United Forces: An Archive of Brazil's Raw Metal Attack, 1986-1991

In 1986, São Paulo teenager Marcelo R. Batista channeled his love of pure, wild heavy metal into the self-produced fanzine United Forces. Over the next five years, his homemade publication captured an explosion happening before his eyes by riotous Brazilian metal upstarts including Sepultura, Sarcofago, Vulcano, Holocausto, Mystifier, Sextrash, Ratos de Porão, Skullkrusher, Necrobutcher, and hundreds of others. Simultaneously, he exposed readers to future legends from abroad, including Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel, and Darkthrone. United Forces presents the story in vivid color, along with Batista's own headbanger tale--from humble origins collecting scrap metal to buy Motörhead albums to DIY operator funneling his country's metal passion to receptive listeners in Europe and North America. The changes in Brazil during the 1980s and early 1990s serve as background for a full-bore metal revolution, as Batista brings to life a crucial South-of-the-equator 1980s scene that inspired years of underground extremes to come.