Torture Squad Live – Teatro SESC Garagem – Brasília, Brazil -10/02/2024
Torture Squad
Teatro SESC Garagem – Brasília, Brazil
10/02/2024
Live Review by Victor Augusto
Hello, my friends. Here we are for one more live review of great bands from Brazil that really deserves a space here on Ever Metal. Before I explain why I am saying it, let me just enlighten you about a few details of what is happening in Brazil this year. It is Carnival here and it means that we have a very extended holiday where people go crazy! The city where I live (Brasília, the capital of Brazil) is not popular to have great Carnival celebrations, so everyone travels to other cities, leaving this place as quiet as a graveyard.
We are also facing an epidemic period due to the number of cases of people dying from “Dengue” (viral infection caused by Aedes Aegypti mosquito). I was one of the guys that got it, which made me have a lot of pain in my body. Although I had already bought the concert ticket, I was in doubt if I would be able to go there, but all forces conspired to have enough force to do it, even still feeling weak. The main reason that motivated me is because Torture Squad really is worth all efforts to watch live. Their level on stage is as high as any band that spends the whole year touring around the world. It is explained by all the decades that they have been on road, also by all tours they did in Europe, even playing in festivals like Wacken and Rock in Rio.
Seriously! I was sure that I made the right decision when I heard the first bass notes of Castor while he was still doing the final adjustments on the sound. Then, what I saw was magical. What a band my friends! It is even hard to describe them for non-Brazilian fans, but there is a review of their recent album “Devilish” here where I show more details about the band. For this live concert, they had more time to promote this new record than the last time they played here (at Porão do Rock Festival in 2023 – I reviewed this here too).
The concert as itself, I can summarize in one paragraph. Four incredible musicians, with at least 10 years of experience of playing at this level, together offering their best to play a very technical Death Metal with good Thrash influences. Is it enough for you? Then let me elucidate more details.
The drummer Amilcar Christófaro is a machine who keeps the speed with very complex drum parts. His longtime partner, the bassist Castor also shows a masterclass of technique, and I can call these both guys as the “Backbone of Steel” that always hold the band tight. I say it not only by their quality as musicians, but also for them being part of it since the beginning for more than 30 years.
The vocalist Mayara Puertas is the perfect blend of charismatic and devilish. She is brutal, and her presence is incredible, moving around the stage all the time. But she is very cute talking with the fans too. One example of it was when she mentioned Susane Hécate, from Miasthenia, (who was present there, watching the band) as one of her influences. She mentioned it, because Brasília was the city with the first female musicians having extreme bands back in the nineties with bands like Valhalla and Volkana.
Mayara and the guitarist Rene Simionato are almost 10 years on the band since the last line-up change. For me, Torture Squad is blessed for always having very talented musicians, but as a guitar lover, I really loved how Rene was playing. What he did with his Red-colored Jackson Flying-V guitar was incredible. Considering the strong backbone that I mentioned about the band, Rene is free to show all his technique on guitars and I love when I face this kind of one guitar Death Metal band like Torture Squad is.
Well, the set list looks irrelevant to be mentioned after everything I’ve said so far. Maybe, but I loved to see more of the new songs, which sounds more to the technical way of playing than the brutality of the old ones. Nevertheless, the spirit of Torture Squad hasn’t changed along these decades, and they showed it reminding me of songs like ‘The Unholy Spell’ (the first song I heard from them) and ‘Chaos Corporation’. These ones were killer and even myself still feeling sick, I couldn’t hold myself to go crazy.
I’ve already mentioned the new songs, but I enjoyed the new elements added to the band’s music like few clean vocals and few keyboards, both played by the vocalist Mayara like in ‘Hell is Coming’. Another example that no matter the line up they had, the band will always offer great stuff that happened when they played ‘Pull the Trigger’, from a period that they were playing as a trio formation.
Thanks Torture Squad for this amazing night! It was a day to remember for me, again! I am very proud to see bands of this level playing here and if you have chance to see them, in any part of the world, I can assure you that you will watch an incredible concert. These people are always giving their best on stage, and I know it since the first time I saw them, back in 2007.
LINKS:
Torture Squad
Venue – Teatro SESC Garagem
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