{"id":482862,"date":"2026-02-22T00:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482862\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:13:13","slug":"rock-in-rio-the-festival-that-changed-metal-in-south-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/482862\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock In Rio: the festival that changed metal in South America"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the sun dawned on Rio de Janeiro on April 1 1964, a bloody new chapter of history had begun in Brazil. Overnight, plots had unfolded that saw a US-supported military coup d\u2019\u00e9tat overthrow the administration of President Jo\u00e3o Goulart, and the ensuing years promised to be a dystopian nightmare with riots, state-sanctioned torture, censorship and suppression of free speech rife.<\/p>\n

While 1960s youths had found solace in using the popular genre of samba to create protest songs to rail against the establishment, by the late 70s it had been co-opted by the authorities and robbed of its potency. With the dictatorship\u2019s power waning and the youth disillusioned as the 80s dawned, something new was needed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt all started when Queen<\/a> played Sao Paulo in \u201981,\u201d explains Nando Machado, manager of Brazilian metal band Viper. \u201cThey played Est\u00e1dio do Morumbi to over 100,000 people, followed by both Kiss<\/a> and Van Halen<\/a> tours in 1983 that were broadcast on TV. It grew with the feelings of the youth who didn\u2019t want to grow up with the military dictatorship; we wanted freedom of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 1980, things were already a little more loose and bands had started to come down to Brazil,\u201d says Sepultura<\/a> guitarist Andreas Kisser<\/a>. \u201cIt was also [around] the time that Sepultura first started, so it was a very exciting time for people my age. Around \u201983, I got friends in school together to form a covers band. We played a science fair just so we could get up and talk about heavy metal \u2013 a real reason for the kids to not abandon school!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden\u2019s Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris at the Rock In Rio festival in 1985 (Image credit: Dave Hogan\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Still largely consigned to the fringes and underground, something seismic was needed to push this nascent rock fandom from garages and school shows into the popular consciousness. By late \u201984, that something had arrived: Rock In Rio advertised its inaugural event for the following January on one of Brazil\u2019s biggest TV shows, dropping some of the biggest names in rock and metal including Ozzy Osbourne, AC\/DC, Scorpions and Iron Maiden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They created a term, \u2018metalados\u2019, to describe long-haired kids with black t-shirts and bullet belts. We hated it!<\/p>\n

Nando Machado<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited \u2013 these were the bands I listened to at the time!\u201d enthuses Andreas.<\/p>\n

Hosted in the same city where the coup d\u2019\u00e9tat had established a new regime some 21 years before, the festival was set within the newly built City Of Rock, utilising the stage production of first night headliners Queen. The event would go on to be an apotheosis for all the bands involved, pulling in around 350,000 to 500,000 people each day and being broadcast throughout Brazil and around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it wasn\u2019t going to be your usual festival,\u201d admits Scorpions<\/a> vocalist Klaus Meine. \u201cTo play in front of 350,000+ Latin American fans going nuts was fantastic. It turned out to be a milestone for our career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Scorpions\n<\/p>\n

Scorpions at the Rock In Rio festival in 1985, with Klaus Meine (right) (Image credit: John Atashian\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The band didn\u2019t disappoint, either. \u201cWe came out of this huge drum-riser and just went straight into it; it was all about energy, power and giving it 200%. Rudolf [Schenker, Scorpions guitarist] cut his eyebrow during one of the sets and he was just lying there, howling on his guitar with blood pouring down his face \u2013 it was a very dramatic moment!\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorpions weren\u2019t the only band on the bill making their mark \u2013 Iron Maiden also made their Brazil debut at the festival, and though their first performance wasn\u2019t without setbacks (YouTube videos show the usually unflappable Bruce Dickinson<\/a> roaring in frustration at sound techs), it set the stage for a triumphant return in 2001 that\u2019d be captured for the Rock In Rio live album. For Andreas Kisser, the combination of acts proved to be all the confirmation he needed for what his future held.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI went to see Ozzy, who was my idol at the time and on the Bark At The Moon tour, and it came with the bonus of Scorpions at the height of their career on Love At First Sting<\/a>. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and it made me certain I wanted to be a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden – Aces High – Rock In Rio 1985 [Remastered In 4k60fps] – YouTube
\n\"Iron<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

It took six years for Rock in Rio to return as a festival, but it mattered little; the first event was enough to ensure that heavy music was now in the forefront of Brazilians\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

It was really something, seeing those audiences at the biggest stadium in the world. It was fucking magical and totally insane.<\/p>\n

Mike Bordin (Faith No More)<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, everyone was either trying to be in a band, or putting shows on by renting out theatres and whatever,\u201d says Nando. \u201cIt was huge for those who attended, but as it was nationally broadcast it had a wider impact on the whole country. It became fashionable to be into heavy music and [TV network] Globo even created a term, \u2018metalados\u2019, to describe the long-haired kids with black t-shirts and bullet belts. We hated it because we didn\u2019t want to be seen as people who followed fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if taking AC\/DC\u2019s Let There Be Rock lyrics to heart all across Brazil, it seemed every band was blowing up a storm \u2013 over in Sao Paulo, it was more fuel to the fire as both Sepultura and Viper got underway, a youthful revolution in the making.<\/p>\n

\u201cBands would start and play Judas Priest and Black Sabbath songs,\u201d says Nando. \u201cBut Viper played their first \u2018professional\u2019 show at a theatre when Andr\u00e9 [Matos, former vocalist] was just 13 years old and came out covering Saxon, Venom and Demon songs, as well as five of his own. The crowds were all 18- or 19-year-olds, just watching these young kids play \u2013 very unusual!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Ozzy\n<\/p>\n

Ozzy Osbourne at the Rock In Rio festival in 1985 (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Taking lessons from the biggest names in the business, Brazil\u2019s music scene exploded with bands. But, much as its first event had seemed to be a crystallisation of the demise of the military dictatorship, Rock In Rio II was now setting the stage for yet another major upheaval \u2013 this time for the metal scene itself. It was 1991 and Faith No More were flying high; they conducted an interview with MTV in Rio after Epic had become a smash hit and completely transformed the lukewarm responseto their latest release, The Real Thing, turning them into unlikely stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to South America at that point seemed like a pipe dream,\u201d says bassist Billy Gould. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any kind of idea of the scale of it back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played Rock In Rio not long after we did the Voivod\/Soundgarden tour,\u201d adds drummer Mike Bordin. \u201cWe were just destroying small, sweaty venues at that point, playing with our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Faith No More were greeted like the biggest band on the planet when they hit Rio, swarmed by screaming fans to such an extent that they had to hire security to get them around the city. \u201cWe knew things were changing, but when you get to Rio and there are hordes of fans screaming and chasing after you\u2026 it\u2019s super-overwhelming and strange,\u201d admits Mike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a different world,\u201d Billy agrees. \u201cBrazilians are the friendliest people on earth, so straight away we felt at home. It was a hell of an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith No More – Rock in Rio ’91 (We Care a Lot, Epic, The Crab Song) – YouTube
\n\"Faith<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Faith No More had already enjoyed a taste of bigger crowds by playing shows alongside Metallica, but Rock In Rio was yet another step on their way to becoming arena-conquering behemoths.<\/p>\n

We got a call to say we were confirmed for Rock In Rio. It was the first time the world truly paid attention to us.<\/p>\n

Andreas Kisser (Sepultura)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really something, seeing those audiences at the biggest stadium in the world,\u201d Mike grins. \u201cIt was fucking magical and explosive, totally insane! We weren\u2019t going to shrink away from that; you give us half a chance and I\u2019ll have my feet on your chest, hands around your throat.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Faith No More represented the charge of alternative influence on metal, then local heroes Sepultura were a taste of metal to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were recording Arise towards the end of 1990 and got a call to say we were confirmed for Rock In Rio,\u201d Andreas says, incredulously. \u201cRock In Rio was something else; we were playing at home to friends and family, with a TV station broadcasting it to the world. It was the first time the world truly paid attention to us. We\u2019d opened some doors with Beneath The Remains and been in some magazines, so we were building a name outside of Brazil, but at home we still weren\u2019t worth paying attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Sepultura&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Mauro Pimentel\/AFP via Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Opening the metal day at Maracan\u00e3 Stadium, Sepultura set out to slay their hometown audience and brought the house down. They proved that even up against metal\u2019s biggest and most prestigious names, they wouldn\u2019t be beat. \u201cWe were proud to be the first real Brazilian metal band to play such a festival; in 1985 they invited Brazilian bands to play, but so many were rock or pop, no real metal representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to watch Sepultura grow from a black\/death metal band to become some of the biggest icons in the metal world,\u201d says Nando. \u201cWhen they played at Rock In Rio it was huge. They\u2019d just done a free show in S\u00e3o Paulo that attracted thousands, and after Rock In Rio they started getting on the radio even though they were so heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Rock In Rio had been an apotheosis, Rock In Rio II was a changing of the guard: the shifting of tides from the metal gods of old to the lunatic kings of the new age. And the infrequent nature of Rock In Rio has lent credence to its status as a festival like no other. Be it Maiden making a storming return in 2001 or Def Leppard finally making it there in 2017 (having cancelled their appearance at the original), there\u2019s something undeniable about its appeal to rock\u2019s biggest names, while the 2019 edition upheld its grand traditions, featuring the likes of Maiden, Slayer, Scorpions and, of course, Sepultura.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Rock In Rio event is special,\u201d admits Andreas Kisser. \u201cIt\u2019s a truly Brazilian festival; it represents our country\u2019s diversity. It feels like the best and most important festival in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in Metal Hammer 325 (July 2019)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the sun dawned on Rio de Janeiro on April 1 1964, a bloody new chapter of history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-482862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}