Howdy. Thank you for opening this opportunity window to us. Things are super, thanks. We’re still on the tour for The Nether Hell, we’re writing the new album, we’re doing things all bands want to do and do best. Everybody is excited about what we’re accomplishing and we’re closer to each other in the band than cuz we’re making the new album, so it’s a brotherhood fun time.

Well, Truth is we had a whole 9 song album ready in studio in 96 and we dropped it cuz the local scene really did not help and things really did not feel good round here. So we simply dismantled.

Brazil was going through a lack of identity phase as far as music and metal go, and due to the cultural aspect of following the American market and waiting for the new trend to come up, metal started losing space, like radio, concert houses, media, the press… For some idiotic reason, pop music discovered distortion on their guitars and some even more idiotic metal bands thought they could be or already were pop, and started losing it. So the whole scenario here from around 1998 to 2003 was really not helping, especially thrash-metal and some more underground metal branches.

I don’t think I would change anything, though reinventing it sounds tempting, maybe I would change some stuff in the recording, but that’s what we had at the time and we did our best with all resources available. As far as happy with it goes, we’re way more than what we’d expected, that’s for sure. We put out a 6 song cd to try and re-establish our name in the scene. It comes out that the cd was really well taken by old and new fans, domestically and abroad, for its sound and concept. We’ve gotten it reviewed in over 200 webpages, magazines, papers worldwide. We gave away more than 8 thousand copies through the internet with downloadable artwork to print out and everything. Now we’re moving to the 5000th copy, or 5th batch of cds sold … so, all in all, we’re keeping our original strategy of divulging the name through sampling and local distribution, and people seem to be enjoying what the see and hear.

Please, I do not wanna sound stuckup or anything, but I’m pretty proud of these numbers. Internet made it very easy to spread out the cd that we made the album available for full download, including the original art for print out, all for free, in different strategic metal webpages around the globe: Brazil, Chile, Denmark, England, Argentina, Costa Rica, and some others. Sounds weird, huh!’ Self-cannibalization. But we accomplished something that is priceless at this moment: awareness and acknowledgement. Just the fact of sitting here, chatting with you, overseas, shows the scope the name SCARS has gotten. Call it the Kerosene Plan: we’re spreading it all over, and soon we’ll set it on fire.

It’s helped build back our name and credibility. People have to trust you and what you do. We’ve been reviewed as a thrash metal band with a good thrash metal album and we will deliver this thrash metal mentioned. You help us reaffirm this statement by allowing me to be in your [website].

We’re focused on writing the new material now. Besides some real good old stuff that we’re analyzing whether we should resurrect or not, we’ve already got 6 dead ready and 3 on the go. Our target is to get 12 great songs, so we get into studio. I’ve got riffs on my PC, Edu’s got his. Patrick is eager to compose the lines for his first full record with us (he’s played with us already, but never recorded). Regis and I are already writing lyrics and vocal lines. The plan is to hit studio and get studio [time] by December, pre-production by mid October – we’re busy.

I wouldn’t say significant, but, let’s say two things: first is that the name was taken from Dark Angel’s Leave Scars even before and joined the band, and second, that scars are forever, they stay in and on you, they build your character and personality. Scars are not necessarily visible, they may be spiritual lesions, emotional traumas, etc…

I would first go for the Bay Area reference. Then I would cite some of our main references as Forbidden, Vio-lence, Exodus, Possessed, Dark Angel, Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, and also, if I may, Sepultura, Sacred Reich, Tankard, Destruction, Death Angel, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Anthrax, MOD, Metallica, Biohazard, Assassin, Venom, Napalm Death, Death, Testament, Iron Maiden, and on and on and on. Then I would have the guy blend all that and try to picture it. Honestly, I’d rather take the guy for one of our gigs, and after the show ask him, “So, what is it like?”.

Oh, yeah. I love polemics. But no, we are not satanic. Evil can be expressed in a kazillion ways, but Hell is surely the most obvious one. Hell is the mere materialization of evil, while Satan its personification. We have shown an interpretation of Dante’s Hell on our cd to actually highlight how today’s world is just like the one of Dante when he from his piece. History repeats itself, and all that’s ugly has always been around. Take the church as an example: since forever it has it has fomented wars, murdered tens of millions, distorted reality, gone against common sense, and other vile things in the name of God. We mentioned that in “[The] Nether Hell” – “Semoniacs will burn in the rock downwards, for the sale of sacrament, distortion of God”, i.e., the church has always made money based on fear and a promise of Heaven. When Regis says at the end of the song “hail Satan, he’s your Lord”, we’re talking to this institution, whose priests, bishop and the like will definitely burn in Hell for this and more. They don’t believe in God, they use God, God is not their Lord. Now, in “Hidden Roots of Evil”, we addressed the satanic side of Nazism and the Reich. We had supplement readings for this one, about the Black Cross and Nazi Cults. Once again, evil. It’s everywhere. So, we write about it, but not live by it.

Yeah, the whole ordeal. We want everything that comes with it, and we ain’t afraid of it. We just hope we’re doing it right to get there and do what you’ve mentioned: tours and labels and the whole nine yards.

Not really. Edu plays in the Metallica Tribute and Patrick has this project called RedSight. But no one gets in each other’s ways.

That’s a good one. Let me see… I guess music has become something ethereal, like air, accessible to every and anybody. Labels are the ones that lose the most in my opinion. Bands always have the shows. But today we must find new innovative ways to make it profitable. Only selling cds won’t do any longer.

Out of the box ideas! I love that sentence. Not only air for its etherealness, but just as necessary as air. Ok, I overdid it. But music is everyone’s basic need, and it should be accessible by all, not only as listeners, but as practitioners. I lived in New York State for 3 years, in Mount Kisko, Westchester County, and I went to high school in Bedford Hills’ Fox Lane High School. There, as well as in most of the USA, and also Europe, far east, music is taken as a tool of formation of a child’s brain, just as science or math. I took studio classes, drum classes, regency, had bands inside the school and they let us use the studio or auditorium to actually rehearse. Here in Brazil and South America as a whole, that just won’t happen. Music if entertainment, not a need. And once we don’t have that great acquisitive power to opt, we’ll take something that will give us a job in the future, not music for sure. Therefore, to me, the free access to music is a consequence of manyfolds: in Brazil cuz we need it to be free. Abroad, cuz it’s so cultural and inbuilt in the everyday, that it just had to happen. I am fine as it is.

No, not at all. We haven’t yet achieved again the level where we can live off music like in the past cuz we were out for a while, so we’ve all got our main money coming stream each one. Regis and I own our own businesses. He’s got this Marketing firm and I Idioms firm, Eduardo and Andre work at technology and administration offices and Patrick is finishing his engineering college plus already working in the field.

2004 was a year where underground came up again, and many bands started appearing and re-appearing. So all over Brazil there’s now, in 2006, a movement of consolidation, where bands are launching albums and doing shows. With all this, Brazil is undergoing a very rich phase right now. There are also many international first line concerts every two weeks here, which motivates the scenario. Thrash is now rubbing shoulders with all other streams, not above them, as I think it used to be around here in the mid 90’s with thrashers like Korzus, Sepultura, Witch Hammer, Hammerhead, Chasing Fear, Necromancia, and so on. Today the scene is all blended up, with Korzus, Torture Squad, Andralls, Drowned, Terrorstorm, Atomica, Claustrofobia, Chaosfear, Ungodly, and tons of other bands Brazilwide. Brazil is originally a boiling point of different cultures and races, why should metal be any different, right?

Well, I would say that seeing my music on the media reaching out and been heard makes me feel a greater responsibility towards what I make, more committed to the audience and the music.

I like this definition: “Second Coming of Thrash Dominion”. Sounds like a song title, doesn’t it?! And oh yes I believe the world has finally been drifting away from new metal bands and rescuing the good ol’ thrash metal, just because that’s where it’s at. Thrash’s got it all: fast beat, blast beat, slower and crunched tempo, real guitar sound up front, guitar riffs, guitar solos, heavy basslines, double bass to the extreme, aggressive vocals, man, that’s my music!

Myself personally? James Hetfield, Dave Murray, Scott Ian, Kerry King, John Sykes, Testament, all of Forbidden’s musicians, Motorhead’s Lemmy, Ozzy, Dio, and many others.

Slayer’s last Christ Illusion kicks monstrous ass! Araya’s got the best vocal lines, guitars are mean, Lombardo is the man, etc… Metallica’s St. Anger’s recording sounds weird. Guitar lines are weak and don’t carry that Metallica throttling picking. Drums lines are awful, Lars should retire. Vocals are fine, I really like and respect James. No solos, so, no Kirk. Allow me to mention other fantastic latest launches: Motorhead’s Inferno, Napalm [Death]’s The Code is Red, Caníbal Corpse’s Kill and Krisiun’s AssassiNation.

As far as new bands go, they may be new to me, but not around. Nu-metal doesn’t do it for me at all, maybe a little Slipknot for Joey and the guitars. I’ve been getting acquainted with new local bands like ChaosFear, Andralls, Hicsos, and the German Jaka. What would you suggest me to listen to? Write me at alex@scars.com.br some bands.

Hahahaha!! Sure… my dream concert: Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Forbidden, Biohazard, Machine Head and Scars, of course.

Scars/Band Member: We’ve played with Anthrax, Destruction, Sepultura, Krisiun, Rata Blanca, among others.

This ends the reader questions section.

Gee, man, I’ve got all the thanks to give you for granting us this opportunity of this great talk. Do keep in touch and count on SCARS for whatever you may need or want. And yes, maybe we’ll meet soon, hopefully on a tour of the new album, so I can give it to you personally. And to all bangers, keep banging and supporting world metal. We’re a huge family worldwide, now closer and bigger than ever. All be proud of being a banger. I am a headbanger for life and fucking proud of it. Hail!!