Holocausto

Quite possibly Brazil's most polarizing heavy metal outfit, the Belo Horizonte quartet Holocausto matched the savage, rudimentary fusion of black and thrash metal produced by peers such as Sepultura, Sarcófago, and Vulcano. Yet while those acts provoked outrage mainly through anti-Christian and occult imagery, Holocausto crossed a further line on their 1987 album Campo de Extermínio (Extermination Camp) by detailing Nazi atrocities against Jews with clinical literalness, prompting accusations of anti-Semitism. Formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984, the band had already issued an EP and placed a track on the 1986 Warfare Noise compilation before insisting that their intent was solely to document the Holocaust's full brutality. Stage aliases like vocalist Rodrigo Führer, guitarist Valério Exterminator, bassist Anderson Guerrilheiro, and drummer Armando Nuclear Soldier nevertheless kept skepticism alive. Subsequent releases such as 1988's Blocked Minds and 1991's Negatives failed to gain traction, whether because of the group's incremental musical development, delayed shift to English lyrics—both factors pivotal to Sepultura's international ascent—or persistent lineup instability and residual hostility toward their debut. Even so, Holocausto remains an essential footnote among Brazil's inaugural wave of metal acts; the original members reconvened in 2004 and, a couple of years afterward, issued the hardcore-inflected De Volta ao Front (Back to the Front).