Cascavel

A power trio operating in the São Paulo state interior, Cascavel takes its name from the South American pit viper — a fitting emblem for a band that has spent the better part of its young life coiling around the older, snake-like end of the death metal tradition rather than chasing modern brutality. The project came together in mid-2022 around guitarist and vocalist Rene Machado, bassist and co-vocalist Cris "Magnus Hellhound," and drummer Daniel Sanchez, a configuration that has remained intact through the band's first two releases. Their initial public statement arrived in October 2023 with the single "The Cult of the Ancient Serpent," a track whose mid-paced riff work and serpentine, occult lyrical bent set the tone for everything that has followed: less concerned with technicality for its own sake, more invested in atmosphere, ritual, and the slow tightening of pressure. That groundwork crystallized into the September 2024 EP The Myth of the Bloodthirsty Lioness, a three-song release pairing the earlier single with "The Egregore of the Dark Mages" and the title track. Across that short runtime, the band shows its hand clearly — coiled, riff-driven death metal with a darker, almost occult death aura, owing more to the lineage that connects classic-era Possessed and early Death than to the Florida-school clinical school or the slammed-out Brazilian brutality of São Paulo's harder grinding contingent. There is also a clear regional inheritance at work: Cascavel emerges from a Paulista underground that has long balanced Sepultura's foundational savagery with a steady stream of cult death-thrash and occult death metal from cities like Jacareí and São José dos Campos. Independent and unsigned to date, the band's small but focused output suggests a project working at its own pace and trusting the slow burn over the quick hit.