Who never heard of this great Brazilian band from the early ‘80s, which along Sepultura, Overdose, Sarcofago and Mutilator, was part of the emerging creative and influential Brazilian metal scene? Among numerous releases and the status of cult band, drummer Wiz (the only member who never left the band), talks about the whole trajectory of Chakal, and analyzes the whole scene of Belo Horizonte.
 Looking back, how do you see the trajectory of Chakal?
I believe that we are like those films that end up as being cult, but which never paid off like Apocalypse Now, for example. When we started it was easier to make songs, not only for Chakal, but for most of the bands that were starting at that time as well. That whole era, in fact, was the start of something new, so we were less critical to ourselves. Today it seems like everything has been done therefore it’s harder to find something good. I can only label the trajectory of Chakal as victorious.
Why has Chakal hardly done shows in Sao Paulo?
Because promoters don’t call us. But this doesn’t happen only in Sao Paulo; producers prefer to book eight bands to do a festival, rather than trying to do something more organized. It seems that we are in a limbo, a middle ground where producers prefer not to risk it. Either they book 300 bands or just the same few ones that already have support from the media etc. You have no idea how many proposals I get every year, and they’re all followed by excuses not to go ahead.
Have you ever done shows abroad?
No, it never happened. This year we had some offers, but that didn’t work out.
Is it true that Deadland was to be released as another band, and not Chakal? What made you return with the band in 2003?
Yes, it’s very true. We had difficulty in creating a name for the project. Some factors made us decide to use Chakal, like the departure of the bassist, not to mention the fact that many people would comment that despite the differences in style that sounded a lot like the old Chakal. One day Andrevil told me, "How about using the name Chakal?". I resisted the idea a little, but said, "let’s call Mark, if he doesn’t mind us using Chakal we’ll do it". He not only didn’t care, but ended up getting in the band.
Demon King, the last record, sounds more like classic Chakal. Will the next album follow the same direction?
Very difficult to say how it’s gonna be. I believe that all our records have something that redeems the earlier material, but I can assure you that this one goes a bit further. It’s like Demon King, more aggressive and more well finished – if it’s possible for the two things to go together. We are playing some songs at gigs to see how the crowd reacts, and one song surprised us because people are going crazy, as if we were playing something from Abominable, for example.
Do you think Chakal is underrated?
I don’t like to think so, it's all a matter of what you want to do. I think we don’t reach a sufficient number of fans, after all we don’t go kissing anybody’s ass, neither try to be the fastest nor the most aggressive band in the world; we just try to be Chakal, and this is not always the best choice.
When Chakal started, times were different, and promoting an underground band was a different story. Today, with so many tools like Myspace, Youtube, Orkut, Twitter etc, were things made easier for you?
I believe that much of it is a load of shit. Tell me, why would I, here in Belo Horizonte, want to know about a show a thousand km from here, with bands that I don’t know and to which I will not have the opportunity to go? I can see that when the show is here in my hometown, the promotion is ridiculous. An example: Onslaught played here in Belo Horizonte the other day and I hadn’t seen one single poster in the streets, but it was on internet from various states of Brazil. Now, as a tool for dissemination of new bands, MySpace, for example, is a great thing. Orkut is shit, they only have ridiculous discussions and polls like "listen to or delete" or "what are you listening to now"...
 What did you think of these reissues of Cogumelo Records, bringing back to the market some Chakal classics?
I was involved directly with each of them in all aspects, both graphics and audio. We had long been trying to make The Man Is His Own Jackal and Death Is A Lonely Business be released on CD. And you know what’s great about all this? I haven’t seen a single publication make a comment about these releases.
Does the possibility of tours in Brazil and abroad exist?
Considering everything I said here, it seems impossible. This year we should have played several good gigs but they all got cancelled because of the shitload of international acts that came to play in Brazil. We respect ourselves enough to refuse proposals from promoters who wanna book us as supporting band for some big shot from abroad, as if they were doing us a favour, so we refused to open several shows this year and it’s likely for us to continue in the same way of thinking.
Wiz, thanks for the interview. Finally, would you please leave a message to the people who access Rockonnection?
First of all, thumbs up for the initiative of having a Metal site written in 2 languages, that’s really something. As for the fans, Chakal would like to be able to bring our show to all corners of the world and if this is not possible, we hope at least you could listen to us by buying the CD or downloading our MP3s on the net – or watching us on Youtube. Be sure that we make music for all those who really like things done with honesty and passion.
Commented discography by Wiz:
Warfare Noise Compilation: A good kick-start, with no direction though.
Abominable Anno Domini: A classic for what was called metalcorenoise back in the day. It showed that the direction chosen by the band had a mixture of chaos and emotion.
Living With The Pigs: This EP was made in a period when we were looking for new sounds. It has this ‘Voivod’ vibe and yet it’s very brutal.
The Man Is His Own Jackal: As I said before, this is my favorite because of the songs. But unfortunately it's lacking quality in some technical aspects. For many people it’s considered the best Thrash Metal album ever done in Brazil. It also won 4 K's in Kerrang! and did much better than many bigger bands at the time.
Death Is A Lonely Business: Another record where internal problems eventually affected the music. Who saw its songs live on tour thought it was our best songs to be played at a gig.
Deadland: I think this album was misunderstood. People felt it was new metal, when actually it was supposed to be something more 70s. We got inspired by the likes of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, but with a hint of Chakal. I think it’d be fare enough if people found the CD a big load of shit, but it’s completely ridiculous to label it as new metal. Even the recording was done that way to sound old. We barely use any effects and played everything live.
Demon King: As usual (laughs) I think we could have had spent a little bit more time on guitars. Other than that it’s certainly an insane Chakal record and often I think it's my favorite, but then "Acme", "Dead And Road", "Santa Claus" "Synthetic Tears" come to my mind and I go back to finding The Man Is His Own Jackal my favourite again (laughs).
Luciano Piantonni
photos: promo
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