Torture Squad born in 1993 in São Paulo/ Brasil. Their visceral and
powerful death/thrash metal has been proven on their albums , Shivering
(1998), Asylum Of Shadows (2000), The
Unhloly Spell (2001) Pandemonium (2003) ,Death, Chaos And Torture Alive
(2004) live cd, Death, Chaos And Torture Alive (2005) live DVD,
Hellbound (2008), Æquilibrium (2010) and the most recent, Esquadrão de
Tortura (2013).
The group has gathered legions of fans with their
electrifying concerts all over Brazil, Latin America and even hitting
upon Europe as well. Torture Squad have played with great bands such as
Anthrax, Dimmu Borgir, Kreator, Tristania, Krisiun, Monstrosity,
Incantation, Dark Funeral, Absu, Desaster, HeadHunter, Holy Moses,
Sodom, Origin, Exodus, Angra, Shaaman, Korzus , Overkill, Sepultura,
Soulfly , Gama Bomb among others…
The band’s first line-up was,
Vitor Rodrigues (vocals), Cristiano Fusco (guitar), Castor (Bass) and
Amilcar Christofaro (Drums).
Torture Squad released their
debut album, “Shivering”, in 1998 and it was quickly followed by their
1999 sophomore album, “Asylum of Shadows”. Proving to be a landmark
album for the band, it launched them into Europe to play 7 dates in
Germany, giving the European metal scene a true taste of Brazilian
metal.
In 2001, Torture Squad released their third album, “The
Unholy Spell”, which was elected by audiences and Brazilian metal
magazines as one of the 5 best Brazilian metal albums ever released! In
this same year, the band shot their first video for the song “Abduction
Was the Case”, which was showcased on Brazil’s MTV.
The
following year saw the departure of guitarist Cristiano Fusco, who left
the band due to personal reasons. Joining the ranks of Torture Squad was
former Krisiun axe-man Mauricio Nogueira.
2003 arrived and
Torture Squad released the acclaimed album “Pandemonium”. Since the
release of this album, it has drawn fans from all over the world. An
album that has been highly praised, elected by Roadie Crew Magazine, one
of the biggest metal magazines in Brazil, as the best Brazilian metal
album in 2003! It also got Torture Squad voted to be the headliners of
Brazil Metal Union Fest, a great and important Brazilian metal festival
at DirecTV Music Hall, São Paulo, Brazil. From webzines, to metal
magazines all over the world, “Pandemonium” was indeed taking place.
Between 2004-2005, Torture Squad would release their first live CD and
DVD, “Death, Chaos And Torture Alive”, and played throughout Brazil for
almost two years.
In 2006, the band returned to Europe for 18
concerts between Germany and Austria including one gig at Musikmesse in
Frankfurt Germany, which is the biggest music fair of Europe! When
Torture Squad returned to Brazil, crowds of over 10,000 people came to
see Torture Squad at the Porão do Rock Fest Brasília/DF. The return home
also marked the third time they would perform at the Brazilian Metal
Union.
This followed the “Death, Chaos and Torture Alive” tour
which was an extensive one over American Latin territories like
Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. During this time,
the band was working on their next chapter in new music.
In
November 2006, the band released the EP “Chaos Corporation”. The EP
featured 2 brand new tracks, “Chaos Corporation” and “The Beast Within”,
plus 3 bonus tracks from their 1993 demo tape “A Soul In Hell”.
In June 2007, Torture Squad was chosen (after winning the local Metal
Battle) to represent Brazil in the Wacken Open Air Festival to take
place August 2-4, 2007 in Wacken, Germany. Then, once at Wacken Open Air
they played in the Metal Battle (at the W.E.T. Stage) with several
other bands, having won the contest. With that, they won prizes along
with a contract with Wacken Records from Germany which released their
2008 album, Hellbound.
In January 2008, Mauricio Nogueira leaves Torture Squad and Augusto Lopes joined the band.
In 2008, Torture Squad embarked on a 60-date European tour, which included a show at Wacken Open Air.
The year of 2009 started pretty well for Torture Squad. After the
release of Hellbound and its excellent worldwide repercussion, the band
toured Europe with two legends of thrash metal, Overkill and Exodus.
This tour started in mid February in London, where the Brazilian group
performs for the first time, and includes 12 more shows in countries
like Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Switzerland and Czech Republic.
Their most recent studio album “AEquilibrium” was released in Europe
in August 2010 by Wacken Records / H'art / Zebralution / SAOL and in
Brazil by Laser Company in September the same year . They had recorded a
new version for the title track of their third album “ The Unholy
Spell” which is included as bonus track with the title of “ The Unholy
Spell 2010”. The album was recorded in São Paulo/Brazil, at Norcal
Studios with producers Brendan Duffey and Adriano Daga.
In January
2011, the guitarrist Augusto Lopes leaves the band and André Evaristo is
hired as official member of Torture Squad to replace him.
In
spite of the line up change, things didn’t stop for the band. With the
new guitar player, the band stayed on road in Brazil 'till July.
A month later the band crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the European leg
of the Aequilibrium Tour 2011. Torture Squad appeared for the third time
at Wacken Open Air, and performed more than 40 shows around 12
countries till the end of October.
Returning to Brazil, once
more a set of dates were on the pipeline, two of those were highlights:
The first one at the band’s hometown São Paulo, as they were invited by
Overkill themselves to join them on the bill and the second one was the
bands very first time in the state of Amapá one of the most remote
states of the Brazilian territory headlining the Rock day at the
Quebramar Festival in Macapá.
In march 2012, after 19 years in
the line up, the lead singer Vitor Rodrigues decided to leave the band.
Since then, the band became a trio with the guitar player André
Evaristo singing too.
On August 10th of the same year the band
was invited to headline the first night of one of the most prestigious
Festivals in South America "Quito Fest 2012" that takes place in
Equador's capital Quito, where the band played in front of 12000 people.
Esquadrão de Tortura, their 7th studio album, was released on november, 2013.
In 2014 in July / August, the band do their second South American tour
with thirteen shows in four countries; Chile, Peru, Ecuador and
Paraguay. Finishing the year in their hometown Sao Paulo / SP on
December, 20th ,recording its show to be released on DVD and CD
intitled “Coup d´État Live”, set to be launched in the middle of 2015.
In September 2015, vocalist / guitarist André Evaristo leaves Torture
Squad to pursue other personal projects, therefore, the band back to
its traditional line-up as a quartet bringing Mayara "Undead" Puertas on
vocals and Rene Simionato on guitar, continuing the tour of cd and dvd
"Coup D´État Live".
Already with their new line up, the band
goes to studio to record the EP “Return of Evil”, with four songs: the
new “Return of Evil”, “Swallow Your Reality” and “Iron Squad”, and the
new version of “Dreadful Lies”, originally released in the1998 first
album “Shivering”. The EP will also have a multimedia track with the
video clip of “Return of the Evil” and a mini documentary of the EP
recording sessions, and the videos of “Dreadful Lies” and “Iron Squad”
released on March, 2016
In September 2016, the band made a
historic tour in Brazil playing 28 gigs in 32 days throughout the
country from north to south. Soon after the Brazilian tour, the band
goes to an european tour doing 19 gigs passing by 7 countries.
The Return of Evil tour finishes in February 2017, doing 13 shows during 16 days in the country side of São Paulo and Paraná.
In April same year, the band started the recordings of their eighth
album entitled "Far Beyond Existence" released on July ,13th (World Rock
Day).
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