Ratos de Porão - Ao Vivo no Circo Voador 
Ratos de Porão (Portuguese for "Basement Rats" ) is a Brazilian d-beat/crossover thrash band from São Paulo. They have been around since
the early 80's and have toured South America, North America, and
Europe. They still continue to play today.
Early Days
Ratos de Porão, or simply RxDxPx was formed in the beginning of the
80's, around the Brazilian (São Paulo city ) gang punk scene (side to
side of bands such as Cólera, Inocentes, Garotos Podres, Lobotomia, Olho
Seco etc ). Directly influenced by the UK 82 hardcore bands such as
Discharge, G.B.H., Varukers and the Scandinavian scene of bands as
Anti-Cimex, Kaaos among others, they started to "play" their "hate"
about the society and their sound was one of the most rough of the scene
(because other bands such as Cólera and Garotos Podres were more 'punk'
sounding than 'hardcore' ).
Their first album was released in 1983 and was named "Crucificados pelo
sistema" LP. Released on Ataque Frontal label, a really fast hardcore
album, that became a classic in every punk collection in the world. The
lineup was João Gordo (vocals ), Mingau (guitar - later in many punk and
pop bands in Brazil ), Jabá (bass) and Jão (drums). But soon after
that, with the fall of the São Paulo punk scene (because of the violent
gangs of punks), the band split up and was accused of "selling out",
because they were listening to metal bands like Venom (in an album
picture, João Gordo appears with a Venom shirt ).
Crossover and Thrash
In 1985, RxDxPx came back, but with a different line up and view. They
brought thrash metal to their music, based on bands such as Slayer,
Exodus, Kreator and hardcore bands around the world that were becoming
more thrash metal too, like D.R.I., English Dogs, G.B.H., Agnostic Front
among others (including Brazilian bands like Lobotomia and Armagedom ).
João was introduced in the guitar works and Spaghetti (an old punk, now
a thrasher friend ) was on the drums and they released on Baratos Afins
label the "Descanse Em Paz" Lp.
So, they became friends with metal acts, such as long time RxDxPx fans
Sepultura and other bands of the Brazilian 80's metal scene, like
Korzus, Anthares, etc. After that, they consolidated the thrash metal on
their songs with their third studio Lp called "Cada Dia Mais Sujo e
Agressivo" in 1987 (Baratos Afins Records ), which had an English
version called "Dirty and Aggressive" (that they say that their English
was so horrible that all native English speakers would laugh at their
translated lyrics ). But they still had the D-beat drum tempos.
In 1989, they got a contract with Roadrunner Records (thanks to Igor
Cavalera of Sepultura who showed a tape to the executives of the label )
and they went to Germany to record what become one of the best
crossover albums of that time (alongside with 1987 D.R.I.'s Crossover ),
the album "Brasil". With the great production of Harris Johns (of
Voivod and Tankard fame), the album put the band to another level,
thrashy and technical riffs, fast drums with the aggressive vocals of
João Gordo. Again with Harris Johns, in 1990 they come back to Germany
to record the last album with the classic line up (João Gordo, Jão, Jabá
and Spaghetti ), and called the album Anarkophobia, that received some
negative (for being too much thrash metal ) and positive (for being too
much thrash metal ). The fact is that the songs were more technical and
complex with long length, in 4:00 minutes. But this album gave them much
exposure on the metal and hardcore scene around the world.
But in the mid of 1991 year, they had their first change in the line-up
for years, the drummer Spaghetti left the band for having "been tired of
the musical life". They tested a lot of drummers (Beto Silesci from the
thrash metal band Korzus, but they said that he left the RxDxPx sound
"too much 'metal'" ) and in his place entered a drummer called Boka, who
used to play in a crossover band based in the city of Santos beach,
called Psychic Possessor. In 1992, the band followed with their first
official live album, called just "Ao Vivo", with video clip for the song
"Aids, Pop, Repressão" receiving heavy air play on "Furia Metal" of
M.T.V. (the Brazilian version of Headbanger's Ball).
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 in
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
RxDxPx life.
Return to the punk rock and hardcore
After the depart of Jabá, the band had a lot of bass players and the
band entered in studio to record an album only with punk and hardcore
covers called Feijoada Acidente?, a joke with the Guns N' Roses album
"The Spaghetti Incident?" ("Feijoada" is a traditional food from Brazil,
based on beans and pork). This album has two versions; 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. Between those times,
played bass Walter Bart (who used to play in a punk band called "Não
Religião" ) and "Pica Pau", who stayed in the band until 1999.
As an album of "come back" times to hardcore and Portuguese lyrics, they
released in 1997, the album Carniceria Tropical, and the band came back
to the "success" that they had. In same year, João Gordo started to
work as VJ of MTV Brasil.
In 1999 joined the band, the bassist Cristian "Fralda", who used to play
in the punk rock band "Blind Pigs", and they entered in studio to
re-record their first album, and called this album Sistemados Pelo
Crucifa (an joke-anacronism with the original name "Crucificados Pelo
Sistema" ). The front cover was designed by the Korzus bass player Dick.
Return to Crossover
In 2002, they released the Onisciente Coletivo album, and came back to
be more friendly with thrash metal, mixing the 80's with 90's faces. The
bassist Cristian "Fralda" left to join the old
hardcore/crossover/thrash band Lobotomia. In his place entered an old
underground musician, the bass player Paulo Júnior, who still plays with
his hardcore band called "Discarga".
Recently, they released the album called "Homem Inimigo Do Homem" and are promoting it.
Line-up: Current members •João Gordo (João Francisco Benedan) — Lead Vocals (1983—)
•Jão (João Carlos Molina Esteves) — Guitar (1981—)
•Boka (Maurício Alves Fernandez) — Drums (1991—)
•Juninho (Paulo Sergio Sangiorgio Júnior) — Bass (2004—)
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