This year's MGCDF lineup is strong, and it's going to be even stronger. The decimating set built around the debut album "I.N.R.I." by the legendary, unchained Brazilians SARCOFAGO will be performed by The Laws, the band of founding member Geraldo Minelli.
The Laws And Gerald Minelli Performing SARCÓFAGO (BR)
We've jumped ahead to 2026, and based on previous announcements, it might seem that Metalgate Czech Death Fest has already played all its trump cards with POSSSESSED, ASPHYX, BLOODBATH, and TSJUDER. That's not the case. You'll also get SARCÓFAGO!
The legendary black-death-thrash band was formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte, the region that gave the world Sepultura, among others. And when Sepultura's former singer Wagner Lamounier teamed up with Geraldo Minelli, they gave to many the most important Brazilian band, or even the most important band in South America.
The band's formation at a time when the country was emerging from decades of repressive military dictatorship was reflected in its music. Not only SARCÓFAGO were the most extreme and least accessible of the early Brazilian wild raw scene, but their expression bordered on what part of scene later called the pioneering of black metal.
However, SARCÓFAGO's radical approach and uncompromising anti-Christian stance ultimately did not lead to the worldwide fame that everyone predicted for the band after their debut album "I.N.R.I." full of embryonic fury, and the subsequent album "Rotting." SARCÓFAGO's unwillingness to concerts and tours regularly also contributed significantly to this, until most of the international buzz surrounding the release of these recordings died down. After the album "The Laws of Scourge" (1991), the Brazilians finally embarked on a tour of Europe and South America, occasionally releasing a recording or two, but in 2000 they disappeared for good. Until this year!
However, Gerald "Incubus" Minelli did not abandon music, as he did the cult past of his band SARCOFAGO. This summer he will embark on a short tour with his band The Laws, where they will perform classic SARCOFAGO songs from the legendary and iconic album "I.N.R.I." (1987) and the demo "Satanic Lust," along with other songs.
This tour will be a unique opportunity to experience the legacy of the Brazilian cult band that shaped extreme music in the first half of the 1980s – the dark, living essence of SARCÓFAGO comes alive again!