VIPER is one of the pioneers of heavy metal bands in Brazil. Its history starts in 1985 with the brothers Pit and Yves Passarell, bass and guitar players respectively. Still teenagers, they join with the guitar player Felipe Machado, and the drum player Cassio Audi, and also Andre Matos and they record their first demo, “The Killera Sword”.
2 years later, “Soldiers of Sunrise” was released, one of the most worshiped Brazilian heavy metal albums. With clear influences of Iron Maiden and other bands, the band already showed great competence and talent in it’s songs getting great repercussion internationally.
“Theatre of Fate” the second album, had Guilherme Martin as drum player and hit the stores in 1989. This album got famous by the mixture of classic and heavy metal songs. A very good example is “Moonlight”, a heavy version of the famous “Moonlight sonata”, from Beethoven. A very known track is the ballad “Living for the Night”, which reached the top in radio stations. Their songs pleased people right from the start and it was released in Europe, USA and 11 countries in the Eastern Countries, including Japan. In the land of the rising sun, VIPER has reached the top of the parade and beated successful bands like Van Halen and Nirvana.
A while later, drummer Renato Graccia took over the drum-sticks and vocal Andre Matos decides to leave VIPER. Later on he followed the same music style with 2 other bands, which became worldly known. Angra and Shaman.
Therefore, Pit Passarell assumes also the vocals and the band, now with 4 members, releases, in 1992, “Evolution”. The album is heavier, rawer and simpler than the others and its music reaches a public that wasn’t to close to the heavy metal style. The title song and “Rebel Maniac” were played incessantly at that time.
In the next year, “Maniacs in Japan was released, which made history and was recorded live in Japan. This album is maybe one of the best Brazilian band stage record, due to the band’s performance. Pointing out the cover songs of Ramone’s “I wanna be sedated” and Tim Maia’s “Não quero $”.
In 1994, the band is invited to open the Metallica’s Brazilian tour, with 2 historical concerts in Parque Antartica stadium for 20 thousand people each. The greatest Viper show, however, would take place in the following year: The Monsters of Rock festival, with bands like Kiss and Black Sabbath as main attractions, which gathered a crowd of 40 thousand people at the Pacaembu Stadium.
Roadrunner Records released their next album, “Coma Rage”, in 1995. Based in punk rock, the album was recorded in LA and produced by Bill Metoyer (Slayer, Testament).
For the first time, the band reached first place on radio and MTV charts with the video clip “Coma Rage”. The second video “ I Fought the Law”, a Clash cover, had the same acceptance.
A year later, the revolution: Castle Brazil released their album called: “ Tem pra Todo Mundo”, an album in Portuguese and not as heavy as the other albums. Despite the success of the first singer “8 de abril”, the recording company declares bankruptcy, and the album wasn’t released domestically.
A while later, guitar player Yves Passarell leaves the band and joins Capital Inicial, a band to which Pit Passarell composes songs until today. Hits like “O Mundo” belongs to him, which was Capital Inicial’s first single since they have become successful again.
The band, now with Val Santos on the guitar, Renato Graccia on drums and Ricardo Bocci on vocals and also Felipe Machado on the guitar and Pit Passarell on bass. In 2004, Viper is invited to play on the “Rock the Planet” Concert in SP, playing alongside bands like Shaman, Kotipelto and Edguy. From them on, the band starts making concerts again. In April 9th, 2005, it’s VIPER’s 20th anniversary in Manifesto, SP.
In 2007, 11 years without any new album released, VIPER releases the album “All My Life”. The energetic metal, which has acclaimed the band, returns with 12 songs in English and it is one of the best albums in the band’s career.
2 months after the release of “All My Life”, Val Santos left the band due his wish to be a music producer. After that, Marcelo Mello, a virtuose professional guitar player, joined the band into Val’s place.
