As a Brazilian, I always get excited when a local metal band does something that’s really out of the box. Like, we have a very robust melodic, power, thrash, death, and black metal scene over here. There’s a ton of good bands within those realms, but me, I like my music weird. I wouldn’t be writing for this blog otherwise, would I?
That’s why no Brazilian band has grabbed my attention as much as Papangu has recently. A wonderful mix of prog, metal, jazz, avant-garde, and pure unadulterated Brazilian sauce, this band has been taking the underground by storm, gathering massive acclaim with both of their releases Holoceno and Lampião Rei, and they’re just getting started! Having played big festivals like Knotfest Brazil and with their big European debut on the horizon, I’m very happy to be able to shed some light on their history, DNA, and plans for the future through a very nice chat with bassist and founding member Marco Mayer!
When I first heard of Papangu around the release of their first album, people told me that their sound was like ‘King Crimson, but metal‘. Sure, there’s a bit of that. But honestly, there’s so much going on with their music that it would be a disservice to reduce them to this simple comparison. Let’s just say that Papangu is anything it wants to be, and their musical background and output so far proves that. From the heavy psychedelic songs in Holoceno to the bonkers prog in Lampião Rei, there’s a gazillion of different elements and many layers in their sound. Marco says that ‘our most obvious inspirations are Northeastern Brazilian music, non-Berklee jazz fusion, 70s prog rock and soft rock, 90s death metal, JRPG soundtracks, and 20th century classical music, and those influences end up distilled through the hands of whoever’s composing the songs.‘ It all comes together beautifully, man, trust me.
All of this musical background results in a band that shifts and changes in every single song while remaining cohesive. I’ve always been a fan of slightly eccentric music, and Papangu is a band that scratches that itch and deeply rewards multiple listens as you get more acquainted with them. As I’ve been preparing this article, I was revisiting their music and slowly making more sense of what I’m listening, while also finding new stuff I didn’t catch before. I feel like I speak for my fellow non-musicians when I ask ‘How the hell do you come up with this?’ The band keeps it fresh by giving everyone a chance to participate in their own way, according to Marco:
‘There’s no fixed compositional method. I can only speak about the songs I wrote or helped write, though. Some songs were collectively crafted in jam sessions and slowly morphed into their finished form, like “São Francisco” and “Lobisomem”. “Rito de Coroação” and “Bacia das Almas” were composed by myself in a day each, with a guitar in my hand and an open session in a DAW. I think Rodolfo dreamt “Maracutaia”s main riff and story, and then wrote it over the course of the following week.‘
This wild bunch hail from João Pessoa, a capital city in Northeastern Brazil. If when you think Brazil, you just think Rio or São Paulo, then oh boy, you’re missing out on a lot of what makes our country so rich and diverse. Our Northeast is the very bedrock of our country, a place that’s as culturally rich as its people. Papangu embraces its roots (insert obvious Sepultura joke here) with much love and affection, something that is sprawled all over their music, both musically and lyrically. Not only do they sing in Portuguese, but many of their songs explore our mythos and folklore, like “São Francisco”, “Ave-Bala” and the entirety of the Lampião Rei album, which chronicles the life of a very prominent figure in Brazilian history, the cangaceiro Lampião.
I find it awesome that a band that is decidely very Brazilian in every way is receiving quite a bit of international attention, and the band sees this as an opportunity to expand how people view our culture: ‘It’s really natural for us to express ourselves using our own language and the elements in our region’s music, but we take the international interest in our music as an opportunity to display some things from the folklore and culture of Northeastern Brazil that foreign audiences might not ever have the chance to discover.‘
While their debut Holoceno saw the light of day during 2021, these guys started cooking way back then. Circling back all the way to 2012, bassist Marco Mayer started a project that would birth some of Papangu‘s first compositions: ‘A girl I was dating back then introduced me to Nichollas Jaques, this really cool drummer with a real mane of a haircut, and we immediately bonded over our love for stoner rock, Meshuggah, and weird modern prog metal records, like Mastodon’s Blood Mountain. Nichollas and I exchanged numbers and we discussed coming up with a stoner metal band.‘
Guitarist Hector Ruslan, who played with Marco in a Metallica cover band, quickly joined the fold too: ‘Well, Hector loved Kyuss, so I arranged a jam session for the three of us, to see whether we’d vibe along. We burned through Kyuss’ Gardenia in the rehearsal room and decided to become a band here and there.’
‘A year and a half later, shortly after our first concert in November 2013, we invited Raí Accioly into the band to expand the band’s sonic palette beyond stoner riffs and dumbed down pentatonics. That’s the period where most of the classic Papangu sound was crystallized, and stuff such as “Lobisomem”s main riffs, most of “São Francisco”, and the first part of “Terra Arrasada” were initially written between 2012 and 2015.
‘Little by little, we came back to the old songs and kept rewriting and rearranging parts until we were kind of satisfied with them. Then an ultimatum came, as I had gotten a job 3.000 km away from my bandmates, so we decided to settle with the arrangements we had and finally record our first album. That’s how Holoceno came to be!‘
While Holoceno made some noise and got some attention from underground media, it’s with the current Lampião Rei era that the band saw some much deserved growth and coverage. Not only is their most recent record a stellar display of songwriting and musicianship, it came with a big glow-up on production value. Also, one particular event was pivotal in getting their name known over here: Knotfest Brasil, their biggest crowd yet!
‘That came totally out of the blue. We were emailed by the festival’s curation team, and they asked us whether we’d be interested in being a part of their 2024 edition. Mind you, it’s one of Brazil’s biggest metal festivals, so that meant we were to play to a crowd of over 20 thousand people. Thankfully everything went super smoothly, especially due to our amazing roadies and sound guys, and we gave the stadium one of the coolest performances of our careers so far.‘
While their booking at Knotfest may have looked a little out of place compared to the rest of the festival’s roster, featuring huge names like Bad Omens and Mudvayne, the band managed stand out in a positive way: ‘There’s a lot of people going to our headlining gigs these days who told us they only discovered our band through Knotfest Brazil, so the idea of our sound not fitting what’s expected for that festival went out of the window. Most of the audience there was super receptive!‘
Having gathered a fair amount of local attention last year the band is currently on tour to support Lampião Rei‘s release, playing both of their records in full with some very special guest appearances. I’ve sadly been unable to personally attend these gigs, but it’s been one for the books so far according to the band:
‘Our current Brazilian tour is going super well. It’s our first tour after we got robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro last year, so there’s a bit of a thirst for revenge on our end, but we’re already two weeks into the tour and half the gigs were sold out. It’s great news, especially because we needed to sell a lot of tickets in order to be able to fly to Europe in August!‘
So yeah, the boys are flying overseas soon! In a world where you’re pretty much forced to have output in English in order to find international success, Papangu manages to break the language barrier with their music, despite some naysayers: ‘We had been told by a couple record labels that no one would ever be interested in our music because we don’t sing in English. One of those record labels is Brazilian. Yet here we are, about to play on ArcTanGent!‘ Take that, local label!
Speaking of ATG, their presence in the 2025 line-up was one hell of a surprise for me! As a fan of the band and almost an ArcTanGent regular (I’ve been there twice, hopefully making it thrice this year), I was beyond thrilled and happy for them. They were totally a wild card at Knotfest, but they fit the ATG roster like a glove. Making festival debuts so soon, specially being a niche band, is beyond remarkable for a Brazilian band, so I had to ask them how that came to be:
‘All that is due to the great work done by our booking agent John Niblock, at Atonal Agency. Once Atonal took us into their roster and made our plans to perform in Europe official, we were offered spots at ArcTanGent and Complexity Fest, which is absolutely mindblowing. They are some of the best curated festivals around the world, and it’s hard to find an artist in their line-up we don’t really dig.‘
It’s sure to be a smashing time and I hope I can catch them at ATG too. I mean, me, a fellow Brazilian catching one of our best bands on British soil, being one of the few people there who can properly sing the lyrics? It’s gonna be a moment. If you’re not attending any of those festivals, worry not as there’s more to be announced pretty soon, and you can buckle up for a wild ride: ‘Our fans outside of Brazil can expect some high-octane performances with lots of improvisation, different arrangements, and five heavy handed dudes having a lot of fun on stage.‘
There’s nothing like a band with energy and passion for what they’re doing. Papangu already have a stellar career, gathering fans worldwide and with two absolute belters under their wing. Thankfully there’s much more to come: ‘We’ve barely begun. There are lots of records on the horizon, plenty of batshit concerts, and a lot of head scratching. In a good way.‘ If you’re a prog fan, an avant-garde fan, or you just enjoy out-there music that is made with excepcional creativity and tons of passion, do yourself a favor and get lost in Papangu‘s chaotic journey! You may stream and purchase their releases through their Bandcamp.
Papangu is…
Marco Mayer – bass, vocals
Hector Ruslan – guitar, vocals
Rai Accioly – guitar, vocals
Rodolfo Salgueiro – keyboards, vocals, triangle
Pedro Francisco – guitar, percussions, sax, flute, vocals
Vitor Alves – drums, triangle
Photo credit: Adri L – @adrilfotografia
