| Bestial Devastation | |
| Type: | ep |
| Artist: | Sepultura |
| Cover: | Bestial devastation.jpg |
| Alt: | An enormous quadruple-horned winged red devil looms from behind over a cathedral-like church isolated on a round hill. In the distance, behind the church and devil on the devil's left side, are three large crucifix-style crosses. Directly on the other side of the church is a silhouette of a grim reaper overlooking a cemetery with simple gravestones topped with crosses. Above the painting (and awkwardly off-center to the right) is the band name "Sepultura" painted in a somewhat crude thorny-style font with the "t" as a cross, while below the church is the album title "Bestial Devastation" in a cut-style font. |
| Released: | December 1, 1985 |
| Recorded: | August 1985 |
| Studio: | J. G. Estudio (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) |
| Genre: |
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| Length: | 15:37 |
| Label: | |
| Producer: | Sepultura |
| Next Title: | Morbid Visions |
| Next Year: | 1986 |
Bestial Devastation is an EP by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released in 1985 through Cogumelo Records. It is their first official release, and originally appeared alongside Overdose's Século XX as a split album. The EP's songs were later released as bonus tracks on the CD version of Morbid Visions.
The EP, alongside Morbid Visions, was re-recorded by Max and Igor Cavalera’s Cavalera Conspiracy under the name Cavalera in 2023.[3]
Because of Sepultura's collective lack of money, most of the instruments used on Bestial Devastation were borrowed from friends and acquaintances.[4]
The vocals on the introductory track "The Curse" were performed by a friend of the band; according to Igor Cavalera:
The band apparently fought with the producer during the recording. In an interview, Igor Cavalera said, "He wanted to clean everything up in the mix and we finally had to play him some records by Venom to show him that bands sounded this way."[5]
Months prior to recording what would eventually become the Bestial Devastation EP, the band decided to switch their lyrics from Portuguese to English. None of the band members knew how to write or speak the language, so they asked their friend Lino to translate their lyrics. An example of Lino's crude translation skills can be seen in one of the verses of the song "Antichrist":
The front cover is from an 60 cm × 60 cm oil painting by ex-bassist of the band Chakal, Sérgio "Destroyer" Oliveira, also known as "AlJarrinha".[6] [7] The painting only uses red and black on a white canvas. The demon portrayed is heavily inspired by a Conan the Barbarian painting by Boris Vallejo. The cover is re-imagined in the Ghost album Prequelles cover art by Zbigniew M. Bielak which contains most of the same elements.
Bestial Devastation was released in December 1985, alongside Overdose's Século XX EP.[8] Over the next few months it sold 8,000 copies.[9] Sepultura's surprising success was partly attributed to the first Rock in Rio, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in January 1985. This music festival's line-up included Whitesnake, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne and the Scorpions, and was responsible for Brazil's hard rock/heavy metal boom.[10]
The EP was later reissued by Roadrunner Records on one CD with Morbid Visions in 1997. The reissue included a demo version of the song "Necromancer" that was the first studio recording of the band, and a live version of "Antichrist" from the Chaos A.D. tour, re-written as "Anticop".