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Ratos de Porão (Portuguese for "Basement Rats") is a Brazilian
crossover thrash Crossover thrash (often abbreviated to crossover) is a fusion genre of thrash metal and hardcore punk. The genre emerged in the mid-1980s, when hardcore punk bands, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Cryptic Slaughter, Corrosion of Conformity and Dir ...
band from
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
. They were formed in 1981, toured South America, North America, Asia and Europe, and still continue to play today. Their core lineup of João Gordo on vocals and Jão on drums and later guitars has remained since virtually the band's beginning.


History


Early days

Ratos de Porão, or simply "RxDxPx", was formed in November 1981, existing in the Brazilian (São Paulo city)
punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
scene (alongside bands such as Olho Seco, Cólera, Inocentes, Garotos Podres, and Lobotomia). Directly influenced by the UK 82 hardcore bands such as Discharge, Charged G.B.H., Chaos U.K.
The Varukers The Varukers are a British punk rock band formed in 1979 by vocalist Anthony "Rat" Martin. They produced their most influential recordings in the early 1980s. The band play in D-beat, the musical style of Discharge. Also like Discharge, the ...
and Swedish and Finnish bands such as Anti-Cimex and Kaaos, they started to write songs that criticized Brazilian society, a revolutionary concept at the time. Their sound is regarded as one of the rawest of their scene (because other bands such as Cólera and Garotos Podres were more 'punk rock' sounding than 'hardcore punk'). Their first album was released in 1983 and was titled '' Crucificados pelo sistema''. Released on the Ataque Frontal label, it was one of the best-selling hardcore albums to come out of the country and was soon considered a punk classic worldwide. The line up was João Gordo (vocals), Mingau (guitar – later in many punk and pop bands in Brazil, currently playing in Ultraje a Rigor), Jabá (bass) and Jão (drums). Soon after, with the fall of the São Paulo punk scene (because of associated
gang violence A gang is a group or society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collecti ...
), the band split up and since then João Gordo has been accused of selling out and betraying the
DIY ethic "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi- ...
s of the hardcore punk movement for several alleged reasons; he has said, "I'm a traitor since 1983, because I told the guys I played hardcore, not punk. Then, I got labelled.(...)That's a stigma".


Initial crossover thrash era

In 1985, RxDxPx came back, in the original line-up: Jão, Jabá, Betinho. However, after a short time, Gordo returned to the band, who brought proposals to play crossover thrash music, the musicians agreed, but after a short time Betinho left the group and was replaced by Spaghetti. Jão switched over to playing guitar. Subsequently, they released the ''Descanse Em Paz'' album on Baratos Afins in 1986. With their new sound, they began to associate more with heavy metal bands, becoming friends with longtime RxDxPx fans
Sepultura Sepultura (, "grave")Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 17. is a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera.Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 16. They were a major force in the groove metal, thrash met ...
and other bands of the Brazilian 1980s metal scene, including Korzus and Anthares. Their next studio release with Baratos Afins Records, 1987's ''Cada Dia Mais Sujo e Agressivo'', was also released in an English-language version (''Dirty and Aggressive'') (the band feared that their English was so grammatically inaccurate that many of their native English speaking fans might ridicule their translated lyrics). This release continued the band's
D-beat D-beat (also known as Discore, kängpunk, Discrust, and crust-beat) is a style of hardcore punk, developed in the early 1980s by imitators of Discharge, after whom the genre is named, as well as a drum beat characteristic of this subgenre. D- ...
drum tempos. In 1989, they signed to
Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on Heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as ...
at the urging of
Igor Cavalera Igor Graziano Cavalera (born 4 September 1970) is a Brazilian musician, best known as the former drummer for the heavy metal band Sepultura, which he co-founded with his brother Max in 1984. Max left the band in 1997, and Igor himself would ...
of Sepultura, who played one of the band's tapes for the label's executives. RxDxPx then went to Germany to record their next studio LP, ''
Brasil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
''. With
Harris Johns Harris Johns is a German music producer, active since the late-1970s in the heavy metal and punk scene, working for a lot of big-name bands, such as Helloween, Coroner (band), Coroner, Tankard (band), Tankard, Sodom (band), Sodom, Voivod (band), ...
of Voivod and
Tankard A tankard is a form of drinkware consisting of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle. In recent centuries tankards were typically made of silver or pewter, but can be made of other materials, for example glass, wood, ...
producing, the band's production quality improved substantially in contrast to their previous releases; the instrumentation was noticeably more technical. In 1990, they returned to Germany to record their last album with the "classic" line-up of João Gordo, Jão, Jabá and Spaghetti. With Harris Johns acting again as producer, their next album titled '' Anarkophobia'' was met with criticism by some fans for being the band's most metallic release to date, having considerably more complex and lengthy song compositions and more technical musicianship. Nevertheless, ''Anarkophobia'' increased their profile within the worldwide metal scene of the early 1990s. But in mid-1991, they had their first line-up change in years, with Spaghetti leaving the band, citing that he had "been tired of the musical life". They auditioned several drummers to replace him, including Beto Silesci from Korzus, but the band decided that Silesci's style was too metal for the new direction they were planning to pursue. Silesci was in turn replaced with Boka of the Santos Beach thrash/
death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...
band ''Psychic Possessor''. In 1992, RxDxPx released its first official live album, called RDP ''Vivo'', with a corresponding music video for the song "Aids, Pop, Repressão" receiving heavy air play on ''Furia Metal'' of MTV (the Brazilian equivalent of ''
Headbangers Ball ''Headbangers Ball'' is a music television program that consists of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV and its global affiliates. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal music videos from both well-known and more obsc ...
''). At the decline of the thrash scene, under tension and personal problems (Jabá left the band and they had a heavy drug problem), they entered into the studio in 1994 to record their only 'all lyrics in English' album, called ''Just Another Crime in Massacreland''. The album suffered a thin production and a low promotion by the label, and it was a hard time in the life of RxDxPx.


Return to hardcore punk

After the departure of Jabá, the band had several different bass players and recorded a studio album with only punk and hardcore covers called ''Feijoada Acidente?'', a play on the
Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...
album '' "The Spaghetti Incident?"''. ( Feijoada is a traditional food from Brazil, a stew based on beans and pork.) There were two versions of this album: one covering only Brazilian bands such as Olho Seco, Lobotomia, Garotos Podres, among others; and one covering only non-Brazilian bands such as G.B.H., Black Flag, Anti-Cimex, Minor Threat, among others. At this time, Walter Bart (who used to play in a punk band called "Não Religião") and "Pica Pau" (Portuguese for woodpecker), who stayed in the band until 1999, played bass. Released in 1997, ''Carniceria Tropical'' marked a return to hardcore and Portuguese lyrics, and the band regained their former success. The same year, João Gordo started to work as a VJ for MTV Brasil. In 1999, the bassist Cristian "Fralda", who used to play in the punk rock band Blind Pigs joined the band, and they entered into the studio to re-record their first album, and called this album ''Sistemados Pelo Crucifa'' (a play on the original album title, "Crucificados Pelo Sistema"). The front cover was designed by the Korzus bassist, Dick Siebert.


Return to crossover

In 2002, they released the ''Onisciente Coletivo'' album, which was more thrash metal influenced once again, mixing their 1980s and 1990s styles. Bassist Cristian "Fralda" left to join the old hardcore/crossover/thrash band Lobotomia. In his place, bass player Paulo Júnior joined the band, an underground musician who still plays with his hardcore band "Discarga" and is guitarist of "
Point of No Return The point of no return (PNR or PONR) is the point beyond which one must continue on one's current course of action because turning back is no longer possible, being too dangerous, physically difficult, or prohibitively expensive to be undertaken. ...
". In 2006, they released ''Homem Inimigo Do Homem''. On 13 August 2013, Ratos de Porão announced on their Facebook page that they were working on a new album. Entitled ''Século Sinistro'', the album was released on 27 May 2014. Another eight years passed until the release of their eleven studio album, ''Necropolítica'', released on 20 May 2022.


Band members


Current members

*João "Jão" Carlos Molina Esteves – guitar, backing vocals (1981, 1982, 1985–present), drums (1983–1984), lead vocals (1981, 1982–1983, 1985) * João Gordo Francisco Benedan – lead vocals (1983–1984, 1985-present) *Maurício "Boka" Alves Fernandez – drums (1991–present) *Paulo "Juninho" Sergio Sangiorgio Júnior – bass, backing vocals (2004–present)


Former members

*Chiquinho – vocals (1981) *Roberto "Betinho" Massetti – drums (1981–1983, 1985) *Jarbas "Jabá" Alves – bass (1981–1993, died in 2023) *Rinaldo "Mingau" Amaral – guitar (1982-1984) *Nelson "Spaghetti" Evangelista Jr. - drums (1986–1991) *Walter Bart – bass (1993–1994) *Rafael "Pica-Pau" Piccoli Lobo – bass (1995–1999) *Christian "Fralda" Wilson – bass (2000–2004)


Timeline


Discography

* '' Crucificados pelo Sistema'' (1984) * ''Descanse em Paz'' (1986) * ''Cada Dia Mais Sujo e Agressivo'' (1987) * ''
Brasil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
'' (1989) * '' Anarkophobia'' (1991) * ''Just Another Crime... in Massacreland'' (1993) * ''"Feijoada Acidente?" – Brasil'' (1995) * ''"Feijoada Acidente?" – International'' (1995) * ''Carniceria Tropical'' (1997) * ''Sistemados pelo Crucifa'' (2000) * ''Onisciente Coletivo'' (2002) * ''Homem Inimigo do Homem'' (2006) * ''Século Sinistro'' (2014) * ''Necropolítica'' (2022) * ''Isentön Päunokü'' (EP) (2023)


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratos de Porao Brazilian punk rock groups Crossover thrash groups Brazilian thrash metal musical groups Brazilian political music groups Crust and d-beat groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups from São Paulo Alternative Tentacles artists 1981 establishments in Brazil