Within the vast territory of sounds that stretches between post rock and metal, LABIRINTO are South America’s most well-known band… and one of the very few outfits whose name and reputation has reached European and North American shores.
“They have crafted an epic post-rock album in the truest sense of the word – six songs, 70 minutes running time, but none of it wasted“, Rock-A-Rolla wrote about their debut album „Anatema“, and Rolling Stone praised their live show as “one of the most powerful experiences in the Brazilian independent scene“.
„Gehenna“ is the band’s heaviest and darkest release to date: a richly textured sound on an apocalyptic vision, driven by heavy guitars and synths, conceptualized and scored by guitar player Eric Cruxen, who along with his wife and founding member Muriel Curi forms the backbone of LABIRINTO.
„Gehenna“ is already the band’s 9th release, but only the sophomore album – their back catalogue is made up of a number of EPs and split Eps (with THISQUIETARMY among others), a detail which showcases the band’s strong rootedness in the DIY scene. Throughout the 11 years of their existence, Cruxen and Curi have learned how to productively and successfully take control of every aspect of a band’s universe themselves, without getting lost in it: from running their own professional recording studio, the internationally renowned Dissenso Studios in São Paulo, to running their own record label, to booking their own tours and collaborating with like-minded artists, record labels and producers across the globe.
For „Gehenna“, they invited producer legend Billy Anderson, known for his works with MELVINS, NEUROSIS, FANTOMAS or the SWANS, to Brazil. But the 9 days with Anderson were not free from trouble. „We tracked drums, bass and guitars live, and used the emergency stairs as a reverb chamber, which was really cool“, comments Curi. „But on the 2nd day and on the first take of the first track, the studio’s console broke down.“ The band kept their chins up and replaced the broken desk. The result of Billy Anderson’s 9 days in Brazil is an atmospherically dense and massively heavy instrumental record. The album features 10 tracks, and one of them, “Locrus”, is a collaborative effort with the Belgian guitarist Mathieu Vandekerckhove (AMENRA / SYNDROME).
LABIRINTO have toured extensively, and they were the first band from South America to be invited (twice) to the genre-defining Dunk! Festival in Belgium. In the spring of 2017, the band will bring „Gehenna“ over Europe. CD artwork (as shown above) by Manuel Dischinger.
