were also, in a way, 'monsters of rock', even imagining that we were just 'little monsters' compared to giants like Black Sabbath and Kiss. ​​That night I got home and I was so tired that I didn't even dream. I didn't need to.

Another thing that might seem silly, but was very significant, was that we were playing for 30,000 people at the Pacaembu Stadium, very close to the neighborhood where we grew up, Higienópolis. The geographical distance between one place and the other might be small, but nothing is more distant than the long-haired guys on stage singing 'Rebel Maniac' and the kids who, nearby, ten years earlier, used to get together to listen to Rock, talk about Rock, play Rock, watch Rock videos, buy Rock records, go to Rock concerts…

(*) Felipe Machado is a journalist, writer, and guitarist for Viper.