VIPER is a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in 1985, when brothers Pit (bass) and Ives Passarell (lead guitar) joined up with guitarist Felipe Machado, drummer Cassio Audi and singer Andre Matos. After a few demos, VIPER's first album, "Soldiers of Sunrise", was released in July 1987; it was a fairly raw-sounding Iron Maiden-type album and was very successful in Brazil. After Sergio Facci took over on drums, VIPER returned to the studio and recorded "Theatre of Fate" in 1989. This second album featured much more mature songwriting, heavily influenced by classical music. This, combined with Andre Matos' greatly improved singing, made "Theatre of Fate" a top-notch progressive metal album. During the "Theatre of Fate" recording sessions, Matos decided to leave VIPER to study classical music in college. But he was not replaced by a new member; Pit Passarell became the new singer, while Renato Graccia became the new drummer. Because of that, the band wanted to move back to a more standard metal sound. Then in '91 Matos formed ANGRA. "Evolution" was released in 1992, trading classical influences and the operatic singing of Andre Matos in favor of a straight hard rock style. 1994's "Coma Rage" found VIPER going in yet another direction. This album has a raw, heavy punk rock sound, showing that VIPER likes to keep changing its sound and never makes the same album twice. Then came "Tem Pra Todo Mundo" with most of the songs in portuguese and a very different musical direction. Ricardo Bocci (vocal) and Val Santos (rythm guitar) joined the band in the late 2004 and in 2005 VIPER released a 20 years celebration DVD called "Living for the Night", a documentary of the band history, with testimonials from almost everyone that made part of VIPER (including Andre Matos). In that year the band decided to make a 20 years celebration tour in Brazil, playing songs from the first 4 albums. For 2006 the band prepares a brand new album, with metal oriented songs and a new vocal very similar to Matos singing style. Just wait to hear it.
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