Interview to Rogerio of Prophecy

Interview by Luis Landeo 
Welcome Rogerio nice to meet you, in 2011 the band released a demo titled: "I4NI, but in 2008 the band released a full lenght titled: "Legions of Violence" why the band back to release another demo after 10 years? or do you have in mind work in a new full lenght?
Hey Luis! Nice to meet you too. We just wanted to fill the gap between the "L.o.V." album and the new release, so we decided to record a demo just to show to the world that we still alive (laughs). We have a lot of new songs already done for a while, but we always had problems with our line up. We´re ready to start the record for new album last year, but our drummer had a lot of personal problems, so he had to quit with the band and that´s why we delayed the release of our new album. I called an old member/friend Fernando Kholl which recorded the I4NI demo (the guy play with us since the ´90s) to see if he wanted the job again (for the 8th time) and we had to start from the zero, rehearsing the new songs and he´s doing an amazing job in the new songs.

What mean the word "I4NI"? and why you say this release is a: demo and not like an EP? in my oppinion this tracks sounds very very professional 
I4NI is just a word game and it means "Eye for an Eye". Back in the ´80s bands released EPs when they have a label, like a mini LP with just a bunch of songs. Today the bands record in a bedroom with a drum made in the PC keyboard, front cover done by a copy machine, etc... and call it a EP. I´m old fashioned so, we prefer to call it a demo and yes, I4NI have a good tone ´cos we always try to do our best. We don´t want a record sounding like we still living in the ´80s. We want a powerful drum sound, a thick guitar track, so we just look forward in our record tones...

Lets talk some about the origin of the band, you started like: Biblia Negra, why the band change of name? and why the band had a break of 8 years before of release the first full lenght? 
I started the bands with some friends in 1984/1985 as Bíblia Negra, in the beggining we wrote our lyrics in portuguese, then we started to write the lyrics in english, so we decided to change the name of the band to Prophecy. We always had a lot of problems with our line up which changed a lot over the years. Thrash metal was dead in the´90s and on... so we just could not find musicians to play with us. The band never broke up, just had a hiatus when we couldn´t find a musician, we´re always rehearsing and working on new songs during this "intermission".

So why you named the band like Prophecy? 
We cannot find a better name LOL. The name came from an idea from our former bass player. He came with the name "A Profecia" but I wanted a name in english, so we just translate the name...

In what things the band take inspiration for compose lyrics and music? 
The music inspiration basically came from the typical american thrash from the ´80s which is contemporary from our time when we decide to start the band, back in middle of the ´80s. Lyrically speaking we write most about real things: Insanity; internal conflicts; politic stuff; life/death, etc... In the beggining I wrote both: music and lyrics. Nowdays I do the most of the riffs and Amaury (bass) help me with song structure and write almost all the lyrics.

Well you told me before this interview the band never toured because you have families, and you need pay the bills, but what great experience can you tell about your live local perfomance? 
Yeah, I think we will never tour ´cos we have our jobs, families, bills to pay, etc... Eventually we can do some gigs, of course, but spend a month overseas it´s near impossible. We do a lot of gigs in Rio and have a lot of good bands in here. We have a fierce but friendly competition (laughs). A lot of good bands in Thrash, Death, Black, etc... The best perfomances ever are in the shore area about 2.5 hs from Rio city. The crowd in there are insane and always a great pleasure to play in there as you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqHxJZ33tU4

Well, you are 46 years old, how do you see the great evolution of thrash metal in brazil? and what do you think the bands are taking again the 80s sound? 
Yeah... i´m getting old... The bands nowadays are a lot better than in the past. We have great musicians and a lot of hungry young people fighting for their place... We have a lot of good new bands such as: Violator; Woslom; Priest of Death; Machinage; etc... And some band from the ´80s are back too: MX; Taurus and some more. I think we have a good time for thrash now and thrash take his place to the top again...

Rogerio for end this interview any last words? 
Thank you so much for the interview, who knows one day we can play in your country and stay tuned for the new Prophecy´s album ´cos the new songs are killer. Cheerz from Rio, Rogério. 

To know more about Prophecy: 
http://www.facebook.com/prophecy.thrash