About Me
1990, a turning point for the portuguese underground scene.
In the middle of the 80´s a couple of bands brought some fresh and new ideas to the desert panorama of creative music in Portugal. Pop Del Arte, Mler If Dada, Mão Morta and a few others where the first to explore new paths in pop / rock; however, no matter how strange these bands could seem to most common listeners by the time, they all ended up making some "easier" songs that could be digested by the mainstream, so it was just a matter of days untill they all got contracts by major labels. In the end of the 80´s, radical underground music was still confined to small handmade fanzines, pirate radio shows and was maintained by people who had the chance to import records from europe or the states. One big exception, probably responsible by all the change that was to follow, was Antonio Sergio´s radio program, "Lança Chamas", that influenced hundreds of youngsters to listen and appreciate radical rock music.
In 1989, Bimotor, a record store that imported underground metal records opened up in Porto, the (most loved, by the way) hometown of Genocide. You could find there the most extreme underground music at the time: Death, Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Slayer and so many others. Paulo Castro (an independent actor now, with a fascinating career) was responsible by an underground radio show and started making some "heavy metal sessions" at this record store; soon a whole underground movement started to come up, trading lp´s and cassetes (no internet by that time, sorry) and trying to find ways to get some money to buy the cheapest instruments one could find in the greedy record stores.
So, the band started like this. In 1991, we released our first demo tape called "Silent Songs", recorded in Luis Barros´s (from Tarantula, pioneers of heavy portuguese music) studio. The deep, deep vocals, fast drum parts and creative guitar riffs convinced a lot of people, and soon the band, with only a few years of existence, gathered the honourable reputation of "cult band". One of the tracks was included in the first portuguese underground metal compilation ever, called "The birth of a tragedy", edited by MTM records. After some line up changes and the frequent (by the time) problems with the military service, the band was, in 93, probably at the most creative point. After some good shows and a growing reputation as the faster and more precise band in portugal, we got a record deal with Música Alternativa, and our first record titled "genocide" was out in 1994.
The record had an enorm impact in the then much bigger underground scene. We opened up for amazing bands like Napalm Death, Benediction, Hypocrisy, Gorefest, Cradle of Filth, Extreme Noise Terror, Forbidden, Grave and we played with hundreds of portuguese bands, it was really a previlege to meet all these people...
However, by 1996, the scene was completly saturated and overloaded. Black metal and techno became the thing for the new generations that didn´t want to follow up the MTV brainwash (there were other things, of course), and death grind became a bit senseless, since a creative hiatus in the genre had emerged. We also faced this situation, and by this time our musical tastes were far more opened than thrash / death / hc / grind. We decided to play toghether the same musical style that kept us alive during all those years, and we had the chance to play all kinds of other music with other projects and names. Our second record, "breaking point" was out in 1999, continuing our policy of playing the same kind of music that brought us toghether. It was faster, more technical, but some naivity had been lost, and we could never make such a pure record as our first one. Times had changed, and the only thing that kept us playing as fast, difficult, loud and extreme as we could was only the fact of enjoying what we did with the people in it. It still is, when we ocasionally meet for a friendly concert.
Sorry for ommitions, peace and freedom to all. I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
